Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that House Republicans should allow the U.S. to default on its debt – a likely catastrophic event that would plunge the global economy into chaos – if Democrats do not acquiesce to their demands on specific spending cuts.
He made the bold comments during a prime-time appearance on CNN that saw the former president feed off a friendly audience in a town hall audience to reiterate demonstrably false past claims and also to weigh in on the more current pressing political issues of the day.
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Trump, for example, would not explicitly say if he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia and he refused to assert that he would unequivocally accept the results of the 2024 election. He also noted that he was “inclined” to pardon many of the people convicted of crimes related to the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Though the event was nominally aimed at undecided voters and Republican primary voters, it is the first time thus far in his campaign that he has had the reach of a platform that does not cater only to conservative voters. But Trump declined to use the opportunity to moderate his message, instead appearing only to court his base, doubling and tripling down on lies about the 2020 election and a litany of other controversial grievances.
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The appearance also came just a day after a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s. During the town hall, Trump again denied the allegations, speaking publicly for the first time since the verdict.
Again, Trump denied ever meeting Carroll, whom he mocked and called a “whack job.”
“What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you’re playing hanky panky in a dressing room,” Trump said to cheers and laughs from the audience.
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Particularly timely were his comments about the country’s debt ceiling, as Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill remain locked in a standoff with the White House. Without agreement on legislation to raise the limit, the country will default on its debt as early as June 1 – the impact of which experts say is almost impossible to overstate. The markets would be plunged into chaos and millions of jobs could evaporate. While he has no role in the negotiations, Trump is highly influential among a group of far-right Republicans who favor a hard-line stand.
On Wednesday, the GOP standard-bearer said he thought Democrats would “cave” to Republican demands in the end but also appeared unconcerned with the consequences of a default.
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“I say to the Republicans out there – congressmen, senators – if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default, and I don’t believe they’re going to do a default because I think the Democrats will absolutely cave, will absolutely cave because you don’t want to have that happen, but it’s better than what we’re doing right now because we’re spending money like drunken sailors,” Trump said.
“You might as well do it now, because you’ll do it later because we have to save this country,” he said.
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Trump’s cavalier stance about a default puts him at odds with many other Republicans on the issue, as did his comments about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The former president sidestepped a question about whether he thought Russian President Vladmir Putin was a war criminal and repeated that he believed the war would have been solved within “one day” if he were president.
He also refused to explicitly say he wanted Ukraine to win the conflict.
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“I don’t think in terms of winning and losing. I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people,” he said.
Trump added, “I’ll say this: I want Europe to put up more money” – referring to the U.S. contributions to Ukraine’s fight compared to those made by European allies.
Trump remains the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, leading the pack by more than 40 points, according to some recent polls.
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Buoyed by a responsive crowd that cheered and laughed throughout the night, Trump repeatedly pushed the lie that the 2020 election was rigged. When asked directly by an audience member, he said he was “inclined” to pardon many of the participants convicted of crimes related to their actions on Jan. 6.
The town hall event also touched on a wide range of timely topics, from investigations into Trump to abortion and immigration. Trump did not say if he would sign a federal abortion ban, as some Republicans have pushed for.
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President Joe Biden, who last month officially announced his bid for reelection, responded to Trump’s performance Wednesday with a short tweet: “It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that? If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign.”
