I suspect this will just end up being something Old Man Trump said on a plane and we won’t hear about it again. But after recents, who are we kidding? Anything is possible. On Air Force One today en route to the Super Bowl Trump told reporters that DOGE analysts (whatever that means) had found “irregularities” in US treasuries and that that the US may not be obligated to pay some of them. “Maybe we have less debt than we thought,” he said.
Needless to say, this is quite literally violating the express language of the 14th Amendment which says: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
If financial markets actually thought Trump was serious about this, that he would follow through on this they’d probably go completely haywire. As I said, I think – unless and until we hear more – they will think this is just the old man ranting.
