Trump walks back pledge to eliminate debt in a decade

“You have said you plan to pay off the country’s debt in 10 years. How is that possible?” a reporter for Fortune Magazine asked the Republican presidential front-runner in an interview published Friday.

“No, I didn’t say 10 years,” Trump said. He then suggested that instead of paying it all off, he would pay off an unspecified “percentage” of the national debt as president.

“It depends on how aggressive you want to be,” he said. “I’d rather not be so aggressive. Don’t forget: We have to rebuild the infrastructure of our country. We have to rebuild our military, which is being decimated by bad decisions. We have to do a lot of things.”

“We have to reduce our debt, and the best thing we have going now is that interest rates are so low that lots of good things can be done that aren’t being done, amazingly,” he said.

Trump also suggested that a big part of the answer to the debt is how it’s financed.

“First of all, with low interest rates, you can think in terms of refinancing, and get it down,” he said. “I believe you can do certain things to pay off the debt more quickly. The most important thing is to make sure the economy stays strong. You can do it in smaller chunks. You can do it in larger chunks. And you can do it in refinancings.”

In early April, Trump told the Washington Post that he intended to reduce the country’s rapidly climbing national debt by $2 trillion each year through the “power of trade.”

The billionaire’s projection, which he made during an interview with veteran reporter Bob Woodward, was featured in a Post article titled, “Trump’s nonsensical claim he can eliminate $19 trillion in debt in eight years.”

“We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt,” Trump told Woodward, prompting him to ask: “How long would that take?”

“I think I could do it fairly quickly … I would say over a period of eight years,” Trump responded.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign could not be reached for comment.