Better than anyone · 2016 campaign · № 15

Nobody knows more

The king of debt knew more about debt than anybody

“I'm the king of debt. I love debt. ... I know more about debt than practically anybody. I love debt. I also love reducing debt. And I know how to do it better than anybody.”
Said
, Interview with Wolf Blitzer, CNN, answering a question about Puerto Rico's debt crisis
Subject
debt
Topic
Economy & prices
Era
2016 campaign

What the record showed

He told CBS's Norah O'Donnell the same year, "Nobody knows debt better than me," and told the Washington Post he would eliminate the $19 trillion national debt "over a period of eight years." Federal debt held by the public rose from $14.4 trillion in January 2017 to $21.6 trillion in January 2021, an increase of 50 percent. His businesses went through six Chapter 11 bankruptcies between 1991 and 2009.

Sources

  1. 'I Love Debt': Trump Says He Is the 'King of Debt' TheBlaze, May 4, 2016
  2. Donald Trump: 'I'm the king of debt' CNN Money, May 5, 2016
  3. Flashback: Trump ran on being 'king of debt' in 2016, bragged he could eliminate national debt in 8 years Fox News, Jun 6, 2025
  4. Trump's Final Numbers FactCheck.org, Oct 8, 2021
  5. Business career of Donald Trump Wikipedia, Sep 25, 2026