Quora: Is Donald Trump seriously considering defaulting on the national debt? Can his plan to buy back the debt at less than face value harm us more than the debt itself?

Terry Stewart answered:·

That would result in a Sovereign default for the USA, as has happened to a number of other badly run countries in the recent past; Argentina (2001, 2005, 2010, 2014), Venezuela (2017), Zimbabwe (2000, 2006).

One of the main results of a nation going into Soverign default is that country will then find extreme difficulty in getting further loans, and the debtor nation may find its monetary system undermined as a result.

As others have pointed out, Trump has spend most of his life defaulting on debt, which is no bank in the USA or Europe will lend him any money anymore, and why he got into bed with the Russians in the first place.

The last European bank to do so was Deutsche Bank, and this was a disaster for the bank and a major red flag to any future lenders.

For some reason this omnishambles is seen by Trump as evidence of his business acumen; welshing on your debt is somehow "smart", though at some level he must know how bad it would look if the extent of his finances became public knowledge.

What Trump has been doing in his business operations, he has now imported into government, where a similar outcome can be expected. Considering that the USA has been surviving on debt for years now this would result in a massive disaster for the country, as it would no longer be able to afford to run many of its programs.