Trump Vows To ‘Wipe Out’ Puerto Rico’s Debt

Puerto Rico has indeed suffered such catastrophic damage after getting hit by Hurricane Maria last September, and its people are currently trying to get themselves back up from it with the help of course of the world and most especially, America. Hollywood celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Rihanna, Jay-Z, and many more, have managed to send out help to the people affected. Some celebrities even flew to Puerto Rico themselves to be able to help personally and not just financially.

However, another famous person has made his appearance earlier this week and it is none other than the U.S. President himself, Donald Trump. Puerto Rico is considered to be a United States territory and the citizens of Puerto Rico legally have American citizenship, which is why as the president, he made sure to help and make the people feel that they do matter, then again, he may have said something that surprised the entire nation.

U.S President Donald Trump, together with First Lady, Melania Trump, facing the press in Puerto Rico

TRUMP MADE A VOW

On October 3, U.S. President Donald Trump went to Puerto Rico to give some relief goods to the Hurricane Maria survivors. Then again, that didn’t become the center of attention, since he may have vowed to actually wipe out Puerto Rico’s debt.

“We are going to work something out. We have to look at their whole debt structure,” Trump explained. “You know they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street. We’re gonna have to wipe that out. That’s gonna have to be, you know, you can say goodbye to that. I don’t know if it’s Goldman Sachs but whoever it is, you can wave goodbye to that.”

The Puerto Rican government has been struggling financially since the 2006 recession which basically force them to borrow billions of dollars. The governor even announced in 2015 that with the economy of Puerto Rico in a death spiral, there is just no way for them to pay their $72 billion dollar debt. The Congress then had to enact the PROMESA law, that basically says that as a territory, Puerto Rico is technically not allowed to declare bankruptcy. However, in May, their debt grew into $73 billion which basically forced them to file for what experts refer to as the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history.

Donald Trump arriving at Puerto Rico last October 3What Trump obviously didn’t realize is that Puerto Rico actually owes money to regular Americans because according to Cate along of Puerto Rico Clearinghouse, 25% of Puerto Rican debt is actually held by hedge funds and the rest are actually owned by people that are held by mom-and-pop investors. “For the most part, Main Street America owns this debt, it’s not as though there are vultures circling around the island,” Long explained.

EXPERTS SAYS IT’S IMPOSSIBLE

Experts even believed that it would take Puerto Rico years to recover from this, but that is until Hurricane Maria basically slaughtered this U.S. territory. It wasn’t really clear though if he is actually talking about the possibility of having government bailout.

Some financial experts referred to the current United States leader as ‘delusional’. Some even say that Donald Trump seems like he is suffering from a medical condition wherein he always seems to say everything that he is thinking wrong.

WHITE HOUSE SETS IT STRAIGHT

Soon after Trump released this statement, his budget head Mick Mulvaney immediately told CNN to not take what the president said seriously or at least word for word. People are not confused whether to believe Trump ‘literally’ or ‘seriously’.

Mulvaney, who is the director of Office of Management and Budget, referred to what the president said as a suggestion. Which is why the Trump administration would now be focusing on how they will be able to help Puerto Rico when it comes to rebuilding their nation. “Puerto Rico is going to have to figure out how to fix the errors that it’s made the last generation on its own finances.”

President Trump throwing toilet papers to Hurrican Maria survivors

Despite whatever the U.S. president, Americans, as well as people from different nations, are still sending out help to those who have been affected by Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico may take quite a while to get back on its feet especially with their debt, but what matters now is that the world is working together to help them out especially in this times of catastrophic events.