Donald Trump is reportedly refusing to tackle the US’s spiralling national debt because he will not be in office by the time the situation is expected to reach a crisis point.
White House staff are thought to have repeatedly urged the president during his time in office to work on reducing the now $21.8 trillion (£17.1 trillion) America owes its creditors.
Officials had attempted to warn Mr Trump during a meeting in early 2017 that debt could spike further in the coming years.
However, the president is said to have been indifferent once he realised the problem was only likely to become critical after he had completed a possible second term.
“Yeah, but I won’t be here,” Mr Trump remarked, a source who had been in the room at the time told The Daily Beast.
“I never once heard him talk about the debt,” a former senior White House official also told the news website.
“He understands the messaging of it, but he isn’t a doctrinaire conservative who deeply cares about the national debt, especially not on his watch.
“It’s not actually a top priority for him… He understands the political nature of the debt but it’s clearly not, frankly, something he sees as crucial to his legacy.”
The comments supposedly made by the president in private are in stark contrast to his numerous public statements on cutting the US national debt.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...MeY3stSI N5Lk