The Deficits in Trump’s Future

Last April, lunching amid construction debris at his new hotel five blocks from the White House, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told the Washington Post he would get rid of the national debt “over a period of eight years.” It may have been the boldest promise he’s ever made, considering the U.S. hasn’t been debt-free since 1835. The debt at the time was more than $19 trillion, and rising. Trump predicted he could turn back the tide even though he thought the country was headed for a “very massive recession.”

Now that he’s in the White House (and his hotel is open), he has a chance to make good on his