Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney almost had a coronary after he heard Trump say he'd wipe out Puerto Rico's entire debt.
During an interview, Trump told Geraldo Rivera, "We have to look at their whole debt structure, you know, they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street, we will have to wipe that out. You can say good-bye to that."
This had Varney quite perplexed, leaving his panel members trying to console him.
Varney worried, "If you hold one of these Puerto Rican bonds and we wipe out that debt, you've lost your shirt."
One of his panel members said that their debt is going to be renegotiated so chill out, but Varney wasn't convinced.
Varney replied, "But by the sound of what the president was saying, we, the federal government of America - we are not going to jump in there with tens of billions of dollars to help with their 73 billion..."
Another panel member said, "Mick Mulvaney is having coffee going ...(imitates him spitting out his coffee in shock of Trump's words.) What? You said "don't take the president's word for word" so I think it was done in the spirit of lets really help Puerto Rico -- wiping out the debt isn't going to be happening."
Trump's OMB man Mick Mulvaney had to come out publicly and say "I wouldn't take it word for word with that."
Wall Street analysts weren't as worried about Trump's comments as Varney was.
“Our view is that President Trump’s comments regarding bondholders should be taken seriously, but not literally,” Compass Point Research and Trading’s Isaac Boltansky wrote in a note to clients. “These statements were meant to empathize with Puerto Rico and possibly even catalyze negotiations, but they fall far short of a feasible plan.”
Said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors: "No idea what [Trump] means. It certainly threw a curve at markets. There is a federal oversight system already in place. The pre-hurricane debt needs restructuring and this is widely known. Trump is an enigma."
Isn't it wonderful that we have a president who makes erroneous (and enigmatic) claims as often as the sun sets in the evening every day?
