I think President Trump is going to have to fight night and day to reduce government, reduce the burden on wealth production and to remediate the national debt. And maybe, like Kennedy or Salinas-Price, advocate a parallel precious metal payment system.
America’s debt is colossal. And even if it were repudiated (!) the deficit is still a trillion a year.
Pension plans and Insurers are being wiped out by zero interest rates. Without insurers there is no modern economy. And we don’t want Trump blamed for a pension collapse.
But if/when the bond market crashes and real-world interest rates take over - America’s debt will instantly become unpayable.
This could be a hellish four years, simply because of the accumulated errors of the last few decades. May God grant wisdom to the Trump White House.
I think it's more in the range of $600B+-, but your point that we're running a large annual deficit still stands. The way Trump is going to approach this situation is really pretty obvious if we just step back and look at the big picture.
Let us recall that the US hasn't even had a budget since 2009. So, first things first, Trump will force Congress to produce an actual budget. Once the magnitude of spending is known, then areas can be targeted for cuts. Any reductions will obviously be aimed at maximizing the most damage in the cities which are opposing the national illegal immigration mandate.
That's where the infrastructure program comes in. He/we need a point of focus for the millions of people to potentially be employed. While the MSM will attack him for the resulting disruption in the cities, the truth that opportunities exist outside the urban zones will further serve to undercut their narrative.
And this is just the start. Trump is a battler; he gets bored and likes projects. What better way to spend ones time than to destroy American's chief internal enemies?