Trump to forgive all of Puerto Rico's debt??? (can he even do that?)

[KingSweden]

More nonsense from Trump. Private investors (both institutional and retail) hold the debt and would need to be the ones to forgive it. It may be humanitarian of them to do so (they would certainly earn my praise) but I can't even begin to try to imagine what the mechanism for debt forgiveness for a retail investor would be.

Of course, because he's a moron, Trump probably assumes Puerto Rico is in debt to D.C., like he's in debt to all manner of sketchy assholes and oligarchs. As usual, his weird assumptions based on his rather unique life experiences don't and never will translate to the workings of state

[KingSweden]

The federal government can offer to buy the debt, offering a premium over the market value. Most bond-holders would rather cut their losses rather than risk a default which the federal government cannot guarantee to prevent. 

Considering the status of Puerto Rican debt that premium would still likely be below par value, but again if there's a default you don't even get that