Washington, May 5

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump outlined economic policy initiatives today that he would pursue if elected to the White House in November, including refinancing longer-term US debt, lowering taxes and scrapping a slew of federal regulations.

The Manhattan real estate mogul said his aim would be to clear way for US businesses to succeed.

“We’re lowering taxes very substantially and we’re going to be getting rid of a tremendous amount of regulations,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with CNBC.

“The business people they talk about regulation more than they talk about taxes,” he said.

Trump’s path to the Republican nomination for the November 8 election became clear after a decisive primary victory in Indiana on Tuesday forced his two remaining rivals, US Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, to drop out of the race.

The candidate, who has never held elective office, has been pressed to provide more details on policy proposals. On Wednesday, he said he was ‘open to doing something’ with country’s minimum wage, but that any increase would have to be weighed against a potential loss of competitiveness.

In the CNBC interview, the billionaire said he supported low interest rates for now and believed the US should try to refinance some of its debt to help pay for infrastructure repairs. “I would refinance debt. I think we should refinance longer-term debt.”

Trump has experience in restructuring his business debt, including two of his Atlantic City casino companies, and said he has been successful on that front.

Trump told CNBC he would not renegotiate US bonds but would buy back at discounts, depending where interest rates are.

“Part of the problem is when a lot of this debt comes due, what happens if the rates are high and we have no budget that can even conceivably take care of this,” Trump said.

If interest rates go up just one per cent, Trump said, it would be devastating for the economy.

“I think there are times for us to refinance, refinance debt with longer term,” he said. “Because you know we owe so much money. Nobody talks about it — nobody talks about it until the bubble pops. And the bubble could

pop, and it could pop and it could be ugly.”

Trump also warned about the downside of a strong US dollar.

“I love the concept of a strong dollar, in many respects obviously I like a strong dollar. But when you look at the havoc that a strong dollar causes,” he said on CNBC. “While there are certain benefits, it sounds better to have a strong dollar than in actuality it is.”

Deportation plan could slice 2pc off GDP

NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s vow to round up and deport all of America’s undocumented immigrants if he is elected president could shrink the economy by around two per cent, as per a study by the American Action Forum. The research adds to concerns about the Republican White House nominee’s policy proposals, which range from tearing up international trade pacts to building a wall along the US border with Mexico. About 6.8 million of over 11 million immigrants living in the US illegally are employed, as per government data. Removing them would cause a slump of $381.5 to $623.2 billion in private sector output, Washington-based non-profit said in its analysis. The study added that removing those workers could leave potentially millions of jobs unfilled due to a lack of legal workers willing to do them. Sectors with highest share of undocumented workers include farming, construction, and hospitality.