Part I: As Empires Crumble… Precious Metals Reign

According to reports, Trump’s businesses have filed for ‘reorganisation’ under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code at least four times…

The first was with the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991. That was followed by the failed Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992.

Twelve years later, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts was liquidated.

And then finally, there was the Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009.

For better or worse, the US President is no stranger to walking away from debt.

So, should US debt holders be concerned?

It’s fair to say Trump has used the US Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Code to his advantage several times on his road to making billions.

Ultimately, letting others foot the bill for his entrepreneurial miscalculations.

So, could US debt holders be looking at a similar fate?

Could the Trump administration actually walk away from the nation’s debt obligations?

In terms of financial markets, it’s an unthinkable doomsday scenario… After all, US government bonds are the global safe-haven asset.

But we live in a world that’s turned towards school-yard diplomacy; traditions have flipped.

Investors can’t afford to take anything for granted, and that might include the once disaster-proof US government bond market.

Are US Treasuries safe under 
bankrupt-loving Trump?

According to the world’s most famous investor, Warren Buffett, US government bonds are the world’s safest asset class.

Buffett himself parked Berkshire’s massive cash pile into US T-Bills, essentially short-term government bonds.

When Buffett was asked whether he believed the US government would ever default, he responded with the following statement:

“When the government can just keep on printing money to pay their own debt, it’s laughable to think they will ever default.”

But what he may not have considered at the time was a country led by a leader who’s no longer following the traditional rule book.

For better or worse, Trump is highly unconventional, and Buffett has lived through a period of Presidents who’ve generally played ball with the financial elite in America.

So, it begs the question…

Could Trump renegade on US debt if there’s an advantage to do so?

For the moment, Polymarkets puts that at about 4% probability. So, for the moment, it appears unlikely, yet it still has a whiff of plausibility.

But consider this: The US national debt as of June 2026 is roughly $39.28 trillion — a number so large that it is essentially lost on most people.

Foreign investors once held close to 50% of publicly held US debt in the early 2010s. Today it sits around 30%. In other words, the world has been quietly stepping back from financing America’s economy.

Beijing was once America’s largest foreign creditor from 2009 through 2018. But it has been selling ever since.

A slow-motion financial decoupling away from the US debt market is already well established.

And that could mean that as the pool of credible buyers in the bond market shrinks, the desire for the US government to uphold its massive debt obligations diminishes.

So, while a US default seems improbable now… When push comes to shove, and markets reach a major stress point, anything’s possible.

And if you think that’s a reckless statement, well, history might say otherwise.

That’s what we’ll look at next time, stay tuned!