Search here...
Home Blog

Trump May Forgive Upwards Of $170B In Student Loan Debt

globalinvestmentstrategy.com
-
0
Trump May Forgive Upwards Of $170B In Student Loan Debt


Key Points

  • The Biden administration approved roughly $188 billion in student loan forgiveness for about 5 million borrowers, the largest total in U.S. history to date.
  • Based on current trends, the Trump administration could oversee more than $170 billion in loan forgiveness during the second term, even without launching new programs.
  • Most of that relief would come from existing programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and income-driven repayment (IDR) plans reaching their statutory forgiveness timelines.

When voters think of student loan forgiveness, they often picture executive actions and legal battles. Under President Biden, student loan debt relief efforts dominated headlines, particularly after the Supreme Court struck down his broad cancellation proposal.

But what you may not realize: The Trump administration could be on track to oversee one of the largest dollar amounts of student loan forgiveness in U.S. history, largely because of repayment programs already written into law.

This projection is not about a new sweeping forgiveness plan. Instead, it reflects the mechanics of existing federal student loan programs (some dating back decades) that are now reaching maturity.

And it’s going to be close:

Header

Biden

Trump

PSLF

$78.5B

$116.5B

Borrower Defense

$34.5B

$7.5B

IDR

$56.5B

$28.8B

Other

$18.6B

$18.6B

Total

$188.1B

$171.4B (Projected)

Would you like to save this?

We’ll email this article to you, so you can come back to it later!

Looking Back: Biden’s Record-Setting Loan Forgiveness Campaign

President Biden entered office pledging student debt relief. While his proposed one-time cancellation of up to $10,000 or $20,000 per borrower was invalidated by the Supreme Court, his administration expanded and streamlined several existing forgiveness pathways.

The Biden administration approved roughly $188 billion in federal student loan forgiveness for about 5 million borrowers. That total includes relief under:

  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
  • Borrower defense to repayment
  • Total and permanent disability discharges
  • Income-driven repayment (IDR) plan adjustments

The dollar amount ($188 billion) is the benchmark against which future administrations will be measured.

The Loan Forgiveness Pipeline Under Trump $170 Billion And Counting

Donald Trump has often criticized broad-based student loan cancellation. However, if current trends continue, his administration could preside over roughly $171.4 billion in forgiveness, without creating any new forgiveness programs.

Here’s how that figure breaks down:

1. Public Service Loan Forgiveness: $116.5 Billion

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) allows borrowers working in qualifying public service jobs (including teachers, nurses, and government employees) to have their remaining federal loan balances forgiven after 120 qualifying monthly payments, typically 10 years.

Based on the most recent PSLF data:

  • About 1.3 million borrowers are currently on track to receive PSLF forgiveness during Trump’s second presidency.
  • Their combined outstanding balance totals roughly $116.5 billion (based on current averages).

These borrowers are already on track with the necessary qualifying employment and payment history. The forgiveness would occur automatically once the 120-payment threshold is reached and paperwork is processed.

This is not new policy. PSLF was created in 2007 with bipartisan support. The forgiveness now expected reflects borrowers who entered public service more than a decade ago and are finally reaching the statutory milestone.

The timing is important to realize – especially when comparing old headlines about denial rates. While PSLF started in October 2007, it takes 10 years. But also, loans in 2007 weren’t generally eligible. It was until the Direct Loan Program took over all borrowing in 2009 that all loans were eligible. Then, you have 10 years of eligible repayment. Borrowers who took a loan in 2009 wouldn’t have started repayment until late 2013. Fast forward 10 years, and you get the first major waves in 2023.

That trend has continued, as the program became more popular throughout the 2015-2020 period. Those borrowers are finally reaching their 10 year mark.

2. Borrower Defense To Repayment: $7.5 Billion

Borrower Defense to Repayment allows students to seek discharge of federal loans if their schools misled them or engaged in misconduct. In a FOIA request The College Investor team submitted last year, the data through 2023 shows that over 760,000 borrower defense claims had been received, with nearly 60% remaining unprocessed.  

While borrower defense processing slowed significantly during prior administrations and remains uneven, estimates suggest:

  • Roughly 400,000 borrowers still have applications pending or likely to qualify.
  • Their collective balance could total approximately $7.5 billion.

This includes the automatic discharge that may be happening as the result of Sweet v. McMahon (previously Sweet v. Cardona).

If these applications are resolved during Trump’s presidency, that amount would add to the administration’s forgiveness total, even if the policy framework itself remains unchanged.

The amount of debt discharged here could also be significantly higher. The Biden Administration, despite their slow processing, still processed $34.5B in Borrower Defense Claims.

3. Income-Driven Repayment Plans: $28.8 Billion

The most significant variable may be income-driven repayment plans, particularly older plans such as:

  • Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
  • Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)

Under these programs, borrowers make payments based on income for 20 or 25 years. After that period, any remaining balance is forgiven.

Following recent payment count adjustments and administrative fixes, forgiveness under these plans has accelerated.

Based on the latest processing data:

  • Approximately 20,000 borrowers per month may be reaching 20- or 25-year forgiveness thresholds.
  • Over a four-year presidential term, that could total roughly 720,000 borrowers.
  • If the average remaining balance is around $40,000 per borrower, that equates to approximately $28.8 billion in student loan forgiveness.

Unlike PSLF, which targets public service workers, IDR forgiveness applies broadly to borrowers who have made decades of income-based payments, often those who struggled with low earnings relative to their debt.

4. Other Programs: $18.6B

There are other smaller programs that consistently provide student loan forgiveness and the volume of loan forgiveness doesn’t change much year to year.

This include Death Discharge, Total and Permanent Disability, and identity-theft related claims.

We estimate that the Trump Administration will match the Biden Administration over their four years, amounting to roughly $18.7 billion in loan forgiveness for roughly 633,000 borrowers. 

That amounts to about $4.7B forgiven for around 150,000 people/families per year.

So, Could Trump Surpass Biden’s Record?

Maybe… it will be close.

Based strictly on current pipelines and estiamtes:

  • PSLF: $116.5 billion
  • Borrower defense: $7.5 billion
  • IDR forgiveness: $28.8 billion
  • Other: $18.7 billion

Total projected: $171.4 billion

That figure falls short of Biden’s $188 billion – but not by much…

However, several factors could push totals higher:

  • Additional borrower defense settlements.
  • Higher average IDR balances than the $40,000 estimate.
  • Policy decisions that streamline forgiveness administration.

Whether Trump ultimately surpasses Biden’s dollar total is to be seen.

The Bottom Line

Student loan forgiveness is often framed as a political flashpoint. Yet the next wave of student loan forgiveness will occur largely through existing statutory programs.

If current projections hold, the Trump administration could oversee roughly $171.4 billion in forgiveness, one of the largest totals in American history.

And the story likely does not involve sweeping executive action or lawsuits. Instead, it reflects the long arc of federal programs coming due.

Don’t Miss These Other Stories:

@media (min-width: 300px){[data-css=”tve-u-19c7c82e732″].tcb-post-list #post-74986 [data-css=”tve-u-19c7c82e738″]{background-image: url(“https://thecollegeinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Linda-McMahon-Secretary-of-Education-150×150.jpg”) !important;}}

86,000 Public Servants Stuck In 3-Year Loan Forgiveness Queue

86,000 Public Servants Stuck In 3-Year Loan Forgiveness Queue
@media (min-width: 300px){[data-css=”tve-u-19c7c82e732″].tcb-post-list #post-48727 [data-css=”tve-u-19c7c82e738″]{background-image: url(“https://thecollegeinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/25090803116393-150×150.jpg”) !important;}}

Can President Trump Reverse Student Loan Forgiveness?

Can President Trump Reverse Student Loan Forgiveness?
@media (min-width: 300px){[data-css=”tve-u-19c7c82e732″].tcb-post-list #post-73556 [data-css=”tve-u-19c7c82e738″]{background-image: url(“https://thecollegeinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/MOHELA-150×150.jpg”) !important;}}

Lawsuit Says MOHELA Still Failing Student Loan Borrowers

Lawsuit Says MOHELA Still Failing Student Loan Borrowers

Editor: Colin Graves

The post Trump May Forgive Upwards Of $170B In Student Loan Debt appeared first on The College Investor.

8 Ways I Used AI to Slash Our Expenses by $2,340

globalinvestmentstrategy.com
-
0
8 Ways I Used AI to Slash Our Expenses by $2,340


I thought our family budget was airtight. We tracked our spending, cooked at home, and rarely splurged.

Yet, every month, our checking account felt like it had a slow leak. Out of sheer frustration, I uploaded a raw spreadsheet of our monthly statements to a free AI chatbot and asked it a simple question: “Where am I bleeding money?”

The response took less than ten seconds, but the results completely changed our financial trajectory. The AI did not just point out my daily coffee habit.

Instead, it exposed systemic, recurring traps costing us thousands of dollars a year — and then gave me the exact scripts and strategies to fix them.

Here is how that single afternoon chat slashed our bills.

1. Let the algorithm negotiate your premiums

When the AI pointed out that my bundled car and home insurance rates had crept up by nearly 20% over three years without me noticing, it prompted me to immediately shop around for a better policy.

It turns out, paying a loyalty penalty is incredibly common. You might be throwing away hundreds of dollars annually just to pad an insurance company’s profit margins.

The AI showed me that the only way to fight back is to compare rates instantly. This new car insurance shopping tool reveals if you are overpaying for your car insurance with just a few clicks.

Similarly, this home insurance comparison tool exposes what home insurers hide: identical coverage for hundreds less.

Take three minutes right now, click those links, and see if you can save serious money.

2. Stop paying banks to hold your money

The chatbot calculated exactly how much interest I was losing by keeping our cash in a traditional, low-yield account, pushing me to move our funds to a high-yield option like SoFi Checking.

If you bank at a traditional brick-and-mortar institution, you are likely getting charged monthly fees while earning a pittance on your deposits. Stop paying maintenance fees for zero return.

SoFi offers a combination checking and savings account. If you set up direct deposit, you earn up to 4.00% on your savings (subject to change without notice). That is significantly higher than the national average.

Plus, if you direct-deposit $5,000 or more within the first 25 days, you get up to a $300 bonus. Direct-deposit $1,000 to $5,000, and you get a $50 bonus. That is free money.

Check out SoFi right now.

Earn up to 4.00% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on SoFi Savings with a 0.70% APY Boost (added to the 3.30% APY as of 12/23/25) for up to 6 months. Open a new SoFi Checking and Savings account andpay the $10 SoFi Plus subscription every 30 days OR receive eligible direct deposits OR qualifying deposits of $5,000 every 31 days by 1/31/26. Rates variable, subject to change. Rates variable, subject to change.

Terms apply at sofi.com/banking#2. SoFi Bank, N.A. Member FDIC.

3. Automate the hunt for phantom subscriptions

After the AI flagged three streaming services I had not logged into since last year, I realized I needed a dedicated tool like Rocket Money to constantly monitor and cancel these forgotten monthly drains.

The AI proved that finding waste manually is exhausting. The average Rocket Money user saves $290 per month by letting the app hunt down and cancel sneaky subscriptions automatically.

Rocket Money scans your spending, instantly identifies unused services, and negotiates your bills down. They can even help secure refunds on overdraft fees. Join the millions of members managing over $50 billion in transactions.

It is free to try. You keep the savings from bill negotiations, or you can upgrade to Premium for unlimited cancellations and financial concierge support.

Calculate my potential savings — free instant analysis.

4. Rethink your strategy for crushing high-interest balances

Analyzing my credit card statements, the AI showed me the grim mathematical reality of making minimum payments, which led me to explore aggressive debt resolution programs to clear the slate.

Worrying about massive monthly payments is draining, and paying steep finance charges is a mathematical trap.

The AI made it clear: if you have a problem, you must tackle it aggressively.

If you carry over $10,000 in debt, National Debt Relief is a highly respected provider that helps negotiate those balances down.

There is no upfront fee and no obligation to see your options.

Check them out right now.

5. Sever ties with legacy mobile carriers

One of the quickest wins the AI identified was our massive cell phone bill, proving that switching to a discount wireless provider could cut our monthly cost in half without sacrificing coverage.

Smartphones are a necessity, but paying heavily advertised giants is a choice. Finding a more affordable mobile provider saves hundreds every year, often on the exact same towers.

For example, Tello Mobile uses T-Mobile’s reliable 5G network, offering generous data, international texting, and hotspot access starting at just $5 a month.

Switching is incredibly fast. Tello recently upgraded their plans, offering unlimited data for just $25 a month, which includes 35GB of high-speed data and a 5GB hotspot.

Get a Tello plan under $25/month.

6. Freeze your interest rates instantly

The AI ruthlessly highlighted how much of our monthly payment was going straight to interest charges, advising us to immediately transfer that balance to a 0% introductory APR card to stop the bleeding.

Stop letting finance charges erode your payments. Transferring your balances gives you a multi-year breather where every dollar goes toward the principal.

Getting a new 0% intro APR credit card eases the pressure while you pay down your balances.

Our credit card experts identified the top cards perfect for anyone looking to halt interest and eliminate debt faster.

Click through to see what all the hype is about.

7. Access the dead equity sitting in your home

When I asked the bot for the smartest way to fund a necessary home repair without touching our cash reserves, it ran the numbers and suggested leveraging our property value through a home equity line of credit.

You can drastically reduce your monthly debt obligations by using your home’s equity to pay off expensive credit card balances.

When my home soared in value, I turned to a home equity line of credit (HELOC) to replace high-interest debt with a much lower-interest loan. I saved hundreds annually by swapping rates, which eventually helped me pay off my house.

HELOCs are an efficient way to access cash for debt consolidation or home upgrades, as HELOC rates are often less than half what credit cards charge.

In seconds, Money.com’s comparison page will show you the best rates in your area.

Check it out right now.

8. Shield your emergency fund from mechanic bills

The AI factored the age and mileage of our primary vehicle into its risk assessment, strongly recommending an extended auto warranty to prevent a sudden transmission failure from wiping out our savings.

A sudden mechanic bill can instantly destroy months of careful budgeting. With repair costs rising, a single breakdown is a severe threat to your financial stability.

Stop gambling with your future. Endurance pays the mechanic directly, keeping your cash in your account where it belongs.

They cover vehicles up to 20 years old and include 24/7 roadside assistance.

Protect My Retirement Savings Now.

Bonus: Subscribe to this free newsletter.

The free daily Money Talks Newsletter is chock-full of advice on saving more, spending less and smart investing. You can subscribe in 30 seconds, and if you don’t like what you see, you can unsubscribe just as fast.

Do your future self a favor and subscribe right now.

AmEx Hilton Surpass Credit Card Review (2026.2 Update: 130k+1FN Offer)

globalinvestmentstrategy.com
-
0
AmEx Hilton Surpass Credit Card Review (2026.2 Update: 130k+1FN Offer)