A patient at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
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President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Wednesday to automatically cancel the student debt of tens of thousands of disabled veterans.
“Today I’m proud to announce that I am taking executive action to ensure that our wounded warriors are not saddled with mountains of student debt,” Trump said in a speech at the AMVETS National Convention in Kentucky. “Nobody can complain about that, right?”
More than 25,000 disabled veterans will have their student debt forgiven, Trump said. The average balance that will be erased is around $30,000. The president said veterans will not be required to pay federal taxes on their forgiven debt.
Disabled service members are already entitled to student debt forgiveness under the U.S. Education Department’s total and permanent disability discharge option.
