Donald Trump appeared to change his stance on the federal debt Thursday, saying that, with interest rates low, the U.S. should borrow money to spend on infrastructure rather than lowering the $14 trillion federal debt.

"This is the time to borrow," the Republican candidate said in an interview on CNBC Thursday morning.

"Normally, you would say you want to reduce your debt, and I would like to reduce debt too," Trump said, before explaining that "the problem is you have a military problem, you have an infrastructure problem — a tremendous infrastructure problem, and you have other problems. And also, the asset is your rates are so low."

Trump's campaign has previously stated implausibly ambitious goals for reducing or outright eliminating the federal debt. Trump has also, however, muddied the waters with ambiguous statements about refinancing or renegotiating the debt.

On Thursday, he struck a much less hawkish tone on federal deficits and spending, suggesting that the U.S. needed to spend more than $500 billion on new infrastructure.

Congressional Republicans have sought to move the government in the other direction, proposing budgets to balance the budget within 10 years and begin reducing the federal debt.