Snopes: Was Nearly 25% of the US National Debt Incurred During Trump Administration?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Claim: Roughly 25% of the nation's debt was incurred during the Trump Administration.

Rating: True

Context: A bipartisan package of legislation, passed toward the end of the Trump administration to combat the coronavirus pandemic, added roughly 3.7 billion to the national debt.

On Jan. 17, 2023, newly elected U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy tweeted that "House Republicans" were "on a mission to end wasteful Washington spending." In response to that tweet, former U.S Representative from Florida and current MSNBC contributor David Jolly, tweeted, "for context," that "roughly 25% of our total national debt incurred over the last 230 years actually occurred during the 4 years of the Trump administration."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/was-nearly-25-of-the-us-national-debt-incurred-during-trump-administration/ar-AA16xrqB

[elleng]

1. Jolly usually knows what he's talking about.

[Faux pas]

2. Kickin'

[druidity33]

3. Typo? Shouldn't it be Trillion? nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. The way the article was written

But I'll correct it.

[druidity33]

5. weird... from the article...

"During the four years of the Trump administration, the national debt rose by $7.8 trillion."

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. On second thought $3.7 billion is the COVID package

That's really a small fraction of debt incurred under Trump.

[DallasNE]

15. I Believe That Is A Typo

And should read $3.7 Trillion.

[spike jones]

6. Reagan trippled the national debt. n/t

[groundloop]

10. Yep, that good ol' trickle down voodoo economics

[peppertree]

19. +1

The national debt was, in real terms, very much under control - until Bonzo (and Mommy) took office.

It's been out of control ever since - especially under GOP presidents.

Consider the national debt, in real terms, at the end of each presidency (Nov. 1963 = 100)

Eisenhower:.........97.3
Kennedy:...........100.0
Johnson:............100.9
Nixon:.................95.0
Ford:.................111.7
Carter:..............107.3
Reagan:............222.7
Bush I:..............292.2
Clinton:.............326.4
Bush II:.............503.6
Obama:.............821.5
Trump:............1060.8
Biden (current):1058.4

As you can see, it's actually declined slightly under Biden.

Methodology: I took the national debt level at the inaugural date of each (or closest weekly report), and divided by the CPI for that month.

[Captain Zero]

24. Republican tax cuts for the rich put us all in debt.

Has to be a bumper sticker there somewhere.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

31. Not quite a bumper sticker...

[Scrivener7]

7. You should not be able to turn around without seeing this fact posted somewhere.

[onecaliberal]

11. Yet it's not a front page story in the liberal media.

[Scrivener7]

12. So frustrating.

[uponit7771]

16. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[BOSSHOG]

9. By Design

Conservatives create a problem. On purpose. So a doomsday problem must be fixed with a doomsday solution. On purpose. So much easier then doing the right thing.

No leadership. No governance. No fiscal responsibility. SHAZAM!

[GB_RN]

13. There Is A Glaring Typo...

Claim: Roughly 25% of the nation's debt was incurred during the Trump Administration.

Rating: True

Context: A bipartisan package of legislation, passed toward the end of the Trump administration to combat the coronavirus pandemic, added roughly 3.7 billion (sic) to the national debt.

That was not 3.7 billion in spending/debt. It was 3.7 trillion. That's a few orders of magnitude in difference.

[peppertree]

14. +1

The national debt was just under $20 trillion when the Trump took over; it was $27.8 trillion when he left to Mar-a-Loco.

That's a $7.8 trillion total jump in the national debt - or (sure enough) 25% of the current $31.4 trillion total.

(talk about not getting bang for the buck)

[progressoid]

17. This is from the Snopes website:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-debt-25-percent/

During the four years of the Trump administration, the national debt rose by $7.8 trillion. That addition makes up 24.8% of the current $31 trillion national debt. As shown in the table below, Barack Obama's eight years in office, using the same metric, contributed what amounts to 29.7% of the present national debt, and Biden's incomplete first term is presently responsible for 11.7% of the national debt:

[Hekate]

18. For he's a Jolly good fellow -- I generally like David Jolly's take on things

[Kennah]

20. Two Santas since 1974

[malaise]

21. Why is this not the #1 story nationally

Where are the ads Dems - messaging messaging messaging!


Rec Rec Rec!

[Emile]

22. So they play the conservative card when

we have a democratic president. Why is it real conservative voters don't see that?

[calimary]

26. Maybe they just don't want to.

It doesn’t serve the objective. Deflect, and distract, and deny, instead. And whatever you do, DO NOT draw attention to it in ANY way, unless you can figure out a way to hang it on the Democrats.

That’s the Republican Golden Rule.

[IronLionZion]

23. GOP will solve this with tax cuts

they're planning to use it as an excuse to cut funding for important programs. They always do this.

They want a recession really bad.

[Takket]

25. Rethugs are fiscally irresponsible

Yet the media still misleadingly refer to them as “conservatives”

[BobTheSubgenius]

27. Apparently, Drumpf's management style translated nicely from private sector to public.

[republianmushroom]

28. well they were showing how they govern, with somebody else's money.

Conservatives my ass. Spendthrift more like it

[TeamProg]

29. K&R Thanks for posting. n/t

[FakeNoose]

30. This was posted on another DU thread today

It was in regards to a tweet by Rep. Eric Swalwell to the effect that we should stop calling it the national debt, and instead call it "paying Donald Trump's bills he ran up while in office."

According to this barchart, it looks to be more than a 25% increase during Chump's 4 years.

DU thread here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217575431

[peppertree]

37. Note also that those 'Bush 2' deficits EXCLUDE war spending (after 2002)

That was over 1% of GDP for each year from FY '04 through FY '08. Obama put that spending back "on the books" starting in FY '09.

[Tickle]

32. Here's the chart from the link

During the four years of the Trump administration, the national debt rose by $7.8 trillion. That addition makes up 24.8% of the current $31 trillion national debt. As shown in the table below, Barack Obama's eight years in office, using the same metric, contributed what amounts to 29.7% of the present national debt, and Biden's incomplete first term is presently responsible for 11.7% of the national debt:

Administration Added to Public Debt % of 1/17 Total
Obama $9,320,427,506,299 29.67
Trump $7,804,591,681,202 24.84
Biden $3,664,542,331,090 11.66
Source: Debt to the Penny / U.S. Treasury

An estimated $3.7 trillion of added debt during the Trump administration can be attributed to Covid-19 relief measures passed with bipartisan support. A series of tax cuts passed during the Trump administration has also added significantly to the national debt.

Because the $7.8 trillion increase in the national debt incurred during the Trump Administration represents nearly 25% of the current $31 trillion national debut, the claim is "True."

[Old Crank]

33. The percentage is actually higher

If you look at what was added to the debt. It was about 20 trillion and his 4 years about 8 trillion was added. That is closer to a 40% increase in the debt over his 4 years.

[gratuitous]

34. Mention it wherever you can

I've had some luck getting people engage on comments with the utterly factual statement that the huge tax breaks the Republicans gave their wealthy pals in 2017 now Republicans say those cuts need to be paid for by taking away retirees' social security and sick people's medicare benefits. Maybe we should rescind those tax cuts for wealthy people who don't need or spend that money, so that the sick and the elderly can simply continue living.

[IbogaProject]

35. We should always use Percent increase

As that makes a bigger, and inflation is often bad after bad R times. The obama increase was mostly to pay for the Mortgage collapse, and we need to frame this by debt increase per 4 year term.

[Mr. Evil]

36. The question is why David Jolly identified as a republican in the first place.

My guess is because in Floriduh that's how you win. He played with those assholes. I really hope he apologizes soon for being a republican shitbag. If he already has in an ultra-contrite fashion then disregard this post. I can't keep track of everything that is shitty republicanism. There's just too much.

[Blue Owl]

38. The name TRUMP is synonymous with loans, borrowing, debt, etc.