The national debt has increased by almost 36% since Trump took office
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Table of Contents
BY
KIMBERLY AMADEO
REVIEWED BY
MICHAEL J BOYLE
Updated October 15, 2020
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican candidate
Donald Trump promised he would eliminate the nation’s debt in eight years.1 Instead, his budget estimates showed that he would actually add at least $8.3 trillion, increasing the U.S. debt to $28.5 trillion by 2025.2 However, the national debt may reach that figure much sooner. When President Trump took office in January 2017, the national debt stood at $19.9 trillion. In October 2020, the national debt reached a new high of $27 trillion.
That's an increase of almost 36% in less than four years.
President Trump's Impact on the National Debt (thebalance.com)
Thing is one should look over the link in the OP more closely.
For example, there's a tab for the "time machine" function and it goes back at four year increments starting from 2016 to 2000, then a couple ten year ones back to 1990 and 1980. Not quite as large of displays, but one thing that pops out is how in the Obama years; 2008-2016, MaObama managed to more than double the National Debt, giving him a 100+% increase compared to Trumps 36% mentioned above.
Perhaps Trump should have declined to sign off on the budget that Congress give him last year, but then the usual suspects would have whined about the guv'mint shutdown it would have caused.
Another part that the link shows is down towards the bottom, the "unfunded liabilities" which currently are at $159+ Trillion (that's in addition to the National Debt). Much of this is Social Security and Medicare which are starting to grow exponentially as the Boomers age and tap into it.
Bad as things might look deficit and debt wise for the USA, that foreign debt clock tab at the upper left shows many other nations are in a worse state;
Too much of the world is running on borrowed against the future generations.
Not such a good idea.
