The rate of growth of the debt took a big jump in 2018 and a big drop in 2019 and will likely drop more in 2020. President Trump has made significant changes in the economy and it will take a few more years to see where it will level off. Even so, if interest rates remain low, then the cost of servicing the debt will remain low, but if the debt goes too high it may harm the confidence in US bonds. I continue to believe that the best policy for the US government is to keep interest rates as low as possible and to encourage economic growth by removing unnecessary obstacle to growth, such as unnecessary regulations, and to reform tax laws and trade agreements to foster growth.
FY-17 we added 671 billion to the debt
FY-18 we added 1.272 trillion to the debt
FY-19 we added 1.203 trillion to the debt.
That is a 5% drop, not a big drop by anyone's definition.
So far, 5 months in to FY2020 we have added 662 million. So, that will put us in the 1.2 trillion range again.