Trump Added More to the National Debt Than Obama and Bush.

[Upper Canada Tory]

I am not a fan of Trump or the fact that he ran large and increasing deficits during his four years in office, but comparing how much national debt was added in absolute terms by 'President X' as opposed to 'President Y' is extremely misleading, for several reasons. Firstly, the value of the dollar changes a lot over time due to inflation (for example, $100 in 2009 is worth $140 today). Secondly, different Presidents run the country during different economic times (Trump ran the country in 2020 during the COVID crisis, which was a much more challenging economic time than anything Bush or Obama had to deal with). Thirdly, different Presidents start with different fiscal positions (Bush started with a post-Clinton surplus, while Trump started with a deficit after a difficult recovery from the recession).

To expand on my second point specifically, there are better ways of measuring the debt and deficit when adjusted for inflation, such as the debt to GDP ratio or the deficit as a percentage of GDP. I would look at a number of those indicators to determine who did a better job regarding both the debt and the deficit.

Lastly, this is not me defending Trump's or anyone's record on the debt. Bush, Obama and Trump all did a relatively poor job maintaining the USA's fiscal position and all should be criticized for continuing to run larger than necessary deficits and increasing the debt. It is just misleading to look at the debt in the way it is presented here.