Between Q1 2021 and Q1 2024, the national debt rose by almost $6.5 trillion. And given that Q2 2024 has now passed, today it stands somewhere higher than that, though I haven't found figures for it yet. This is basically without Covid, given that deficit spending had largely tapered off by January 2021.
At the height of the pandemic Congress bipartisanly authorized a $3 trillion increase overnight, which Trump signed off on. Without Covid, the deficit for 2020 would've been a lot lower.
In fact, between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020, a period of 3 months, a "mere" $22 billion in new debt was added. Were this to hold, the whole year 2020 might've seen less than $90 billion in added debt, which by modern standards would've been simply incredible, and the Trump Administration would've seen a cumulative $3.5 trillion added in 4 years, which even in nominal (unadjusted for inflation) money would've been a lower average than Obama's. Even assuming Q1 2020 was a fluke and spending would've returned to normal in subsequent quarters, the year would've seen less than $2 trillion in new debt, or a cumulative administration total of less than $5.5 trillion. Still not great, but about 33% lower than it was with Covid.
But for the sake of argument let's say: whatever.
In reality, the Trump administration saw about $8.3 trillion in new debt added for whatever cause. There is still a good reason to think Biden's handling of the national debt has been worse. And that is this:
About a month ago, it was announced by CBO that annual interest payments on the national debt have increased by $540 billion, or an astonishing 153 percent, since President Biden took office.
Given that the debt has not literally doubled in that same period, I am at a loss for words. Anyone who thinks Biden deserves any score better than an F on this issue is delusional.
