The claim: Trump increased the debt 'far more than any president in history'
A May 17 Facebook post( https://archive.org/details/screenshot-2023-05-25-172647 ) shows a black and white image of several members of Congress gathered together.
The post criticized Republicans for "attacks on the poor and the sick with the threat of catastrophic debt default," then made a claim about former President Donald Trump:
"Trump increased that debt far more than any president in history," the post says in part. "Under Trump, Republicans − and Democrats − had no objection to raising the debt ceiling three times."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries shared a similar claim on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/RepJeffries/status/1657000193626177537 ) that garnered over 11,000 likes. A version of that post was posted on Facebook by the left-wing account Occupy Democrats and shared more than 900 times.
Our rating: False
The total federal debt increased more under the Obama administration in terms of raw dollars than any other president, according to government data. Experts say it is difficult to determine how much debt one president is responsible for since spending and policies can carry over from one administration to the next.
Obama incurred more debt than any other president
The post comes after weeks of standstill between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the issue of raising the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow, as USA TODAY reported.
But contrary to the post’s claim, the total federal debt increased more under former President Barack Obama than it did under the Trump administration, according to David Primo, a political science and business administration professor at the University of Rochester.
There are different ways of measuring debt, experts said.
Using Treasury Department data, the total public debt, which includes intragovernmental holdings and public debt, increased by approximately $7.8 trillion from the start of Trump’s presidency on Jan. 20, 2017, to when he left office on Jan. 19, 2021. Under Obama, however, the public debt increased by about $9.3 trillion from when he was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, to when he left office on Jan. 19, 2017.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/05/30/no-trump-didnt-increase-the-debt-more-than-any-president-fact-check/70252480007/
Kek - Fact Checkers finding in favor of POTUS… who'd-a-thunk-it.