Which President is responsible for racking up the most national debt?

January 20, 2023

As lawmakers bicker about how to handle the debt ceiling we’re losing sight of why we’re dealing with it in the first place. Because our national debt keeps growing. And because I know you guys I know you want to know which President is to blame for all this debt.

So this video is going to give you the facts about how much debt each President racked up. And keep in mind, when that debt increased – congress always increased the debt ceiling.

If you look at the US debt since 1922 you can see it’s fairly steady. There was this bump between the 1980s and 2000, but then you can see this massive spike starting in 2001. So, this video is going to focus on the Presidents who were responsible for this spike.  

Starting with President George W. Bush

In the 2001 fiscal year — the US debt was $5.7 trillion. By the time bush ended his 8-year term the US debt was $10 trillion. That’s an increase of $4.3 trillion.

In the 2009 fiscal year – President Obama’s first in office, the national debt was $11.9 trillion, by the end of his 8 years in office 2016 the debt was $19.5 trillion. That’s an increase of $7.6 trillion. Almost double what Bush racked up.

Now, it’s important to note both bush and Obama’s totals were over 8 years.

When it comes to President Trump, he was only in office for four years and he racked up almost as much debt in those four years as Obama did in eight. Now of course you have to remember — there was a pandemic towards the end of Trumps term but also there were significant tax cuts that cut revenue. So the debt kept increasing. During Trump’s first fiscal year in 2017 our national debt was $20.1 trillion and by the end of his four years it was $26.9 trillion. That’s an increase of $6.8 trillion.

Now, we don’t have all the data yet on President Biden because as of today he’s only been in office for two years. But in those two years the national debt increased from $28.4 trillion to $30.9 trillion. An increase of $2.5 trillion.

Look at the data from the Treasury Department here.