{"id":1449,"date":"2026-03-20T10:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/?p=1449"},"modified":"2026-03-20T10:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:42:12","slug":"trump-likes-spending-federal-dollars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/trump-likes-spending-federal-dollars\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump likes spending federal dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you began paying attention to President Donald Trump’s political career in, say, January 2025, you might be surprised to learn that the federal debt is at a record high<\/a> \u2014\u00a0some $39 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s about double what it was ten years ago, when then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly objected<\/a> to the debt increase under Barack Obama. But it also comes a bit over a year into a Trump presidency that, at least at the outset, was heavily centered on reducing spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, if you began paying attention to Trump’s political career during his first term, this is much less surprising. Despite his criticisms of Obama (on a lot of things<\/a>), the federal debt increased substantially the first time Trump was president. That was the case even before the coronavirus pandemic triggered an increase in spending and, by extension, the debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a thought exercise, I created this interactive showing the daily increase in the federal debt<\/strong> during the first years of every president’s terms since 1997. Can you pick out Trump’s second term?<\/p>\n\n\n\n