Has Donald Trump Promised to Eliminate the National Debt?

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The promise of a compromise on the debt limit between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could end weeks of negotiations and the threat of disaster for the US economy.

News broke Saturday that the two men had agreed in principle to a deal that would raise the nation’s debt limit for two years and curb federal spending. McCarthy, who is backed by the GOP majority in the House of Representatives, has previously refused to agree to a debt ceiling increase without significant spending cuts.

Amid a break in the deadlock, a Democratic state lawmaker claimed on Twitter that the president’s predecessor helped lead the country into its current debt crisis, saying Donald Trump promised and failed to eliminate the national debt.

Former President Donald Trump is seen arriving at Trump Tower on May 29, 2023 in New York City. Democratic Colorado House Rep. Steven Woodrow that Trump has promised to eliminate the national debt. James Devaney/GC Images

The Claim

A tweet by Steven Woodrow, a Democratic member of the Colorado House of Representatives, posted on May 28, 2023 and viewed 319,700 times, said that Trump promised to completely eliminate the national debt.

The tweet stated: “Trump: adds $7.8 trillion over 4 years after promising to eliminate debt completely.

“They’re only “fiscal conservative” when a Dem is in the White House. Otherwise, they’re full of bullshit.”

The facts

Newsweek recently investigated another claim about Trump’s contribution to the national debt, saying the former president “accumulated” 40 percent of it during his term in office.

Although Trump oversaw a 40 percent increase from the number at the beginning of his term, roughly half of that was realized in the last 10 months of his presidency as the US responded to the COVID pandemic.

The United States’ COVID response spending has received bipartisan support.

Again, the claim about Trump here is not strictly false but omits the details that contextualize the claim.

As The Washington Post reported, Trump said in 2016 that he would eliminate the debt (more than $19 trillion at the time) “within eight years.”

This, of course, assumes that Trump will stay in the White House for more than one term, an ambition that has not come true.

During his term, Trump instead added $7.8 trillion to the national debt, far from the elimination he had hoped for.

However, as Newsweek’s previous fact check explained, half of that debt was incurred in his last 10 months in office as the US responded to COVID.

Woodrow’s tweet did not mention the unexpected and unprecedented COVID spending, which received bipartisan support at the time, or Trump’s plan to eliminate the debt in eight years.

Already a mammoth task when he took office in 2016, it’s unclear how Trump managed to eliminate the debt that added nearly $8 trillion to it in his first term alone.

However, Woodrow’s tweet does not explain the details of Trump’s plans, nor does it address the extraordinary amount of spending supported by Democrats to deal with the public health and economic emergency caused by COVID.

Therefore, although it is not fair to say that Trump planned to write off the debt and failed to do so, the terms of the former president’s claim are not explained here.

Newsweek left a voice message with Woodrow’s office seeking comment.

The Decision

Requires Context.

Although Trump has said he plans to completely eliminate the debt, the tweet omitted that the plan was made at the beginning of his presidency to happen within two terms, in the confidence that he would earn a second term.

It is also worth noting that while Trump oversaw a 40 percent increase in the national debt, half of that increase was in the last 10 months of his presidency as the country responded to the COVID pandemic. Spending during this period received bipartisan support.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team

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