During a town hall event in New Hampshire last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis lambasted his chief rival in the Republican presidential primary race, former President Donald Trump, for his failure to"drain the swamp" and reduce the national debt."He actually said he was going to eliminate the national debt. He added $8 trillion to the debt," DeSantis said during the event.
At the end of fiscal 2016, the nation's total debt hit $19.5 trillion, according to the Associated Press. At the end of fiscal 2020, when Trump was leaving the White House, the nation's debt increased to $26.9 trillion, a $7.4 trillion increase. Another 2021 report from ProPublica said that under Trump, the nation's debt increased by $7.
“The $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which Trump and Pelosi pushed through in 2020 despite my objections, was a disastrous bill that funded lockdowns, fueled panic, enabled fraud, and perhaps worst of all, initiated the highest inflation in generations," Rep. Thomas Massie said. “More than three years later, we are still suffering from the fallout of that record-breaking spending binge, compounded by the utter failure that is Bidenomics.
Similarly, Jason Roe, a GOP strategist who worked on the presidential campaigns of Sen. Mitt Romney and Sen. Marco Rubio , said that federal spending isn't something that resonates powerfully with voters.