Fact check: Did Donald Trump rack up more debt than any other president?

As White House and congressional Republican negotiators met to hammer out a way to raise the nation’s debt limit, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., cast blame for the nation’s $31 trillion-plus debt on the most recent Republican president, Donald Trump.

A failure to raise the limit could have forced the government to default on payments to bondholders, federal employees, contractors and beneficiaries of programs such as Social Security. Republicans proposed raising the limit in tandem with spending cuts, but the White House considered the scale of the Republicans’ proposed cuts untenable. In a May 12 tweet, Jeffries said Republicans were to blame for much of the debt. Jeffries wrote, "Trump ran up more debt than any other President in American history. He wants Republicans to force a dangerous default if they don’t get their way. We cannot let right-wing extremists hold our economy hostage."

Strictly speaking, former President Barack Obama accumulated more debt than Trump. But Trump accumulated the most debt per year served in office.

Jeffries’ office did not answer an inquiry for this article.

What are the numbers? Full Story: https://www.wral.com/story/fact-check...

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