How much did COVID-19 relief legislation contribute to the national debt under Trump versus Biden?
Executive summary
COVID-era fiscal packages increased the national debt substantially under both administrations, but most authoritative budget trackers attribute a larger COVID-related share to the Trump years than to the Biden years: independent analysts at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) estimate roughly $3.6 trillion of the ten‑year borrowing President Trump approved was COVID‑related, while Biden’s signature COVID package (the American Rescue Plan) is commonly estimated at about $1.9–$2.1 trillion — though analysts disagree on what spending should properly be counted as “COVID relief” [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. How trackers measure “COVID relief” and why totals differ
Counting what is “COVID relief” is a judgment call that drives much of the disagreement: some observers include only explicit pandemic response items (vaccines, testing, direct pandemic aid), others count broader economic support and temporary expansions of programs; CRFB cautions that COVID‑classified funding explains less than half of borrowing under either president and that many COVID packages contained items critics call extraneous or poorly targeted [5] [3]. The House Budget Committee highlights this definitional dispute by arguing that portions of the American Rescue Plan were not strictly pandemic response and disputes CRFB’s categorizations [6].
2. Trump-era COVID packages: scale and composition
The initial emergency response under President Trump included the CARES Act (roughly $2.2 trillion) and subsequent 2020–2021 measures; CRFB’s accounting attributes about $3.6 trillion of the $8.4 trillion in ten‑year borrowing approved during Trump’s term to COVID relief laws and related executive actions, with the remainder coming from tax cuts, routine spending increases and other actions [2] [1]. Reporting and analysis also note special pandemic-era Treasury choices — such as large cash balances — that complicate simple year‑to‑year comparisons [7].
3. Biden’s COVID contribution: the American Rescue Plan and contested add‑ons
President Biden’s major COVID package was the American Rescue Plan (commonly reported at roughly $1.9 trillion by contemporaneous coverage and $2.1 trillion in some CRFB tallies); CRFB’s broader accounting separates ARP from other legislative actions and reports that, excluding ARP, Biden approved $4.5 trillion of new gross ten‑year borrowing from other laws and actions during his term [2] [3] [4]. Conservative critics and some congressional Republicans argue a sizeable portion of ARP was not pandemic‑specific and therefore inflate or deflate Biden’s “COVID” contribution depending on political aims [6].
4. Net effect: Trump’s COVID programs added more debt but context matters
Using CRFB’s methodology, Trump’s COVID‑era measures account for approximately $3.6 trillion of his roughly $8.4 trillion legislative impact, while Biden’s explicit COVID package is roughly $1.9–$2.1 trillion amid an additional $4–4.8 trillion of non‑ARP borrowing during his term — making Trump’s COVID‑designated contribution larger, even as both presidents presided over big overall debt increases [1] [3] [4]. Multiple outlets and analysts warn that headline dollar comparisons can mislead because they depend on ten‑year scoring conventions, inclusion of interest costs, and political choices about what to label “COVID relief” [5] [3].
5. Competing narratives and policy implications
Advocates for tighter fiscal accounting emphasize long‑term interest costs and the danger of normalizing pandemic‑era spending levels; Treasury and White House defenders counter that pandemic relief averted a deeper recession and helped restore growth and employment, framing the ARP and other measures as investment in recovery [8] [5]. Independent reporters and nonprofits (ProPublica, Investopedia) document that the debt rose sharply during both administrations and trace much of the early surge to emergency pandemic aid under Trump, while some later narratives stress larger absolute increases under Biden depending on timeframes and measurement choices [9] [2].
6. Bottom line for the ledger
Best available, consistent public accounting (CRFB/CBO‑based) assigns roughly $3.6 trillion of COVID‑labeled borrowing to the Trump period and about $1.9–$2.1 trillion to Biden’s principal COVID package, with important caveats that (a) broader non‑COVID legislation under both presidents added substantially to borrowing, and (b) partisan disputes over what to count as “COVID relief” mean any single headline number requires scrutiny of methodology [1] [3] [6] [5].