Fact Check: Did Donald Trump Lift Debt Ceiling With No Spending Cuts?

The passage of the "Limit, Save, Grow Act" plan on Wednesday detailing what actions House Republicans want to see before agreeing to raise the federal debt limit leaves President Joe Biden with precarious economic decision-making.

For months, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has demanded that Biden meet with him to negotiate a plan to cut the nearly $31.5 trillion federal deficit in order to secure a GOP commitment to raise the debt limit. Without an agreement, the U.S. risks defaulting on its debt.

Amid the wrangling, one commentator on social media claimed that former President Donald Trump raised the debt ceiling repeatedly throughout his term without the need for cuts.

The Claim

A tweet by political commentator Oren Jacobson, posted on April 26, 2023, viewed 285,000 times, claimed that "When the @GOP demands spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling (pay our credit card bill) just remember...Trump raised the debt ceiling 3x without cutting spending."

The Facts

The debt ceiling bill aims to cut much of federal spending to last year's levels, including by placing a cap on subsequent budget growth at a 1 percent annual increase over the next decade.

The measure also advances several Republican priorities, such as expediting new oil drilling projects and giving Congress a greater say to conduct oversight into the executive branch. With a Republican-led House, could it be that McCarthy's plans to make cuts are a hangover from years of dodging hawkish behavior under Trump?

There is a degree of truth to the idea that Trump didn't enact spending cuts over the three debt ceiling raises he oversaw during his presidency.

The only occasion when Trump included cuts as part of spending negotiations was in 2019, with an agreement to find about $77 billion in offsets, about half of what the White House wanted, reported Capitol Hill reporters Roll Call.

Trump later tweeted that there would be "plenty of time to CUT!"

As noted by Roll Call, however, the offsets would not take effect until fiscal year 2027, by which point changes to the economy or rises in interest rates (that would have stretched spending elsewhere) could require for them to be renegotiated.

In essence, these aren't the same types of cuts that we are seeing McCarthy advocate for. Whereas the cuts negotiated in 2019 were not linked to the threat of a default, the difficulty that Biden faces with McCarthy is that by choosing to veto the bill, the government could risk defaulting on the debt, which might have catastrophic effects on the U.S economy.

Jacobson told Newsweek that the cuts in the 2019 bill were part of a "broader budget deal on government spending levels that also raised the debt limit."

"It wasn't the byproduct of an effort by either party to use the threat of default and massive economic pain to extract concessions," Jacobson added. "This is exactly what Biden has been calling for—take default off the table and negotiate directly on the budget.

"It's also worth noting the 2019 budget deal took the threat of default off the table until after the 2020 election, but the House bill likely puts a default showdown back on the table next year. That's reckless on so many levels. Deficits and debt are serious issues. We should address them without also risking the full faith and credit of the United States.

"This is a dangerous and disingenuous political stunt that threatens to undermine the global economy. Only one party plays this risky game. And they only do it when a Democrat is in the White House."

So, although cuts were a part of one Trump debt ceiling negotiation, they would not have been realized during the scope of his presidency and could have been altered according to the economic priorities when they were meant to take effect.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this week said House Republican plans to enact cuts would be dead on arrival on the Senate floor.

"These measures, and they're truly extreme, have no place in a debate about avoiding default," Schumer said during his Wednesday speech on the Senate floor. "I urge Speaker McCarthy to stop wasting any more time on this DOA, dead on arrival, bill. Time is running out for Congress to work together to avoid catastrophe."

Newsweek has reached out to Donald Trump for comment.

The Ruling

Needs Context.

Trump did extend the debt ceiling three times, largely without cuts, during his presidency, seemingly against the wishes of some of his congressional colleagues that had advocated belt-tightening.

While in 2019, about $77 billion of cuts were negotiated as part of the third ceiling negotiation that Trump oversaw, the cuts were set to be enacted nearly a decade later, which some speculated would never actually come to pass.

This is distinct from the current stand-off between Biden and McCarthy whereby failure to enact cuts could lead to Congress failing to approve the debt ceiling rise, risking a default on U.S. debt.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team