Question

Donald Trump owns 25% of our debt.

Answer 1

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-debt-25-percent/ 

https://www.pgpf.org/our-national-debt/

https://www.investing.com/news/economic-indicators/factboxwho-owns-us-debt-3858083

Donald trump does not own 25% of our debt. While Trump was president, 25% debt was increased but does not mean he actually owns it.  Snopes.com suggests, "A bipartisan package of legislation, passed toward the end of the Trump administration to combat the coronavirus pandemic, added roughly $3.7 trillion to the national debt." According to Peter Ferguson Foundation, theres not one specific person that owns the national debt, but instead its a combination of different investors, government, and more. Also, the largest owners of our debt as a nation isn't held by one person but rather by other countries like china according to investing.com. All in all, the claim that Donald Trump owns 25% of our debt is false. 

Answer 2

The claim that “Donald Trump owns 25% of our debt” is very misleading and exaggerated. This prompt does partially lie under politics, so while most of the information is true regarding a business standpoint, it is also important to consider any biases from a political standpoint. 

Drew Desilver from the Pew Research Center explains that while it is easy to hold the president responsible for all debt, most of the debt is held by investors, federal trust funds, and the Federal Reserve, with foreign countries like Japan and China also holding portions. Nowhere does it directly say that Trump is in control of all debt. So although debt did happen to increase during Trump's presidency, that fell under the category of government borrow, not Trump. Pew Research Center

AP News is an additional source that covers this debate. As a matter of fact, this article highlighted the point that despite us putting a target on Trump’s back, he hasn't contributed to the debt more than any other president… and Obama actually raised it more. During Trump’s term the national debt rose about 7.4 trillion dollars, compared to Obama’s 9.5 Trillion dollar increase. Alternate factors such as Congress, past groups, and even COVID-19 contributed to the U.S debt. AP News

On another note, a political website known as PolitiFact, did confirm that Trump did account for about one quarter of today’s federal debt, but you can’t strictly blame him. Similar groups mentioned above were also considered in this article as well as the fact that Obama was reliable for more debt. In reality you can’t blame one singular person, but instead, recognize that it was multiple groups contributing to this issue. PolitiFact

Answer 3

In my findings regarding the claim “Donald Trump owns 25% of our debt,” I was able to determine that this claim is false. It was very misleading and a misuse of information. This statement is misleading about the truth. It is true that Donald Trump accumulated a large amount of debt throughout his presidency; however, he does not own this debt. Newsweek states, “40 percent and currently 25 percent of our national debt was accumulated during the Trump presidency.” Supporting the previous statement that he does not own the debt, but it was instead accumulated throughout his time in office. PolitiFact, a website deemed trustworthy and generally non-biased, quotes, “assigning debt to a particular president is tricky,” and further explains contribution to debt as, “the parameters for Social Security and Medicare.” Trump did not accumulate all this debt by himself. Portions of debt were due to funding Medicare and Social Security for citizens. In addition, Pew Research Centers studies show that 23.5% of the United States' national debt is owned by Foreign and International U.S. treasury securities. These sources explained that this claim is not accurate and misleading.