Because covid? Congress wanted to pass a covid relief bill sending $700B to corporations. Trump said to get the money to the people so they increased it to do so. Biden happily kept the budget way overblown even though covid was essentially over. Neither party has addressed the budget in decades. One wants to spend more and the other wants to cut taxes. Neither fixes anything.
No, not because covid. Obama's second term decreased the amount of deficit added each year. Since then (excluding drop after 2020/2021) the amount has trended upward every year.
I guess you could say less deficit was added during Trump's first term (excluding covid), than in Obama or Biden's first terms. Not sure that tells us anything useful though.
There hasn't been an actual deficit decrease since 2001 though.
