Biden makes surprising, garbled deficit reduction claim

President Joe Biden is being mocked after he made a garbled claim that he is reducing the deficit this year by one trillion, five hundred thousand dollars, with the number being especially awkward given the vast difference between trillions and hundreds of thousands.

“You know how much, how much I’m reducivethedefcit this year? One trillion, five hundred thousand!" Biden said during a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, Wisc. It appears the president was attempting to say he's "reducing the deficit this year."

Not only was Biden criticized for not speaking clearly, but some took note of the fact he mentioned $500,000.

"It seems weird to tack $500,000 onto $1,000,000,000,000," wrote one Twitter user. "If you weren’t impressed by the trillion…check out this additional five hundred thousand!"

"Are we just going to ignore that he translated $1.5 trillion as 'One trillion 500 thousand dollars'? $500K is a rounding error when talking trillions," another user commented. 

Biden touted in May that his administration reduced the deficit by $1.5 trillion, but CNBC at the time wrote that it is largely because the government poured so much money into the economy the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Five hundred thousand is 0.0000005 of one trillion, meaning that Biden clearly meant to say $1.5 trillion rather than adding on the comparatively nominal value of $500,000.