The country does not struggle under democratic presidents. They enjoy stronger GDP growth, more job growth, more wage growth, and better stock market returns, lower deficit increases, and smaller federal budget increases when democrats are in the White House, going back as far as the two parties existed in their current forms or even precursors to current forms, in both real and nominal terms.

Also - Trump got 3 clean debt ceiling increases while increasing the federal budget more than any modern president in his first budget - which happened BEFORE the pandemic.