US Debt Reaches Historic Milestone

Washington, D.C. – The United States has reached a grim milestone in its national debt, surpassing $40 trillion for the first time in history. This alarming figure, announced by the Treasury Department on Wednesday, has sent shockwaves through the financial markets and has raised concerns about the potential for a full-blown fiscal crisis.

The rapid accumulation of debt has been fueled by a combination of factors, including ballooning costs for social safety-net programs and interest payments. The Treasury’s latest daily cash and debt balances statement revealed that total public debt outstanding stands at $40.047 trillion, with $32.266 trillion of that amount consisting of Treasury securities held by the public and $7.782 trillion in intra-governmental debt holdings.

The federal government’s debt has more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump was first sworn into office in January 2017. Roughly one-third of that increase occurred during the two years of frantic government borrowing to fund COVID-19 pandemic responses undertaken by Trump and former President Joe Biden, while the fiscal policy choices of both presidents combined with long-running tax-and-spending imbalances account for the rest.

According to Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the $40 trillion figure is a stark reminder of the unsustainable fiscal outlook facing the nation. ‘Forty trillion dollars of debt doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers; it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another,’ she warned.

The growing debt burden has significant implications for the US economy, including exacerbating inflation, squeezing out other priorities in the budget, and leaving the country vulnerable to emergencies at home and turmoil abroad. Global US creditors may already be growing wary, with demand from foreign investors holding nearly one-third of Treasuries declining over the past year.

As the US debt continues to soar, the Treasury Department has taken steps to address the issue. On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a doubling of buyback sizes for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to at least $4 billion per operation, in an effort to push long bond yields back down.

However, the challenges facing the US economy are far from over. With the federal government’s IOU having more than doubled in less than a decade, the nation’s fiscal outlook remains uncertain. The consequences of inaction could be severe, and it remains to be seen whether lawmakers will take the necessary steps to address the growing debt crisis.

A Look at the Numbers

The federal government’s debt has increased by $7.8 trillion during Trump’s first term, with more than half of it accumulating during the pandemic response over his last nine months in office. Since Trump took office a second time in January 2025, the US debt load has increased by $3.8 trillion, for total growth of $11.6 trillion across his two terms so far.

Public debt increased by $8.4 trillion during Biden’s term, also marked by heavy COVID-19 recovery spending, but driven as well by big-ticket outlays for infrastructure investment, clean energy subsidies, and other priorities championed by his Democratic Party.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the policy choices of Trump and Biden have increased the federal debt trajectory beyond what would have accumulated under the existing spending statutes when each took office.