U.S. debt crosses $40 trillion threshold after doubling under Trump and Biden
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Aug. 19, 2026, 4:57 PM EDT / Source: ReutersBy Reuters
Total U.S. debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday, drawing fresh warnings that a fiscal crisis is brewing as ballooning costs for social safety-net programs and interest payments far outstrip revenues held back by tax cuts.
The Treasury's latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday, a total that includes Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and intragovernmental debt holdings of $7.782 trillion.
The federal government's IOU has now more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump was sworn in for the first time in January 2017. Roughly one-third of that increase occurred during two years of frantic government borrowing to fund the Covid-19 pandemic responses undertaken by Trump and former President Joe Biden, with the fiscal policy choices of both presidents combining with long-running tax-and-spending imbalances to account for the rest.
Budget watchdog groups have been anticipating the crossing of the threshold for weeks. Some issued stark warnings that a full-blown debt crisis could erupt unless lawmakers confront an unsustainable fiscal outlook and raise taxes, cut spending or both.
"This bleak milestone serves as yet another reminder that it's past time to confront a fundamental mismatch," Margaret Spellings, CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a centrist think tank, said last week as the $40 trillion threshold neared.
"Our federal programs spend much more than the government takes in, and the biggest-ticket items in the federal budget are all running on autopilot," Spellings said. "Federal debt is already raising the cost of living and choking out other spending and investment, threatening our economy and Americans' long-term prosperity."
Global U.S. creditors may already be growing wary.
Days after a $25 billion auction of 30-year Treasury bonds went off at the highest yield since 2021, yields on so-called long bonds on Tuesday hit their highest levels in nearly two decades as investors demanded greater compensation in the face of hefty U.S. government bond issuance.
On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took a bold step to push long bond yields back, announcing a doubling of buyback sizes for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to at least $4 billion per operation.
The term premium for 10-year Treasuries — a measure of how much of the security's overall yield is accounted for by the perceived risk of holding them over a decade — rose this week to its highest in more than a dozen years.
Against all that, demand for U.S. debt by foreign investors — who hold nearly one-third of all Treasuries — has been declining over the past year, leaving more bonds to fall to more price-sensitive buyers, which can exacerbate market volatility, John Canavan, lead financial market analyst in Oxford Economics' Macroeconomic and Investor Services group, wrote on Tuesday.
The Treasury last week reported the fourth-highest monthly deficit in U.S. history — $432 billion for July — as tariff refunds turned customs receipts negative for the third month in a row and outlays for Social Security and Medicare benefits for seniors continued to grow. The deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal 2026 has already exceeded the total gap for all of fiscal 2025 with two months to go in the current fiscal year.
Trump has largely ignored the dwindling number of fiscal hawks in his Republican Party, championing prolific spending across his two terms. Public debt rose by $7.8 trillion during Trump's first term, more than half of that accumulated during the pandemic response over his last nine months in office.
Since Trump took office a second time in January 2025, the U.S. 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 also driven by big-ticket outlays for infrastructure investment, clean energy subsidies and other priorities championed by his Democratic Party.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates 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.
For instance, Trump's landmark second-term legislative package — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — will add another $4.7 trillion in debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan bookkeeper for federal lawmakers.
Trump has branded his second presidency as one focused on cost-cutting, marked by early federal agency job cuts ordered by the nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency. But much of his spending reductions have targeted so-called "discretionary" programs, the smallest portion of the federal budget. The U.S. spends roughly $7 trillion annually, and 60% of it is earmarked for so-called "mandatory" programs, including payments for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans' care, that generally grow to keep pace with living costs.
Another $1.1 trillion pays the interest on U.S. borrowing, the cost of which rises as the debt pile grows and as interest rates climb. The 2025 fiscal-year budget marked the first time debt service costs exceeded Pentagon funding. In the first 10 months of the 2026 fiscal year, interest costs have eclipsed Medicare healthcare outlays to become the second-largest line item in the federal budget, behind the Social Security pension system.
The U.S. is spending more to fund the retirement and healthcare costs of the "baby boom" generation, straining the trust funds behind Social Security and Medicare even as payroll and income tax revenues fall short of covering federal costs.
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When this bubble bursts, it’s going to be catastrophic
Yeah, but have you seen that granite Trump purchased for the new WH helipad? It won’t crack in a million years! Our great great grandkids will be so thrilled to help pay for it!
You solved it ! A 5 million dollar donated helipad is really driving the problem.
That cost is already projected to more than double notwithstanding the vague fantasy of private industries doing something for nothing.
donated
That reminds me - I’ve got this bridge that I’m willing to part with at a deep discount …
an independent forensic audit would show that trump and his administrations are probably responsible for 1/3 of that $40T debt, and by the time that incompetent fool leaves it will be closer to half, and that's just the financial damage he and sycophants have done ...
Don't worry Sean your fearless leader will be safely lounging on his golden throne in his shiny new ballroom bunker..
Lets cut more food stamps. That'll do the trick.
What we really need is another tax cut for the top one percent. Then we'll see growth like we've never seen before... or something like that. /s
sums progressives up perfectly, obsesses over a project that might, might, cost millions while fighting tooth and nail to stop billions worth of fraud in food stamps.
So, you don't want progressives fighting food stamp fraud? That's weird.
While I support the 90%+ that use and really need food stamps, I want us to do everything we can to stop the nearly 10% of fraud found. Of course, I would never want to slap the food out of the mouths of the 90% who need it like some useless conservative assholes seem to want to do, but I think we should do everything we can to fight actual fraud.
I could be wrong, but it seems that people having been saying that every few years.
so many doomsday scenarios with so little time left ...
according to maga, armageddon, sharia law, and a commie takeover are all on a collision course in the front part of november ...
Why is anyone surprised about a debt crisis caused by debasing the US dollar? The dollar has lost 87% of its buying power since 1971. The shift to a financialized service economy requires perpetual inflation that debases the dollar. The tangible value of things (including the national debt) hasn't changed; what has changed is the value of the dollar to pay for those things.
That's why it is impossible to cut spending enough to overcome the debasement of the dollar. Eliminating Social Security today won't solve the problem; that only delays the inevitable. It's the private banks (and the Federal Reserve) who are responsible for debasing the dollar. So the only way out of the mess is either a government default or taxing those responsible for creating the mess.
It is impossible to fix a monetary problem with fiscal policy.
So before that there was never any severe inflation?
2% inflation is the annual target for the Federal Reserve. That target rate will reduce the buying power of the dollar by 55% over a period of 40 years. Over a 50 year period the loss of buying power would be ~64%. Periods of severe inflation only accelerate the loss of buying power.
Deflation would allow the buying power of the dollar to recover. But the Federal Reserve will work diligently to prevent deflation and protect credit and lending by banks. (Consumption in a financialized economy is driven by credit, not wages.) Severe deflation would cause another Great Depression.
Wonderful. I'm fixing to retire next year....
trump, between his first term and second term to date has added 11.5 TRILLION to the debt....That's from Fox News Business.
Again, what drives Trump supporters to continue to try to defend Trump?
What is all the complaining about the Ds given Trump and the GOP TRUMP are not only worse in terms of fiscal discipline but compound this with lawlessness, international failures, economic failures and most recently a war of choice that made matters worse, depleted our arsenal, furthered deficit spending and debt, and has no clear end in sight?
At this point? Blind and blatant stupidity.
It’s as simple as abject hatred of Democrats and anything associated with them. The low 30s approval people are only concerned with stamping out Democrats, and it does not matter to them if the vehicle for doing that is helping them or hurting them personally.
I concur.
Could it possibly similar to the thing that drives Democrats to defend Democratic presidents?
The idea some clowns have is that the debt is all on the current administration is laughable. That would be true if the current administration was on year 100. Reality is, this is a culmination of about 25 decades of bipartisan overspending, tax cuts, and refusal by both Democrats and Republicans to confront it and actually do something. I'm not sure why that is so hard to grasp for so many people.
Irrational partisan politics.
Irrational is an understatement.
You invent a claim that was not made and then criticize it. Another stupid strawman argument. Dishonest crap instead of thoughtful commentary.
National debt is not a partisan issue, both major parties have fucked this up. You are correct in that fact.
But you blow it by creating a strawman that suggests this all occurred under Trump v2.0. Who is claiming that (other than your imagination)?
Cool story. Now go do some research.
Oh, before I forget, thank you for proving my point that there are dimwits who think this is all on the current administration.
What kind of fool would think the debt went up $30 TRILLION under the current administration.
Your post is incoherent.
Show us someone who thinks the debt is solely from the current administration.
Your strawman argument is idiotic.
Cool story.
[deleted][✘]
No shit.
The post to which I am referring is yet another strawman. Engage in dishonesty and I will respond accordingly.
Try honest, thoughtful posts if you wish respect.
Bullshit. The argument is that you invented a strawman. Show us all who is blaming Trump for the entire national debt.
[deleted][✘]
It does not go un noticed, not even by Gemini.
Technically you weren't making an argument, you were stating a fact.
Which was in reply to...
So, you stated a fact that he invented his own strawman.
But I doubt that will register and get the other side to start acknowledging that Trump is in office now and has been in office for 6 of the last 10 years and has not made good on his promises to reduce the debt or cut deficit spending. That's not a conversation they're willing to have because it's not a record anyone with more than half a brain and even a smidgen of economics education could defend without looking like a complete fool.
that's been irrelevant to maga sycophants for over a decade ...
Welcome to social media!
Agree, but if that is your strategy don't be surprised when you don't get respect or taken seriously.
[✘]
If you're looking to social media for respect or to be taken seriously then you've already proven you deserve neither.
Hmmm, read it again. Seems the meaning went right over your head.
Not at all. You were replying to TiG when you used your Gemini AI analysis of his response, which Krishna rightly pointed out describes 99% of social media responses. You then claim that "strategy" of using that kind of response won't get you respect or taken seriously, and I then pointed out social media may not be the best place in life to seek those things out, and if you are, you likely deserve neither. But please, do go on with how I'm not following your apparently brilliant point.
I think that perhaps we're gonna need a bigger boat ....
The "argument" I created is one you don't want to hear[✘]
Like I said. Just another day that ends with a "Y".