WASHINGTON: The US national debt has crossed $40 trillion for the first time, according to Treasury data released on Wednesday, as rising spending on defence, Social Security and Medicare, along with mounting interest costs, pushes federal borrowing to a record level.
The debt stood at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday, including $32.266 trillion held by the public and $7.782 trillion in intragovernmental holdings, Treasury data showed.
The milestone came less than five months after the national debt crossed $39 trillion. It has more than doubled from $19.95 trillion when Donald Trump first took office in January 2017.
The pace of borrowing has outstripped earlier forecasts, while long-term obligations for healthcare and retirement benefits continue to grow.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, told the Associated Press that the Trump administration “has been focused on slashing waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending while accelerating economic growth to get America’s debt-to-GDP ratio trending in the right direction.”
According to Reuters, the US budget deficit during the first 10 months of fiscal 2026 has already exceeded the full-year deficit recorded in fiscal 2025, with two months still remaining in the current fiscal year.
Fiscal watchdogs, however, warned that rising interest costs and spending on programmes such as Social Security and Medicare are placing increasing pressure on the federal budget.
“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,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told Reuters.
Trump bill expected to add to debt
Trump’s second-term legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is expected to add another $4.7 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan agency that provides budget analysis to Congress.
US debt has risen sharply under successive administrations, with pandemic-era spending under Trump and former president Joe Biden accounting for a substantial share of the increase.
Public debt increased by $7.8 trillion during Trump’s first term and by $8.4 trillion during Biden’s presidency, according to figures cited by Reuters.
Interest costs add to budget pressure
Interest payments have also emerged as a major burden on the federal budget.
During the first 10 months of fiscal 2026, interest payments exceeded Medicare spending, making interest the second-largest federal expenditure after Social Security.
The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that the US could reach its $41.1 trillion debt limit between late winter and mid-summer 2027, potentially forcing Congress to revisit the borrowing cap.
