The U.S. Treasury Department has announced that total American debt has surpassed $40 trillion for the first time, triggering fresh warnings of an emerging financial crisis as rising costs for social safety net programs and interest payments eclipse revenue, which has been diminished due to tax cuts.
The latest daily statement of cash and debt balances from the Treasury Department indicated that total public debt outstanding reached $40.047 trillion on Tuesday. This figure includes Treasury securities held by the public worth $32.266 trillion, alongside intra-governmental holdings totaling $7.782 trillion.
Federal debt has more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump first took office in January 2017.
Nearly a third of this increase occurred over two years of aggressive government borrowing to finance COVID-19 relief measures implemented by both Trump and former President Joe Biden. The remainder is attributed to fiscal policy decisions by both presidents, coupled with longstanding imbalances between taxes and spending.
Since Trump assumed office for a second term in January 2025, the U.S. debt burden has increased by $3.8 trillion, raising the total increase over his two terms to $11.6 trillion.
Under Biden's tenure, public debt grew by $8.4 trillion, a period marked by significant spending to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this also resulted from substantial expenditures on infrastructure investment, the promotion of clean energy, and other priorities backed by his Democratic Party.