According to data published by the Treasury Department on Wednesday, the United States' national debt surpassed the $40 trillion mark for the first time in history.
The data showed that debt held by the public and intra-governmental assets amounted to $32.266 trillion and $7.782 trillion, respectively. Thus, the total outstanding national debt reached $40.047 trillion as of Tuesday.
Reaching this significant milestone occurred sooner than expected and reflects the persistent budget deficits of the US federal government, as expenditures continue to exceed revenues, thereby increasing the national debt.
The federal government spent trillions of dollars in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by tax cuts and increased military spending. As a result, the US national debt has grown rapidly in recent years, raising concerns in the bond market and increasing the yield on Treasury securities. The rise in interest payments has further increased the overall volume of the national debt.
The monthly report from the Treasury Department indicates that the federal government recorded a fiscal deficit of $1.367 trillion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, which began on October 1, 2025. During this period, net interest payments totaled $827 billion, exceeding defense spending of $713 billion and only being surpassed by social security expenditures of $1.244 trillion.
The US federal government's debt exceeded $30 trillion in January 2022, surpassed $39 trillion in March 2026, and reached $39.7 trillion in July 2026.
Local media characterized the surpassing of the $40 trillion national debt as an ominous milestone for an economy relying on an increasingly shaky fiscal foundation.
Maya McGuinness, President of the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget, stated in her Wednesday statement that 'warning signs are flashing: public debt recently exceeded the size of our economy, the deficit-to-GDP ratio has doubled what it should be, and interest expenses exceed our defense budget.'
McGuinness emphasized: 'Forty trillion dollars of debt do not just exist in the government's ledgers; they are felt throughout the entire economy and somehow end up in people's pockets.'
She added that the more a country borrows, the worse inflation gets, the more resources are taken away from other budget priorities, and the more vulnerable the country becomes to domestic emergencies and international instability.
Margot Spelling, President and CEO of the Center for Two-Party Policy, noted: 'Our current fiscal trajectory is clearly unsustainable. Even in the most optimistic scenarios, we are speeding toward a cliff and refusing to turn the wheel.'
She also added that 'federal debt is already increasing the cost of living and stifling other spending and investments, threatening our economy and the long-term prosperity of Americans.'
Caroline Burdo, Executive Director of the Concord Coalition and Concord Action Fund, stated: 'Forty trillion dollars should serve as a wake-up call. But neither Congress nor the president has a credible plan to stop its growth.'
She concluded that the country 'should better secure the next generation than this crushing debt and yet another empty promise that someone else will deal with it later.'
In a statement responding to this alarming milestone, White House Press Secretary Kush Desai said that Donald Trump promised to correct the fiscal mismanagement of former President Joe Biden. He noted that 'that is why the Trump administration is focused on cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending while accelerating economic growth so that America's debt-to-GDP ratio returns to the right track.'
