The U.S. national debt stood at roughly $85.06 billion at the turn of the 20th century, adjusted for inflation. At the turn of the 21st century, America’s outstanding debt was $5.67 trillion — the equivalent of roughly $10.99 trillion today.
According to the Department of the Treasury and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s Fiscal Data dashboard, America’s total public debt outstanding as of Tuesday was $40,047,425,768,420.22. That’s roughly $116,832 per person.
‘The amount is significantly greater than US annual GDP.’
Of the over $40 trillion, $32.26 trillion is Treasury securities held by the public, including the Federal Reserve, state and local governments, domestic private investors, and foreign holders. The other $7.78 trillion is the total of intra-governmental debt holdings.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters on Thursday, “Remember, we did not get here in a day. We were left with a mess. The Biden administration had the highest deficit-to-GDP in history when we weren’t at war or weren’t in a recession. For 2025, we brought it down by more than a percent.”
Former President Barack Obama added $8.44 trillion to the national debt during his two terms. During the Biden presidency, the debt increased by $8.4 trillion. During President Donald Trump’s time in office, the debt has risen by $11.6 trillion — including $3.8 trillion in the time since his return to power in January 2025, reported Reuters.
After the debt cracked $40 trillion, Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, noted, “The gross national debt has doubled in the last 10 years; in less than 20 years, it has quadrupled. And today, we have confirmation that the debt has reached a new milestone of $40 trillion. It is staggering how predictable the fiscal decline of a global power can become.”
RELATED: It’s the economy, stupid — again
Alex Wong/Getty Images
MacGuineas highlighted that it took two centuries for America’s gross debt to reach $1 trillion — a milestone reached in 1981.
At the time, President Ronald Reagan stated, “This is a figure that’s literally beyond our comprehension.”
Blaze Media contributor Carol Roth told Blaze News, “Instead of celebrating America’s 250th, we are lamenting accumulating $40 trillion in debt. The scope of the debt is shocking, but there are two important related factors.”
“One is the rapid growth of the debt. I remember when we crossed $20 trillion in 2017, which was less than 10 years ago. We have doubled that with another $20 trillion in less than 10 years,” said Roth. “The second factor is how much it costs us to finance the debt, which I have been warning about for nearly two decades. Right now, we spend more to pay the interest costs of our debt than we do on the defense of the nation. At the rate we are going, it will soon become the U.S.’ largest expenditure category.”
“You cannot have a healthy, vibrant nation when you spend more to pay for your debt than anything else,” continued Roth. “The blame for this lands squarely at the feet of Congress, where both parties, who take in more than $5 trillion a year now, find a way to spend an incremental $2 trillion. And it is the fault of all in government that won’t address the rampant fraud, waste, and abuse in the system.”
The Wall Street Journal suggested that reaching the $40 trillion threshold “carries symbolic weight, but isn’t, by itself, economically significant.” It suggested, however, that it is prudent to keep an eye on the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio.
“The amount is significantly greater than U.S. annual GDP. That means even if all U.S. income went toward paying down the debt for a full year — rather than to things like salaries, corporate profits, and investment — the federal government would still owe trillions, by this measure,” said the journal.
The Congressional Budget Office projected in a February report that “deficits are large by historical standards. The deficit totals $1.9 trillion in fiscal year 2026 and grows to $3.1 trillion in 2036. Relative to the size of the economy, the deficit is 5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026 and increases to 6.7% in 2036. Deficits averaged 3.8% of GDP over the last 50 years.”
The CBO projected further that debt held by the public will rise from 101% of GDP this year to 120% in 2036.
The CBO noted that its projections changed since January 2025 primarily because of three major policy developments: “The 2025 reconciliation act increased deficits by an estimated $4.7 trillion; higher tariffs reduced deficits by an estimated $3.0 trillion; and administrative actions related to immigration increased deficits by an estimated $0.5 trillion.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Read the full article here
