On August 19 (Washington time), according to Xinhua news agency citing US Treasury Department data, US national debt for the first time in history exceeded the $40,000 trillion mark. US total public debt as of August 18 reached $40.047 trillion.
Of this total, public debt is at 32,266 billion USD, while debts held by federal government agencies are 7,782 billion USD.
The milestone of 40,000 billion USD was recorded a few months earlier than expected, reflecting the prolonged budget deficit of the US federal government. Consecutive spending exceeded revenue, causing the debt scale to continue to increase.
In recent years, the US government has spent trillions of dollars to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, then continued to implement tax cuts and increase defense spending. These factors contribute to accelerating federal debt growth.
According to the US Treasury Department's monthly report, in the first 9 months of fiscal year 2026, the federal government recorded a budget deficit of 1,367 billion USD. In the same period, net interest expense reached 827 billion USD, higher than the spending of 713 billion USD for defense and only behind social security spending at 1,244 billion USD.
US federal debt once exceeded the $30,000 billion mark in January 2022, to over $39,000 billion in March 2026 and reached $39,700 billion in July 2026, before exceeding $40,000 billion just one month later.
Ms. Maya MacGuineas, Chairwoman of the Responsible Federal Budget Committee, warned that public debt has recently exceeded the size of the US economy, while the deficit-to-GDP ratio is twice as high as the level considered appropriate.
She believes that interest payment costs are exceeding the defense budget and the growing debt could affect many sectors of the economy, from inflation to the ability to allocate budget for other priorities.
Ms. Margaret Spellings, President and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said that the current fiscal trajectory of the US is "clearly unsustainable", and warned that federal debt is increasing living costs, putting pressure on investment and other spending.
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Kush Desai said that US President Donald Trump has pledged to overcome fiscal management under former President Joe Biden. The Trump administration, according to Desai, is focusing on cutting waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending, while promoting economic growth to improve the debt-to-GDP ratio.
Public-owned debt includes US government securities/bonds owned by individual investors, domestic financial institutions, the Federal Reserve (Fed) and foreign governments (such as Japan, UK...).
