The US national debt has surpassed $40 trillion for the first time, reaching the milestone months earlier than expected as Washington’s borrowing accelerates amid persistent deficits, rising interest costs, and military spending.

The debt was expected to reach the milestone next year, but it has jumped by $1 trillion since March. For comparison, it took nearly 200 years for total US debt to reach $1 trillion for the first time, in 1981.

Treasury Department figures released Wednesday showed total outstanding debt reaching about $40.05 trillion, equivalent to roughly $119,000 for every person in the country or more than $366,000 per federal taxpayer. The debt has doubled since January 2017, when it stood at roughly $20 trillion.

The debt is essentially the accumulated result of annual federal budget deficits. When Washington spends more than it collects in taxes and other revenue, the Treasury covers the shortfall by borrowing.

Much of the increase has accumulated under President Donald Trump’s two terms and Joe Biden’s presidency. Trillions were added during Trump’s first term and under Biden as Washington borrowed heavily to fund Covid-19 relief and cushion the economic fallout from the pandemic.

Military commitments have added to those expenditures. Washington has reportedly spent around $195 billion in Ukraine-related assistance since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, much of it for weapons, military support and replenishing US stocks.

More recently, the US war with Iran has created another major unplanned expense. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in July that the conflict had cost Washington about $37.5 billion, while the actual cost is likely to be much higher.

Social Security, Medicare and other mandatory programs remain major drivers of federal spending. Tax cuts under successive administrations have, meanwhile, reduced revenue without corresponding spending reductions, leaving Washington to finance the gap through additional borrowing.

The debt itself is also becoming increasingly expensive. As borrowing has grown and interest rates have risen, annual federal interest payments have climbed above $1 trillion, making debt servicing one of Washington’s largest expenditures.

Of the $40 trillion total, about $32.3 trillion is held by the public, while roughly $7.8 trillion represents obligations between federal government accounts. Most publicly held debt is owned domestically by pension and mutual funds, banks, individuals, companies and the Federal Reserve. Foreign countries also hold trillions in Treasury securities, with Japan, the UK and China among the largest overseas holders.

https://www.rt.com/business/644455-us-debt-40-trillion/

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Harry Truman left the White House without any income other than his Army pension of $113 (£85) per month. The 33rd US president later wrote that it was wrong to "commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency". 

George W Bush put his investments in a blind trust before running for president, and said in his last week in office that he had no idea how the 2008 economic crisis affected his net worth.

Donald Trump, in contrast, made at least $2.2bn (£1.7bn) in his first year back in office, according to a new financial disclosure report - a sum historians said was unprecedented and shattered the norm of US presidents avoiding financial conflicts of interest in the White House.

"There's just no precedent for this," said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. "It's beyond anything we've ever seen in the presidency."

Trump's massive 2025 earnings laid bare just how much he has benefited from his return to office, through money-making ventures that often blurred the line between official government policymaking and private business dealings by the president, his family and close advisers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70yk07vq0po?ysclid=mt9x8rxr33634917159

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