Thursday, August 20th 2026 - 08:20 UTC
The increase is not the work of a single administration. It grew sharply under Joe Biden, with the spending programmes deployed during the pandemic, and has accelerated since Donald Trump's return
The gross public debt of the United States reached 40.047 trillion dollars on Tuesday, according to data released by the Treasury Department. It is the first time the figure has crossed that threshold, and it has arrived earlier than expected: the Congressional Budget Office had projected 39.4 trillion by the end of fiscal 2026 and placed the jump to 40 trillion in 2027.
Of that total, 32.266 trillion is debt held by the public — private investors, funds and foreign holders — and 7.782 trillion is intragovernmental debt, meaning securities the federal government owes to its own trust funds, among them social security. Gross debt is equivalent to 124% of gross domestic product, the highest level since the Second World War.
The figure comes at a time of rising borrowing costs. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond climbed to 5.3%, its highest since 2007, forcing the government to refinance at the steepest rates since before the 2008 financial crisis. Markets attribute the rise to doubts over the path of inflation and the deficit, to spending linked to the war with Iran, and to borrowing by large technology companies to fund artificial intelligence investment.
