The United States national debt is approaching an unprecedented threshold of $40 trillion, with more than $11.5 trillion of that total accumulated during Donald Trump's two terms as president, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department.
When Trump first entered the White House in January 2017, the national debt stood at approximately $19.9 trillion. By the end of his first term four years later, it had surged to more than $27.7 trillion, a jump of roughly $7.8 trillion. A substantial portion of this increase occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Congress and the administration approved massive relief packages. In fiscal year 2020 alone, the federal deficit reached a record high of more than $3.1 trillion.
At the start of Trump's second term in January 2025, the debt stood at approximately $36.2 trillion. As of August 14, 2026, it has climbed to more than $39.9 trillion, an addition of about $3.7 trillion in less than two years.
The increase is attributed to several factors, including growing expenditures on Social Security and Medicare, interest payments on the existing debt that now exceed one trillion dollars annually, and tax cuts implemented during Trump's tenure.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai placed partial responsibility on the previous administration, stating that "cleaning up Joe Biden's irresponsible fiscal management is at the top of the Trump administration's priorities," including through reducing waste and fraud and accelerating economic growth.
White House officials also emphasized that a significant portion of the debt surge during Trump's first term resulted from the historic coronavirus crisis, which required the government to inject enormous sums into households, businesses, and local authorities across the country.
