US National Debt Tops $40 Trillion

The $40 trillion milestone is well documented. Fox Business reported on August 19, 2026, that the Treasury Department's daily update showed the gross national debt at $40,047,425,768,420.22 as of August 18. The Associated Press and NPR both confirmed the same milestone on the same day, with NPR noting the debt "topped $40 trillion Wednesday" and AP describing it as "a record $40 trillion." All three outlets noted the debt had crossed $39 trillion just five months earlier in March 2026, and $38 trillion five months before that in October 2025, illustrating the rapid pace of recent borrowing.

The claim's second component — that more than $11.5 trillion was added during Trump's first term and the opening stretch of his second term — is harder to verify precisely from the available sources, but the math is roughly right. The federal debt stood at approximately $19.95 trillion when Trump took office in January 2017 and around $27.75 trillion when he left in January 2021, meaning his first term added roughly $7.8 trillion. From the start of his second term in January 2025 (when debt was near $36.2 trillion) to the current $40 trillion mark, the debt has grown by roughly $3.8 trillion. Combined, that is approximately $11.6 trillion, consistent with the "more than $11.5 trillion" figure in the claim. The characterization that this represents "roughly one-fourth" of the current $40 trillion total is also reasonable, since $11.5 trillion is about 29% of $40 trillion.

The claim's framing of the debt growth is consistent with how multiple outlets described the trajectory. AP noted that "the debt has exploded over several presidential administrations" and that "the federal government borrowed heavily during President Trump's first term and under former President Joe Biden to stabilize the economy" during COVID-19. NPR reported that "the debt-to-GDP ratio has worsened since Trump returned to the White House" and that the deficit widened further after the Supreme Court struck down many of Trump's tariffs, forcing the Treasury to refund more than $100 billion in import taxes. Fox Business cited the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's observation that the debt "has doubled in under 10 years."

One caveat: the $11.5 trillion figure is an approximation based on commonly cited debt levels at the start of Trump's first term and the current total. The exact number depends on which specific dates and which debt measure (gross federal debt versus debt held by the public) are used. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's June 2024 analysis reported that Trump approved $8.4 trillion in new ten-year borrowing during his first term, but that figure represents projected ten-year budget impact of legislation, not the actual change in the debt outstanding during his term. Still, the claim's overall thrust — that the debt has crossed $40 trillion and that a substantial portion of the total was added during Trump's time in office — is supported by the evidence.