The United States National Debt Passes a Massive New Milestone
The total amount of money borrowed by the government has reached a historic high. The national debt has now officially gone over $40 trillion. To be exact, the total recently reached $40.05 trillion. This is a very large number that can be hard to picture, but looking at how the debt has grown over the years helps make sense of where things stand today.
A Look Back: How Fast Has the Debt Grown?
The national debt has not always been this high. In fact, it has grown extremely fast over the last few decades.
In the year 2000, the national debt was about $5.8 trillion. Since then, it has increased by nearly 600% to reach today's total of over $40 trillion.
What does this mean for individual people? If this giant bill were split up equally among every single person living in the country today, each individual would owe about $116,800.
Tracking the Debt Across Different Presidencies
Looking back at recent history shows how different events and presidential terms have affected the national debt:
- When Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the national debt was around $36.2 trillion. Since that time, the total has increased by 10.6%.
- During Trump's first term in office, the total debt went up by 39.1%, which was an increase of $7.81 trillion.
- During Joe Biden's term, the debt went up by 30.5%. However, this term saw the largest dollar increase of any single presidency, with the debt rising by $8.45 trillion.
- Barack Obama saw the largest percentage increase in national debt during his first term, which began during the major financial crisis of 2008. In his first term, the debt grew by $5.81 trillion. In his second term, it grew by $3.51 trillion.
A major reason for the rapid rise in debt during both the end of the first Trump term and the Biden term was the global health crisis that began in 2020. This event required massive government response and funding, which greatly impacted the nation's finances.
Understanding Government Spending: Surpluses and Deficits
Every year, the government brings in money through taxes and other sources. At the same time, it spends money on public services, defense, programs, and infrastructure. The relationship between this income and spending determines the nation's yearly financial balance.
A deficit happens when the government spends more money than it brings in during a single year. To pay for the extra spending, the government must borrow money, which adds to the national debt.
A surplus happens when the government brings in more money than it spends. This extra money can be used to pay down existing debt.
Between the 2019 and 2021 budget years, government spending jumped by about 50%. This huge spike was mostly due to emergency spending during the global health crisis, and it led to a much larger yearly deficit. The last time the government actually had a surplus was back in the year 2001. Every year since then, the government has spent more than it collected.
Just How Big is One Trillion?
To understand a $40 trillion debt, it helps to understand how big a single trillion actually is. Most people are used to thinking in thousands, millions, or billions, but a trillion is on a completely different scale.
- One million is a 1 followed by six zeros: 1,000,000.
- One billion is a 1 followed by nine zeros: 1,000,000,000.
- One trillion is a 1 followed by twelve zeros: 1,000,000,000,000.
To put this in perspective, think about time. If you spent one dollar every single second, it would take you about 12 days to spend a million dollars. To spend a billion dollars at that same speed, it would take you about 32 years. But to spend just one trillion dollars at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take you more than 31,000 years. Multiplying that by forty shows just how massive the current national debt has become.