US Budget Deficit Hit $1.8 Trillion In 2025, CBO Reports

The U.S. federal budget deficit hit $1.8 trillion in the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported Wednesday.

That number was just $8 billion less than the budget shortfall that was recorded during fiscal year 2024, according to estimates from the CBO. Revenues rose by an estimated $308 billion, or 6%, in fiscal year 2025, the CBO reported.

Moreover, President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs helped boost customs duties to $195 billion for the 2025 fiscal year, the CBO said. This marked a significant increase from the $77 billion in customs duties reported in fiscal year 2024, according to the CBO.

“Amid a pointless and wasteful government shutdown, today we learned that the federal government borrowed $1.8 trillion in the fiscal year that ended last week,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement. “While the deficit didn’t rise from last year, it didn’t fall either, and we continue to borrow far too much. Our national debt is about the size of the entire U.S. economy and will exceed its highest ever record as a share of the economy — set just after World War II — in short order.”

“We are on track to borrow nearly $2 trillion per year for the next decade,” MacGuineas continued. “How can anyone think this is sustainable?”

In January, the CBO had projected that the federal budget deficit would reach $1.9 trillion this year and the federal debt would increase to 118% of Gross Domestic Product in 2035. Additionally, the U.S. national debt was $37.86 trillion as of Wednesday, according to U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data.