National Debt Tops $40.5 Trillion Just 10 Weeks After Passing $40 Trillion

The gross national debt reached $40.53 trillion on Oct. 26, according to the Treasury Department’s daily debt figures, roughly 10 weeks after it first passed the $40 trillion mark.

The exact total was $40,528,358,939,415.85. Debt first crossed $40 trillion on Aug. 18, when it stood at $40.05 trillion, meaning about $481 billion was added in 69 days.

That works out to an average of nearly $7 billion a day. The total rose by about $65 billion between Friday, Oct. 23, and Monday, Oct. 26, alone. Treasury posts the figure each business day, typically with a one-day lag.

Of the total, $32.64 trillion is debt held by the public, including Treasury securities owned by investors, foreign governments and the Federal Reserve. The remaining $7.89 trillion is owed to federal trust funds and other government accounts.

Interest Costs Top $1 Trillion

The latest milestone follows a fiscal 2026 deficit of $1.99 trillion, about 12% larger than the $1.775 trillion shortfall in fiscal 2025, CNBC reported. It was the third-largest deficit on record.

The government took in $5.40 trillion and spent $7.40 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the final Monthly Treasury Statement for the year.

Net interest on the debt reached $1.05 trillion, more than the $965 billion spent on national defense. Social Security cost nearly $1.7 trillion and Medicare nearly $1.1 trillion.

Individual income tax receipts topped $2.8 trillion, up about 7%. Corporate tax collections fell about $70 billion to $381 billion, a decline CNBC tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill’s business tax provisions.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, called the fiscal 2026 shortfall “the largest deficit in our history outside of a war or recession.”

When the debt crossed $40 trillion in August, the group noted it had passed $39 trillion only in March. MacGuineas said in a statement that the climb has accelerated.

“The gross national debt has doubled in the last ten years; in less than twenty years, it has quadrupled,” she said.

“It is staggering how predictable the fiscal decline of a global power can become,” MacGuineas said, warning that the burden reaches well beyond Washington.

“$40 trillion of debt doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers; it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another,” she said.

The budget watchdog has urged lawmakers to bring annual deficits down to 3% of gross domestic product and to adopt what it calls a “No New Borrowing” standard for new legislation.

Higher borrowing costs add to the strain. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate in September and was expected to hold it at 3.75% to 4% when it announced its decision Wednesday afternoon, Reuters reported.

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