2026-08-21 · contested story

US government debt hits $40tn as borrowing rises at historic rate

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that the total national debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time in history, a milestone reached in fiscal year 2026—roughly two years earlier than the Congressional Budget Office had projected in May 2023. The debt has doubled in less than a decade (from about $19.95 trillion in January 2017), with the government adding its most recent trillion in under five months as spending outpaces revenue by more than $2 trillion a year. The news arrived alongside soaring Treasury yields (30-year hitting a 19-year high), interest payments exceeding $1 trillion annually and now the government's second-largest expense, and warnings from bipartisan fiscal watchdogs like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Peter G. Peterson Foundation that the trajectory is 'unsustainable.'

How each side frames it

left
"Despite these rising costs, Trump has implemented deep tax cuts for businesses, starting with his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 during his first term, which slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent."
"At present, individual income taxes make up roughly half of federal revenues, compared with only 9 percent from corporate income taxes."
"The administration sought to blame the ballooning deficit on Democrats."
"Government revenues have grown 3% this fiscal year — but spending has grown even faster. And the debt-to-GDP ratio has worsened since Trump returned to the White House."
"Also, over the last few decades, Congress has passed multiple packages that cut taxes and increased spending, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 under President Donald Trump"
center
"While policy decisions have contributed, the debt problem can't be tied to one specific administration, Peterson told CBS News."
"Both parties have repeatedly solved problems by spending money. And Republicans have cut taxes, which they argue helps the economy overall, but which at least in the short term can affect the revenue coming into the Treasury."
"The debt has exploded over several presidential administrations, as the government spent more than it collected in taxes, including during Trump's first term, under former President Joe Biden and in Trump's second term, when the president signed tax cut and spending legislation into law last year."
"Our current fiscal trajectory is plainly unsustainable, and that's the best-case scenario. Even in the rosiest scenarios, we're speeding toward a cliff and refusing to turn the wheel."
"The number of people collecting benefits from Social Security and Medicare has increased as the U.S. population ages, making the programs more expensive... At the same time, a combination of tax cuts over the last two decades has decreased the nation's revenue."
right
"Even though we inherited this debt bomb from the Biden Administration, we actually do have a plan to get the economy growing faster than the debt, and that's the most important thing"
"we've become, at every level, accustomed to the government providing us things for free, with little eye to whether this is sustainable."
"Medicare and Social Security are good examples of how individual old-age benefits are very expensive—a huge share of the federal budget—but extremely hard to scale back without voter outcry."
"Today, the deficit is already seeing benefits from President Trump's policies, most notably the first June surplus in years."
"Tax cuts are, in principle, a great thing (allowing people to keep more of their hard-earned money is not something I oppose), and Trump's tax cuts are not some new example of fiscal recklessness but rather a continuation of a long trend of presidents failing to heed balance-sheet realities."

What each side left out

The left left out — covered by the Deseret News & Click Orlando & The Hill
The left left out — covered by the CNN & CBS News & New York Post
The right left out — covered by the Al Jazeera & CBS News & CNN & The Hill
The right left out — covered by the NPR & Al Jazeera
The center left out — covered by the Al Jazeera
The center left out — covered by the Reason

What's actually true?

[verified] The U.S. national debt surpassed a record $40 trillion, reaching $40.05 trillion on August 18, 2026
[verified] The debt hit $40 trillion sooner than expected; CBO projected in May 2023 the US would cross that threshold in fiscal year 2028
[verified] The national debt rose $1 trillion in just the past five months, doubling from levels less than a decade earlier
[verified] Interest payments on the debt now exceed $1 trillion annually and are the government's second-largest expense, trailing only Social Security
[verified] The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is estimated to add $4.2 trillion to the national debt through fiscal year 2034 (CBO), and raised the debt ceiling by roughly $5 trillion
[verified] The 30-year Treasury yield reached its highest level since 2007 (a 19-year high)
[verified] Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, the national debt has grown by $3.83 trillion
[verified] Public debt makes up about 80% of the gross debt (roughly $32 trillion), with foreign investors holding a portion; Japan, UK and China are top foreign creditors

The narrative clash

Whether the debt/deficit is trending better or worse under Trump
Left: the debt-to-GDP ratio has worsened since Trump returned to the White House
Right: Today, the deficit is already seeing benefits from President Trump's policies, most notably the first June surplus in years.
Who is primarily responsible for the debt
Left: including during Trump's first term, under former President Joe Biden and in Trump's second term, when the president signed tax cut and spending legislation into law last year
Right: Even though we inherited this debt bomb from the Biden Administration, we actually do have a plan to get the economy growing faster than the debt
Whether rising government debt poses a real economic threat
Left: This debt is slowing growth, pushing up interest rates, and worsening inflation
Right: the government debt isn't the biggest factor, and probably not even a major factor

28 sources analyzed

The Washington Post Al Jazeera NPR CNN PBS NewsHour The Damage Report USA Today MSN (UK) CBS News Politico Click Orlando Associated Press Yahoo! Search The Hill Fortune Deseret News KBZK 7 Toronto Star Reuters Newsweek The Journal Gazette Click 2 Houston KPRC CNBC Star Beacon Charlie Kirk Reason 12News New York Post

Perspectivity reads the coverage — not just who published it.

Read the full interactive analysis →