How $40 Trillion National Debt Grew Under Trump Compared to Biden and Obama
Newsweek · C · trust 53/100
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. The United States’ gross national debt has crossed $40 trillion for the first time, reaching approximately $40.05 trillion, according to Treasury Department data from this week.
That figure is more than double the $19.95 trillion recorded when Donald Trump first entered the White House in January 2017.
Federal borrowing has skyrocketed across Republican and Democratic administrations, driven by a mix of wars, recessions, tax cuts and emergency spending.
Newsweek compared how the debt grew during the Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W Bush administrations.
The $40 trillion figure represents total public debt outstanding, commonly called gross federal debt. It includes about $32.27 trillion in debt held by investors and approximately $7.78 trillion in intragovernmental holdings, such as Treasury securities held by federal trust funds.
The milestone is important because the government must pay interest on its outstanding obligations while continuing to finance Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense and other federal programs.
Interest costs have totaled nearly $1.2 trillion during fiscal year 2026, according to Treasury figures, making interest one of the government’s largest spending categories.
The Congressional Budget Office has projected that debt held by the public will increase from approximately 101 percent of gross domestic product in 2026 to 120 percent by 2036.
The data reveals that national debt grew by approximately $11.6 trillion during Trump’s two nonconsecutive terms combined. That includes an increase of about $7.8 trillion during his first term and roughly $3.84 trillion since he returned to office in January 2025.
In comparison, the debt increased by approximately $8.4 trillion during Joe Biden’s four years in office, about $9.3 trillion over Barack Obama’s eight years and roughly $4.9 trillion during George W. Bush’s eight-year presidency.
However, experts say these figures only measure what happened to the debt while each president was in office and do not indicate that each president personally caused every dollar of the increase. Recessions, wars, emergencies and interest costs can also substantially alter federal borrowing.
“It is not about one administration, but a combination of multiple administrations. Crisis spending, whether it was the massive bailouts during the GFC or COVID-era spending, increased deficits significantly,” Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, told Newsweek .
“So, it is not a single administration we can blame, but multiple administrations that were met with crises and failed to implement meaningful austerity measures afterward to minimize the long-term impact.”
The reasons for the debt increase under each administration varied considerably.
Biden presided over the largest four-year dollar increase at approximately $8.45 trillion. But the percentage increase during his presidency, roughly 30.5 percent, was smaller than the percentage increases under Bush, Obama and Trump’s first term.
“When you borrow more than you bring in, your debt inevitably increases, especially as gross domestic product fails to keep pace with the cost of that borrowing,” Thompson said. “Now that interest payments have surpassed defense spending, more of our income is being used simply to service the debt, including payments to foreign holders of U.S. debt.”
Obama recorded the largest increase across a full presidency in both dollars and percentage terms among the four presidents examined: approximately $9.32 trillion, or 87.7 percent, across eight years. When divided by term, around $5.81 trillion was added during his first four years and $3.51 trillion during his second.
Meanwhile, the debt rose about 85.5 percent under Bush, from $5.73 trillion to $10.63 trillion. Although the dollar increase was smaller than those recorded under the presidents who followed him, the debt nearly doubled relative to the amount outstanding when he took office.
“Both sides of the political aisle will use charts and point fingers as to which administrations have added more heavily to the national debt over the last four decades, but the reality is that future discussions are going to have to be more about how to both manage the stunning current balance and find ways of controlling future budgets that are more efficient in adding less to it,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek .
The federal debt’s growth was already visible during the Bush presidency, which included the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, tax reductions and the beginning of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
The Great Recession also created a difficult problem at the transition between Bush and Obama. The federal fiscal year did not align with Inauguration Day, and emergency measures approved as the financial system deteriorated continued to affect federal finances even after the change in administration.
“Just two decades ago, the number each American would have to pay to eliminate the national debt was in the thousands,” Beene said. “Today, those same amounts would barely cover the interest debt is accruing. If this continues, the reality looks bleak.”
Obama took office during the most severe financial downturn since the Great Depression. His administration and Congress enacted measures to support the economy and address unemployment as federal revenue declined.
The debt grew from approximately $10.63 trillion to $16.43 trillion during his first term, an increase of approximately $5.81 trillion, or 54.6 percent. During his second term, it rose by another $3.51 trillion, or 21.4 percent.
“Obama inherited a financial crisis and Biden inherited the pandemic aftermath, but neither solved the underlying problem either,”…
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