US federal debt doubled since Trump first took office in 2017
Total United States federal debt crossed US$40tn for the first time on Tuesday.
The US Treasury Department put total public debt outstanding at US$40.047tn, made up of US$32.266tn in securities held by the public and US$7.782tn in intra-governmental holdings, Reuters reported.
In comparison, Canadian federal market debt will reach $1.74tn by the end of 2026-27, the Department of Finance Canada projected in its Spring Economic Update 2026.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday the department will at least double the size of its buyback operations for 10- to 30-year Treasuries, lifting the maximum from US$2bn to at least US$4bn per operation, CNBC reported.
The accelerated programme targets the 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year segments, which have seen a buyers' strike since late June, according to the publication.
Yields fell on the announcement, with the 10-year note closing down 5.7 basis points at 4.647 percent and the 30-year bond down 9 basis points at 5.196 percent.
The New York Times reported the move is intended to contain American borrowing costs.
Long-dated holdings across bank, insurer, and pension portfolios were already marked down by this summer's global selloff, according to a previous report by Benefits and Pensions Monitor, which noted that institutions forced to sell before maturity can lock in those losses.
According to Reuters, the American debt total has more than doubled from US$19.95tn when US President Donald Trump was first sworn in during January 2017, with roughly one-third of the increase tied to COVID-19 pandemic borrowing under Trump and former president Joe Biden.
Congress's Joint Economic Committee calculates the US total has grown by about US$7.9bn a day over the past year, or roughly US$91,000 per second, the Financial Times reported.
Roughly 60 percent of the approximately US$7tn Washington spends each year funds mandatory programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans' care, Reuters reported.
Another US$1.1tn covers interest on American borrowing.
Interest costs overtook Medicare outlays in the first 10 months of US fiscal 2026 to become the second-largest line item in the federal budget, behind only the Social Security pension system, the outlet said, and the 2025 fiscal year marked the first time debt service exceeded Pentagon funding.
Interest payments will top US$1tn this American fiscal year, a record, and have more than tripled over the past five years, Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told CNN.
Goldwein compared the milestone to a flashing check-engine light in comments to the Financial Times.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the same organisation, said in a statement carried by Reuters that the debt does not sit only on government ledgers and finds its way into household pocketbooks.
The US$40tn mark arrived less than five months after debt reached US$39tn, MacGuineas told the news site, and the total has quadrupled in under 20 years.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan bookkeeper for US lawmakers, estimates Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will add another US$4.7tn in American debt, according to Reuters.
The New York Times reported that the Supreme Court's ruling striking down some of Trump's tariffs as illegal forced Washington to refund more than US$160bn to importers.
Bessent acknowledged last week that US deficits are moving in the wrong direction, the publication said, citing military spending tied to the war with Iran alongside the tariff refunds.
Canada's federal debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio will rise from 41.3 percent in 2025-26 to 42.5 percent in 2030-31, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) said in its June 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Ottawa projects public debt charges of $58.7bn in 2026-27, or 1.7 percent of Canadian GDP, below the 40-year average of 3.2 percent, according to the Department of Finance Canada.
