US debt crosses $40-trillion threshold after doubling under Trump and Biden

Daily Maverick · 🇿🇦 public South Africa · Aug 20, 2026 · 972 words · By Reuters

Economic stability Fiscal Policy and Governance U.S. National Debt

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What to know about Economic stability

By David Lawder and Jacob Bogage The Treasury's latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday, a total that includes Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and…

Claims checked 20

Techniques found 1

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Right coverage

Left14%

Center86%

Right0%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

The federal government's IOU has now more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump was sworn in for the first time in January 2017.

Common ground

Roughly one-third of that increase occurred during two years of frantic government borrowing to fund the COVID-19 pandemic responses undertaken by Trump and former President Joe Biden, while the fiscal policy choices of both presidents combined with…

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Economic stability story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that The U.S. spends roughly $7 trillion annually, and 60% of it is earmarked for so-called "mandatory" programs?
How does this story connect Economic stability with Fiscal Policy and Governance over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-20-us-debt-crosses-40-trillion-t…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning

Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 20 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 10

info Single Source 4

check_circle Corroborated 4

help Insufficient Evidence 1

verified Verified By Reference 1

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Claim 1: “The U.S. spends roughly $7 trillion annually, and 60% of it is earmarked for so-called "mandatory" programs”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 2: “U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent... announcing a doubling of buyback sizes for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to at least $4 billion per operation.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The claim is only supported by a single cross-reference from Nypost.

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cross reference SUPPORTS — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent... announcing a doubling of buyback sizes for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to at least $4 billion per operation
https://nypost.com/2026/08/19/business/us-debt-crosses-40t-a…

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Claim 3: “Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and intra-governmental debt holdings of $7.782 trillion”

CORROBORATED

The specific breakdown of $32.266 trillion held by the public and $7.782 trillion in intra-governmental holdings is confirmed by Investing.com, unionleader.com, and TRT World.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The treasury …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_th…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretar…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_the…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — United States Treasury securities, also called Treasuries or Treasurys, are government debt instruments issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance government spending as a suppl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Treasury_securit…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 4: “the $40 trillion figure was reached less than five months after debt reached $39 trillion”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm the debt grew from $39 trillion to $40 trillion in less than five months.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Georgia ( JOR-jə) is a state in the Southeastern, South Atlantic, and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the northwest, North Carolina and South Carolina to the northeas…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(U.S._state)

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geog…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 5: “Another $1.1 trillion pays the interest on U.S. borrowing”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 6: “The Treasury's latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent news sources (TRT World, Newsmax, Ajel English) report that the Treasury's daily statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — GivingTuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It is touted as a "global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GivingTuesday

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The twenty-third season of NCIS was announced on February 20, 2025 by CBS. It premiered on October 14, 2025, it concluded on May 12, 2026, and contained 20 episodes. On January 22, 2026, the series wa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCIS_season_23

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all de…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Tuesday

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 7: “total growth of $11.6 trillion across his two terms so far.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 8: “a $25-billion auction of 30-year Treasury bonds went off at the highest yield since 2021”

SINGLE SOURCE

A Binance Square post reports a $25 billion auction of 30-year bonds at a yield of 5.216%, the highest since 2001 (which contradicts the claim's 'since 2021' but confirms the auction size and high yield). No other independent sources corroborate the 'since 2021' specific detail.

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web search NEUTRAL — #US30YBondAuctionYieldHighestSince2001 The .U.S. 30-year Treasury bond auction has become a major warning signal for global markets. On August 13, the Treasury sold $25 billion of 30-year bonds at a 5…
https://www.binance.com/en-KZ/square/hashtag/us30ybondauctio…

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web search NEUTRAL — The yield on US 10 Year Note Bond Yield held steady at 4.80% on September 8, 2026. Over the past month, the yield has edged up by 0.09 points and is 0.71 points higher than a year ago, according to ov…
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-bond-y…

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web search NEUTRAL — The United States Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that its $41.8 billion auction of ten-year notes resulted in a high yield of 4.074%.The bid-to-cover ratio amounted to 2.43, down from Octo…
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/UK-10-year-yield-jumps-1…

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Claim 9: “Since Trump took office a second time in January 2025, the U.S. debt load has increased by $3.8 trillion”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 10: “Public debt rose by $7.8 trillion during Trump's first term”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 11: “The Treasury last week reported the fourth-highest monthly deficit in U.S. history — $432 billion for July”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching for the July deficit figure of $432 billion.

info

Claim 12: “has quadrupled in less than 20 years after taking until 1981 to reach $1 trillion for the first time.”

SINGLE SOURCE

One web search result explicitly states that the US did not reach its first $1 trillion in national debt until 1981. Other provided evidence for this claim is irrelevant (Windows 10 support).

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 13: “In the first 10 months of the 2026 fiscal year, interest costs have eclipsed Medicare healthcare outlays to become the second-largest line item in the federal budget, behind the Social Security pension system.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 14: “yields on so-called long bonds on Tuesday hit their highest levels in nearly two decades”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources report that benchmark bond yields (specifically the 10-year) reached their highest levels in nearly 20 years (since 2007/2008).

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond reached its highest point since before the 2008 financial crisis on Tuesday, portending increased borrowing costs for millions of Americans.
https://www.forexfactory.com/news/1418430-us-benchmark-bond-…

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web search NEUTRAL — The yield on the 10-year Treasury note briefly reached 5.04 percent, its highest since 2007, before easing back to around 5 percent. The yield flows through to higher rates on mortgages, business loan…
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/business/bond-yields-oil-…

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web search NEUTRAL — The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond recently reached its highest level since before the Great Recession. Is this a sign of a looming debt crisis or a stock market crash?
https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/08/27/the-bond-market-is…

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Claim 15: “demand from foreign investors holding nearly one third of Treasuries declining over the past year.”

SINGLE SOURCE

One source mentions foreign governments and investors hold nearly $9.4 trillion, but the specific 'one third' figure and the trend of declining demand over the past year are not corroborated by the other provided sources.

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web search NEUTRAL — “Foreign investors have accumulated so many Treasuries and U.S. equities that they have as much to lose as Americans in a debt crisis,” said Nadia Gharbi, an economist at Pictet Wealth Management.
https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2026-09-09/t…

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web search NEUTRAL — Yields have been soaring as investors nervous about the mounting national debt demand a higher rate of return for buying Treasury bonds. This week, the yield on the 10-year Treasury topped 5 percent, …
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/business/trump-debt-sanct…

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web search NEUTRAL — Foreign governments and investors hold nearly $9.4 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds.The top five countries together hold about $3.68 trillion in US Treasury securities. Among them, only China reduced i…
https://economicsinsider.com/top-15-largest-us-treasury-hold…

verified

Claim 16: “The federal government's IOU has now more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump was sworn in for the first time in January 2017.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of irrelevant search results (Stack Overflow, Wikipedia entries on Jan 6 and US Steel) and does not contain the debt figure for January 2017.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump. Academic debate exists about whether to characterize the event as a co…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capito…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States Steel Corporation is a Japanese-owned American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and C…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 17: “Public debt increased by $8.4 trillion during Biden's term”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 18: “Trump's landmark second-term legislative package — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — will add another $4.7 trillion in debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 19: “The deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal 2026 has already exceeded the total gap for all of fiscal 2025”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 20: “The 2025 fiscal-year budget marked the first time debt service costs exceeded Pentagon funding.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.