US National Debt Surpasses $40 Trillion

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The United States national debt has surpassed $40 trillion, reaching a level at which the federal government now spends more on servicing compound interest on past borrowing than it allocates to national defence or to healthcare for millions of American citizens, a structural shift that economists warn converts the US state into a payout vehicle for global bondholders at the expense of domestic public services.

When President Donald Trump took the oath of office for his second term in January 2025, the national debt stood at $36.2 trillion. The addition of nearly $4 trillion in less than two years represents a rate of debt accumulation that breaks every historical precedent, with previous administrations having taken decades to generate the volumes of debt that now accumulate in a matter of months. The protracted war with Iran drains tens of billions directly from the treasury daily, compounding the damage generated by domestic spending commitments across both political parties over decades.

Interest Payments Now Exceed Defence And Healthcare

The most structurally alarming consequence of the $40 trillion milestone is that interest payments on accumulated debt now consume more of the federal budget than either defence spending or healthcare spending individually. Washington has engineered a financial architecture in which yesterday's unpaid obligations consume tomorrow's public spending, leaving increasingly less budget available for the productive public investment that generates economic returns.

When interest payments devour the federal budget at this scale, public health systems lose operational funding, transport infrastructure falls into disrepair, disaster response agencies run dry, and critical medical research stalls. The federal government has no reserve of accumulated wealth to draw on. It covers its interest obligations either by cutting domestic services or by creating new currency, both of which impose real costs on ordinary households.

The Dollar's Reserve Currency Status Under Pressure

Relentless debt issuance systematically damages the real-world value of the US dollar even as it retains its status as the world's primary reserve currency. When the Federal Reserve inflates the money supply to keep federal agencies solvent, prices at grocery stores and utility bills rise to match the dilution. This process functions as a permanent, non-negotiable tax on every paycheck in the country, imposed without a vote being cast. The Iran war has already pushed US pump prices above $6 a gallon as a result of Strait of Hormuz disruption. The underlying monetary pressure from debt issuance compounds that price pressure further.

The Trump Family's Financial Position

Reports indicate that Trump has expanded his personal net worth by $2.2 billion during his second term. His elder sons Eric and Donald Jr. have joined investment firms, while his youngest son Barron Trump reportedly accumulated a $150 million cryptocurrency fortune during the same period. The juxtaposition of a presidential family building substantial private wealth while the public treasury adds nearly $4 trillion in new obligations illustrates a pattern critics describe as the conversion of public debt into private advantage while shifting the ultimate financial risk onto those least equipped to bear it.

The Historical Warning

World history contains no examples of nations spending their way into permanent prosperity on borrowed capital. The illusion of free money persists only as long as global markets accept the underlying currency. Once that trust erodes, the abstract numbers on government spreadsheets become immediate structural hardship for everyday households through lost wages, degraded public services, and eroded purchasing power. The $40 trillion milestone is not an abstraction. It is the accumulated result of decades of political decisions by both parties, now arriving simultaneously with the financial cost of an active military conflict whose end remains uncertain.