Gross national debt in US surpasses $39 trillion; increases by $1 trillion in less than 6 months

The gross national debt surpassed another milestone, reaching $39 trillion this week, according to the U.S. Treasury. It was just October 2025 that it reached $38 trillion. 

Another way debt is measured is the debt held by the public, which is preferred by economists, according to Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 

“Surpassing $39 trillion in gross debt is an embarrassing milestone that both parties have helped build over decades, and neither seems particularly interested in addressing it before we hit $40 trillion,” MacGuineas said in a statement Wednesday. 

“No matter what metric one chooses to examine our fiscal trajectory, we are clearly headed in the wrong direction. Gross debt is now $39 trillion; debt held by the public recently surpassed $31 trillion for the first time; deficits are approaching $2 trillion; and deficits as a share of the economy are twice as large as the 3% goal many economists and bipartisan policymakers believe we ought to be targeting,” she added. 

Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the nonpartisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation, pointed out some of perils of this situation. He told FOX Business that reaching this latest debt milestone could be an opportunity for Americans to "recognize this alarming rate of growth and the significant financial burden we are putting on the next generation."

"At the current growth rate, we will hit a staggering $40 trillion in national debt before this fall's elections. Borrowing trillion after trillion at this rapid pace with no plan in place is the definition of unsustainable," Peterson explained.

He said that interest payments alone on the debt could cost $100 trillion over the next 30 years.