US politics: US national debt reaches peak

News blog about US politics

The US national debt is now at $40 trillion

Trump sends sharp threats to Tehran. In Florida, a Democrat won a surprise victory. All developments in the news blog.

The national debt USA has risen to over 40 trillion dollars (34.3 trillion euros) for the first time. The Ministry of Finance published the corresponding figures on Wednesday Washington. Accordingly, the total outstanding national debt at the close of business the previous day was $40.05 trillion.

This meant that national debt rose higher than previously forecast by the government and experts. According to experts, the reason for this is, among other things, the US President’s customs policy Donald Trumplong-term social security and health care payment obligations, and rising interest costs.

In 2026 alone, the US is expected to take on over $2 trillion in new debt to meet its obligations, reports the New York Times. The reason for this is, among other things, expenses for the war Iran and comprehensive tax cuts that the Republicans passed in 2025.

Iranian media have reacted unimpressed to the US President’s threat of an “economic war” against the country. The Iranian news agency Fars, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, wrote on Telegram that Donald Trump had previously repeatedly spoken of the supposedly imminent collapse of Iran and of blows of historic proportions. His claims should be understood as nothing more than standard “psychological warfare and propaganda campaign.”

The state-controlled Iranian news agency Tasnim wrote on Telegram that Trump’s threat was “not a new development, as the United States has been trying to prevent all financial and economic relations with Iran for years.” However, Iran has “learned to circumvent these restrictions” and is now “very adept at it.”

In view of the stalled negotiations with Tehran, US President Donald Trump has announced an unprecedented “economic war” against Iran. It will be “the most devastating economic operation” of all time, he wrote in his online service on Wednesday Truth Social. Trump also threatened any country that supports or does business with Iran with “enormous” punitive measures.

“Today I am announcing the most devastating economic operation ever carried out against any country,” Trump’s all-caps statement said. “This will be economic war and isolation on an unprecedented scale.”

The worries about the inflation increased at the July meeting of the US Federal Reserve. Therefore, several monetary authorities were ready to raise interest rates, according to the minutes of the meeting presented on Wednesday. Accordingly, many of the central bankers said at the July meeting that an increase in borrowing costs would be necessary if inflation did not fall to the US Federal Reserve’s target of two percent. At the meeting on July 28th and 29th, the Fed left the key interest rate in the range of 3.50 to 3.75 percent. However, three of the twelve voting members voted for an increase of a quarter of a percentage point. Proponents of an increase said that the price pressure appeared to be broad-based. Therefore, the committee responsible for monetary policy must take a more restrictive stance. Otherwise there is a risk of “a steeper and potentially more costly sequence of tightening measures at a later date.”