US government debt held in Treasuries has surpassed $30tn for the first time, doubling since 2018 as rising interest rates compound the cost of pandemic-era borrowing.
US Marketable Debt Breaks $30tn as Interest Costs Mount
5 December 2025 - 12:00 CET
Total marketable securities, bills, notes and bonds, rose 0.7% in November to reach $30.2tn. When including intragovernmental holdings, the total national debt burden now exceeds $38tn, or roughly $111,000 for every person in the country.
The interest trapThe surge in borrowing has pushed the federal government’s interest bill into dangerous territory.
In the first nine weeks of the fiscal year alone, the Treasury paid out $104bn in interest to bondholders. The Treasury Department now projects that net interest payments will consume 15% of all federal spending in 2026, making it one of the largest budget items alongside Social Security and Defense.
According to the IMF, the US federal deficit is on track to reach 7.4% of GDP in 2025, significantly higher than peer economies.
The tariff mathPresident Trump has pitched universal tariffs as the solution to this debt spiral, but the numbers face a steep reality check.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the administration's tariff policies will generate approximately $3tn in revenue over the next decade. That averages out to $300bn a year, enough to cover only a fraction of the government's annual gross interest bill, which has already topped $1tn.
Furthermore, the President’s pledge to return tariff revenue directly to households via a $2,000 per-person "dividend" would likely cost $600bn annually, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. This would effectively spend the tariff revenue twice over, widening the deficit rather than closing it.
