By Eric Revell | Fox Business
The U.S. national debt surpassed $36 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history on Friday as the federal government continues to accumulate debt at a record-setting pace.
New data from the Treasury Department released Friday afternoon showed that the gross national debt hit $36,034,994,586,981.97.
The $36 trillion debt milestone comes just months after the U.S. eclipsed the $35 trillion mark in late July 2024. The national debt has passed other trillion-dollar milestones in the past year, as the $34 trillion mark was reached in early January 2024 and the $33 trillion threshold in September 2023. By comparison, the national debt hovered around $907 billion just four decades ago.