The national debt hit $40.05 trillion on Aug 18. Will the Treasury's daily total top $40.2 trillion before Sept 5?

The U.S. Treasury's daily national debt total did not top $40.2 trillion before September 5, 2026, according to federal fiscal data. The debt crossed the $40 trillion milestone for the first time around August 18-19, and stood at roughly $40.103 trillion as of September 4, still short of the $40.2 trillion threshold. The debt has been climbing by nearly $7 billion a day, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, driven by historically wide federal budget deficits, but the daily growth rate was not fast enough to clear the additional roughly $100 billion needed within the resolution window. The federal government now spends about $1.1 trillion annually servicing the debt, slightly more than it spends on defense, underscoring how quickly interest costs have grown alongside the debt's expansion. Community bettors leaned toward a "yes," with 54% predicting the threshold would be topped in time, but the outcome came in narrowly on the "no" side as the daily increase fell just short of the pace needed. The near-miss reflects how closely daily debt growth is now being tracked against successive round-number milestones.