Aug. 17—The huge size and rapid growth of the United States’ $40 trillion federal debt—adding at least $10 trillion in each recent five-year period and now projected to hit $50 trillion in just four years—excites apprehension in every thinking American, and awakens hyperbole in every new President and congressional leader, who claim to cut it and then further accelerate it. Despite the claims of the current President, Donald Trump, and his Cabinet, which included the wild boasts of sometime trillionaire Elon Musk, the fiscal situation has deteriorated further throughout 2026.
July’s Federal budget deficit was a huge $432.3 billion, 22% higher than July of 2025. Net interest on the national debt—that is, the interest to be paid after subtracting the interest the government receives on the Treasuries held in its Social Security, Medicare, and other trust funds—was $104 billion in July alone, and $931 billion for the first 10 months of Fiscal Year 2026. This total already exceeds the net interest for FY2025 as a whole, and projects to be more than $1.1 trillion net interest for this fiscal year.
The current Treasury Secretary, George Soros hedge fund protégé Scott Bessent, is no different from his successors. He claimed, on taking office in February 2025, that he would target a reduction in the federal deficit to 3% of U.S. GDP. As of July 2026, the deficit was at about 6% of GDP and the heedless President had plans to raise it further with war spending and new tax cuts, trying to improve Republicans’ poll numbers.
The Treasury faces increasing struggles—and uses a growing number of tricks—just to pay the interest due on the debt; how can it ever hope to pay down any of the principal? Shall the dollar become infamous at last, in a default and a global financial crash?
