TruthOrFake Logo
TruthOrFake
Fact Check: The US national debt exceeds 31 trillion dollars.

Fact Check: The US national debt exceeds 31 trillion dollars.

Published June 30, 2025
ByFactChecker 1.1 avatarFactChecker 1.1
✓
VERDICT
True

# Fact Check: "The US national debt exceeds 31 trillion dollars." ## What We Know As of June 4, 2025, the total gross national debt of the United Sta...

Fact Check: "The US national debt exceeds 31 trillion dollars."

What We Know

As of June 4, 2025, the total gross national debt of the United States is reported to be $36.21 trillion according to the Joint Economic Committee. This figure indicates a significant increase from previous years, with the debt rising by $1.56 trillion over the past year alone. The data also suggests that if the current rate of increase continues, the national debt could reach $37 trillion by approximately October 31, 2025 (source-2). Furthermore, the U.S. Treasury's Debt to the Penny dataset provides daily updates on the total outstanding public debt, which includes both public and intragovernmental holdings.

Analysis

The claim that the U.S. national debt exceeds $31 trillion is substantiated by multiple reliable sources. The most recent data from the U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement of the Public Debt confirms that the total public debt outstanding is indeed above this threshold. Additionally, the Congressional Research Service notes that the federal debt limit was reinstated at $36.1 trillion in January 2025, further corroborating the current figures (source-5).

While the Wikipedia entry on the national debt also provides a similar figure of $36.56 trillion as of March 6, 2025 (source-8), it is essential to recognize that Wikipedia is a secondary source and should be cross-referenced with primary data from official government publications for accuracy.

The reliability of the sources is high, particularly the data from the U.S. Treasury and the Joint Economic Committee, which are official government entities responsible for tracking and reporting financial data. These sources are regularly updated and provide comprehensive insights into the national debt.

Conclusion

The claim that "The US national debt exceeds 31 trillion dollars" is True. The current national debt is significantly higher than this figure, standing at $36.21 trillion as of June 2025. This conclusion is supported by multiple authoritative sources, including the U.S. Treasury and the Joint Economic Committee.

Sources

  1. Monthly-Debt-Update-website.knit - Joint Economic Committee
  2. Debt Dashboard - U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee
  3. Debt to the Penny | U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data
  4. U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD)
  5. Federal Debt and the Debt Limit in 2025
  6. PDF Federal Debt and the Debt Limit in 2025 - Congress.gov
  7. Historical Debt Outstanding | U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data
  8. National debt of the United States

Have a claim you want to verify? It's 100% Free!

Our AI-powered fact-checker analyzes claims against thousands of reliable sources and provides evidence-based verdicts in seconds. Completely free with no registration required.

💡 Try:
"Coffee helps you live longer"
✓100% Free
✓No Registration
✓Instant Results

Comments

Leave a comment

Loading comments...

More Fact Checks to Explore

Discover similar claims and stay informed with these related fact-checks

Fact Check: The U.S. Treasury just dropped a wild plan to slash the $33 trillion national debt: you can now pay it off with Venmo and PayPal
True
🎯 Similar

Fact Check: The U.S. Treasury just dropped a wild plan to slash the $33 trillion national debt: you can now pay it off with Venmo and PayPal

Detailed fact-check analysis of: The U.S. Treasury just dropped a wild plan to slash the $33 trillion national debt: you can now pay it off with Venmo and PayPal

Aug 11, 2025
Read more →
🔍
Partially True
🎯 Similar

Fact Check: Paul Krugman Paul Krugman We’re All Rats Now Time to take a stand, again, against racism Paul Krugman Jun 30, 2025 Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in New York’s Democratic primary has created panic in MAGAland. Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s deportation policies, waxed apocalyptic: Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, declared that New York is about to turn into “Caracas on the Hudson.” And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama basically declared New York’s voters subhuman, saying: These inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt. And it’s time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers that are working very hard every week to pay taxes. These reactions are vile, and they’re also dishonest. Whatever these men may claim, it’s all about bigotry. Miller isn’t concerned about the state of New York “society.” What bothers him is the idea of nonwhite people having political power. Bessent isn’t really deeply worried about Zamdani’s economic ideas. But he feels free, maybe even obliged, to slander a foreign-born Muslim with language he would never use about a white Christian politician, even if that politician were (like some of his colleagues in the Trump administration) a total crackpot. And while Tuberville stands out even within his caucus as an ignorant fool, his willingness to use dehumanizing language about millions of people shows that raw racism is rapidly becoming mainstream in American politics. Remember, during the campaign both Trump and JD Vance amplified the slanders about Haitians eating pets. And now that they’re in office, you can see the resurgence of raw racism all across Trump administration policies, large and small. You can see it, for example, in the cuts at the National Institutes of Health, which are so tilted against racial minorities that a federal judge — one appointed by Ronald Reagan! — declared I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this. You can see it in the renaming of military bases after Confederate generals — that is, traitors who fought for slavery. You can even see it in a change in the military’s shaving policy that is clearly custom-designed to drive Black men — who account for around a quarter of the Army’s new recruits — out of the service. So racism and bigotry are back, big time. Who’s safe? Nobody. Are you a legal immigrant? Well, the Supreme Court just allowed Trump to summarily strip half a million U.S. residents of that status, and only a fool would imagine that this is the end of the story. Anyway, when masked men who claim to be ICE agents but refuse to show identification are grabbing people off the streets because they think those people look illegal, does legal status even matter? Does it even matter if you’re a U.S. citizen? And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to massively increase ICE’s funding — basically setting up a huge national secret police force. Now, maybe you imagine that you yourself won’t suffer from this new reign of bigotry and imagine that everyone you care about is similarly safe. But if that’s what you think, you’re likely to face a rude awakening. I personally don’t have any illusions of safety. Yes, I’m a native-born white citizen. But my wife and her family are Black, and some of my friends and relatives are foreign-born U.S. citizens. Furthermore, I’m Jewish, and anyone who knows their history realizes that whenever right-wing bigotry is on the ascendant, we’re always next in line. Are there really people out there naïve enough to believe MAGA’s claims to be against antisemitism, who can’t see the transparent cynicism and dishonesty? The fact is that the Trump administration already contains a number of figures with strong ties to antisemitic extremists. The Great Replacement Theory, which has de facto become part of MAGA’s ideology, doesn’t just say that there’s a conspiracy to replace whites with people of color; it says that it’s a Jewish conspiracy. So I’m definitely scared of what the many antisemites inside or with close ties to the Trump administration may eventually do. And no, I’m not frightened at all by the prospect that New York may soon have a somewhat leftist Muslim mayor. Anyway, my personal fears are beside the point. Everyone who cares about keeping America America needs to take a stand against the resurgence of bigotry. Because the truth is that we’re all rats now. MUSICAL CODA Discussion about this post Michael Roseman Jun 30 Edited For a while, American bigotry was ashamed of itself. Or pretended to be. Now it runs the government. Reply Share 106 replies Megan Rothery Jun 30 Edited Take a stand - Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️‍🩹🤍💙 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk Reply Share 31 replies 852 more comments... No posts Ready for more? © 2025 Paul Krugman Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice Start writing Get the app Substack is the home for great culture

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Paul Krugman Paul Krugman We’re All Rats Now Time to take a stand, again, against racism Paul Krugman Jun 30, 2025 Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in New York’s Democratic primary has created panic in MAGAland. Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s deportation policies, waxed apocalyptic: Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, declared that New York is about to turn into “Caracas on the Hudson.” And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama basically declared New York’s voters subhuman, saying: These inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt. And it’s time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers that are working very hard every week to pay taxes. These reactions are vile, and they’re also dishonest. Whatever these men may claim, it’s all about bigotry. Miller isn’t concerned about the state of New York “society.” What bothers him is the idea of nonwhite people having political power. Bessent isn’t really deeply worried about Zamdani’s economic ideas. But he feels free, maybe even obliged, to slander a foreign-born Muslim with language he would never use about a white Christian politician, even if that politician were (like some of his colleagues in the Trump administration) a total crackpot. And while Tuberville stands out even within his caucus as an ignorant fool, his willingness to use dehumanizing language about millions of people shows that raw racism is rapidly becoming mainstream in American politics. Remember, during the campaign both Trump and JD Vance amplified the slanders about Haitians eating pets. And now that they’re in office, you can see the resurgence of raw racism all across Trump administration policies, large and small. You can see it, for example, in the cuts at the National Institutes of Health, which are so tilted against racial minorities that a federal judge — one appointed by Ronald Reagan! — declared I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this. You can see it in the renaming of military bases after Confederate generals — that is, traitors who fought for slavery. You can even see it in a change in the military’s shaving policy that is clearly custom-designed to drive Black men — who account for around a quarter of the Army’s new recruits — out of the service. So racism and bigotry are back, big time. Who’s safe? Nobody. Are you a legal immigrant? Well, the Supreme Court just allowed Trump to summarily strip half a million U.S. residents of that status, and only a fool would imagine that this is the end of the story. Anyway, when masked men who claim to be ICE agents but refuse to show identification are grabbing people off the streets because they think those people look illegal, does legal status even matter? Does it even matter if you’re a U.S. citizen? And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to massively increase ICE’s funding — basically setting up a huge national secret police force. Now, maybe you imagine that you yourself won’t suffer from this new reign of bigotry and imagine that everyone you care about is similarly safe. But if that’s what you think, you’re likely to face a rude awakening. I personally don’t have any illusions of safety. Yes, I’m a native-born white citizen. But my wife and her family are Black, and some of my friends and relatives are foreign-born U.S. citizens. Furthermore, I’m Jewish, and anyone who knows their history realizes that whenever right-wing bigotry is on the ascendant, we’re always next in line. Are there really people out there naïve enough to believe MAGA’s claims to be against antisemitism, who can’t see the transparent cynicism and dishonesty? The fact is that the Trump administration already contains a number of figures with strong ties to antisemitic extremists. The Great Replacement Theory, which has de facto become part of MAGA’s ideology, doesn’t just say that there’s a conspiracy to replace whites with people of color; it says that it’s a Jewish conspiracy. So I’m definitely scared of what the many antisemites inside or with close ties to the Trump administration may eventually do. And no, I’m not frightened at all by the prospect that New York may soon have a somewhat leftist Muslim mayor. Anyway, my personal fears are beside the point. Everyone who cares about keeping America America needs to take a stand against the resurgence of bigotry. Because the truth is that we’re all rats now. MUSICAL CODA Discussion about this post Michael Roseman Jun 30 Edited For a while, American bigotry was ashamed of itself. Or pretended to be. Now it runs the government. Reply Share 106 replies Megan Rothery Jun 30 Edited Take a stand - Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️‍🩹🤍💙 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk Reply Share 31 replies 852 more comments... No posts Ready for more? © 2025 Paul Krugman Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice Start writing Get the app Substack is the home for great culture

Jul 20, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: So Trump is playing golf in Scotland on the US taxpayers dime and asking the taxpayers to donate money to help with the national debt...🤔😔
True
🎯 Similar

Fact Check: So Trump is playing golf in Scotland on the US taxpayers dime and asking the taxpayers to donate money to help with the national debt...🤔😔

Detailed fact-check analysis of: So Trump is playing golf in Scotland on the US taxpayers dime and asking the taxpayers to donate money to help with the national debt...🤔😔

Aug 4, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: Venmo & PayPal users can now send money to the US government to help pay down the national debt.
True

Fact Check: Venmo & PayPal users can now send money to the US government to help pay down the national debt.

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Venmo & PayPal users can now send money to the US government to help pay down the national debt.

Jul 26, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: Democrats are better for america than Republicans at economy jobs inflation national debt
True

Fact Check: Democrats are better for america than Republicans at economy jobs inflation national debt

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Democrats are better for america than Republicans at economy jobs inflation national debt

Jul 21, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: Democrats are better for america than Republicans at national debt
Partially True

Fact Check: Democrats are better for america than Republicans at national debt

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Democrats are better for america than Republicans at national debt

Jul 21, 2025
Read more →
Explore All Fact Checks
Fact Check: The US national debt exceeds 31 trillion dollars. | TruthOrFake Blog