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Fortune
Fortune
Nick Lichtenberg

Trump’s economy was already exploding the national debt before his $1 billion-a-day war in Iran. Analysts warn about what's next

trump (Credit: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

The United States was already on an unsustainable fiscal trajectory, adding to the national debt at breakneck speed, before it launched a joint attack on Iran with Israel.

Even before the first munitions struck Tehran, the federal debt had surged past the $38 trillion mark, even jumping $1 trillion in just over two months between August and October 2025, the fastest rate of accumulation outside the pandemic in history.

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