On Tuesday, the Unites States Treasury Department confirmed the US national debt surpassed $31 trillion for the first time.

According to the publicly released figures, the US debt stood at $31,123,887.781,401.34 as of October 3rd.

According to the Congressional Research Service, at the moment of Joe Biden’s inauguration, the national debt stood at $27.75 trillion dollars. When news broke, Congressman Chip Roy, (R-TX) tweeted, “It was $21 trillion just five years ago.”

When President Donald Trump took office in 2017, the national debt stood at $19.94 trillion, however the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic, which essentially shut down the entire global economy, required the Federal Reserve print money, and caused the figure to explode in size.

Private individuals hold most of the debt, $24 trillion, while the remainder, almost $7 trillion, is held by foreign governments. Because the US dollar is the global reserve currency, much of the world subsidizes its strength, by maintaining reserves for trade purposes.