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Paige Fusco & Ari Winkleman / GZERO Media

The Graphic Truth: The foreigners who hold US debt

The US is the world’s biggest debtor, with more than $35 trillion of securities outstanding.

About a quarter of that is held by foreign investors, a detail which has drawn considerable attention since Donald Trump began walloping the world with tariffs to rebalance US trade ties and military alliances. That’s because if countries upset – or merely uneasy – about Trump’s policies sell those securities in response, the debt servicing costs for the US rise. This is no small matter on $35 trillion worth of paper.

In fact, one widely held explanation for Trump’s abrupt suspension of the “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 9 was that wary bond investors had begun to sell US Treasuries: In the week of April 11, yields on 10-year US treasuries saw their biggest leap in a quarter of a century, a sign that creditors were dropping US sovereign debt fast.

Could countries weaponize US debt more directly? China, Trump’s biggest trade war target, is the second largest foreign US creditor, officially holding more than $750 billion.

A selloff could be devastating. But analysts say it would be hard to find enough buyers for a sale that is both swift and large enough to catch the US off guard.

And even if it were possible, a seller would risk their own financial security as well global economic health by kneecapping the US. In other words: It would be, in financial terms, the nuclear option.

The graphic above looks at which countries hold the most US sovereign debt. Note that the last official data precede Liberation Day and that they depend on official reporting. Some countries may hold more than what is listed here via third parties.

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Trump's tariffs & the end of globalization

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: It is the day after 'Liberation Day,' April 2nd. I'm not sure that day is going to stick. It was good not to do on April 1st. Not only because it's April Fools, but also because you had a couple of key elections in the US, in Florida and in Wisconsin. And Trump clearly wanted to go after that because he knew that these weren't going to be super popular. And yet, this is exactly what he was promising.

He has been promising tariffs. He's been promising securing American borders, securing borders from people coming into the US illegally, also securing US borders from unfair trade practices. And that is precisely what we're seeing right now. Overnight, the United States is moving to having the highest tariffs against countries of any major economy in the world by a very long margin, and also the largest average trade tariff in over a hundred years.

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- YouTube

Trump & Elon's grand plan to liberate you EVEN MORE

Trump is worried that Liberation day was a flop. Elon Musk has some ideas for how to make it Great Again. #PUPPETREGIME

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President Donald Trump, seen here on the South Lawn of the White House in February, is set to unveil his "Liberation Day" tariffs.

REUTERS/Craig Hudson

Trump’s tariff plan to take effect

T-Day has arrived. On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on US trade partners will take effect immediately after a Rose Garden announcement.

The devil’s in the detail: Trump has reportedly settled on the main aspects of the plan, and has been talking over the fine print with his top advisers. The administration has reportedly weighed a few different options for the overall scheme, including imposing different tariff rates on each trading partner, targeting specific countries, or enforcing a blanket tariff — possibly as high as 20%.

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President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the day he signed executive orders for reciprocal tariffs, Feb. 13, 2025.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Opinion: Searching for signals on ‘Liberation Day’

Now in its third month, Trump 2.0 has sustained a breakneck pace. In recent days, the administration announced 25% tariffs on automobiles, conceived of secondary tariffs for nations buying oil from Venezuela (and potentially Russia and Iran), and reiterated its interest in “getting” Greenland.

Market participants have held their breath for Wednesday – “Liberation Day” – as the administration is set to unveil global tariffs, the lynchpin of its America First trade policy.

As the zone has flooded, predicting the current administration’s next moves has become an Olympic-level sport. Details of a group chat between senior administration officials that leaked last week – the so-called Houthi PC small group – provide allies, adversaries, and watchers with revealing insights into the administration’s foreign policy blueprint.

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President Donald Trump holds an executive order about tariffs while flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the Oval Office on Feb. 13, 2025.

REUTERS/File Photo

Viewpoint: What to expect from Trump’s tariff “Liberation Day”

As in other parts of his agenda, President Donald Trump has wasted no time pursuing his goal to rebalance trading relationships and revitalize US manufacturing by imposing tariffs on imports. Also, like other parts of his agenda, the tariff rollout has been chaotic, with some new measures announced, then delayed, and later reimposed.

Despite the concerns of business leaders and investors about the economic impact of these measures – which have prompted a stock market sell-off – Trump remains committed to his approach. He argues that any short-term pain will translate into long-term gain as businesses move their operations to the US and plans to announce a sweeping new round of tariffs on April 2. We asked Eurasia Group expert Nancy Wei what to expect from what Trump is billing as a “Liberation Day” from an unfair global trading system.

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