Economists have warned that government borrowing would limit private sector borrowing, which would constrain economic growth; that it would drive up inflation; and even that the government might find itself unable to borrow, if creditors presumed the United States was too deep in debt and might be unable to make interest payments or repay its liabilities in full.

Some continue to ring those bells. Michael A. Peterson, the president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a leading advocacy group for debt reduction, noted the $22 trillion milestone with a statement that said the federal debt “threatens the economic future of every American.”

The government’s borrowing has real costs, notably the need to make interest payments to investors. Those payments now exceed $1 billion a day. But many experts have concluded that the gravity and immediacy of any threat to the broader economy was overstated. While federal borrowing puts upward pressure on interest rates, by increasing competition for available funds, larger forces have kept rates at low levels, including the eagerness of China and other nations to lend money to the United States.

Even as the debt climbed, interest payments as a share of G.D.P. declined.

Mr. Trump was among those who warned of dire consequences. In February 2015, he tweeted that if the debt topped $21 trillion, “Obama will have effectively bankrupted our country.” And the next year, in March 2016, Mr. Trump told The Washington Post he could eliminate the federal debt within eight years.

Mr. Kudlow said Thursday that the White House still expected its policies to cause such an increase in economic growth that annual federal deficits would decline, slowing the rise of the debt.

“That’s the key — economic growth and some budget restraint,” Mr. Kudlow said. “Growth, growth, growth, and limit spending. We are doing that, and we will do more of it.”

Mr. Kudlow said the administration planned to propose a “very tough spending budget” this year, including cuts of at least 5 percent in nondefense discretionary spending.