Fact-check: “The US national debt has doubled in the last 10 years”
Verdict: Mostly True (90% confidence)
The claim is substantially accurate but depends on which 10-year window you use. The most authoritative figure comes from the GAO's January 2026 audit of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which found total federal debt rose from $18.1 trillion (FY2015) to $37.6 trillion (FY2025) — a 108% increase, which is more than doubling. Using a mid-year 2016 to mid-2026 window, the debt went from roughly $19.5 trillion to approximately $37.5–$38 trillion, a ~95–97% increase, just short of a strict doublin…
This fact-check was conducted by SpinkillerAI, a non-partisan AI-powered accountability platform.
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