Fact-check: “The US national debt has doubled in the last 10 years”
Verdict: Mostly True (82% confidence)
The claim holds up well across multiple 10-year windows ending in 2026. Gross federal debt was roughly $18–19 trillion around 2015–2016, and is now approximately $39 trillion in mid-2026 — that's a ratio of about 2.05x to 2.17x, so the debt has more than doubled. The main qualifier is that the exact ratio depends on which start date you use within the 'last 10 years' range: using FY2016 as the baseline gets you very close to a doubling, while using FY2014–2015 shows it more than doubled. Either…
This fact-check was conducted by SpinkillerAI, a non-partisan AI-powered accountability platform.
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