Fact-check: “The US national debt has doubled in the last 10 years”
Verdict: Mostly True (88% confidence)
The claim holds up well but depends on the exact start date you pick. If you measure from roughly 2015–2016, total gross US national debt went from around $18–19 trillion to approximately $38–39 trillion by 2025–2026, which is right at or slightly above a doubling. The US Bank financial perspectives page and Fortune both explicitly confirm that federal debt has 'roughly doubled over the past decade.' The minor qualification is that the precise multiple depends on which month in 2015 you use as…
This fact-check was conducted by SpinkillerAI, a non-partisan AI-powered accountability platform.
Related fact-checks
- Donald Trump Jr accepted a gift from a Russian oligearch — True
- European Union plans 200 million Euro investment in Greenland as a response to Trump's posturing — Mostly True
- Approximately 45% of the current Canadian population is made up of immigrants and the children of immigrants — Mostly True
- Recent job numbers increased faster than had been expected and are ahead of most analysts expectations — Partly True
- Medicare for all would cost trillions a year that Americans would pay through higher income taxes — Partly True