Rubbish Check
Guardian US (Comment is Free) · 3 September 2026
source“In 2016, Trump pledged to erase the federal debt. It just hit $40tn”
R3/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Guardian's claim that Trump "pledged to erase the federal debt" and it has "just hit $40tn" a 3/10 because both halves of the headline are independently verifiable, the only real omission is that the debt's climb to $40tn spans several administrations, not Trump's alone.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. The headline pairs two true, checkable facts: a real 2016 campaign pledge and a real debt milestone reached on Trump's watch. It loses a point or two only because it implicitly frames the $40tn figure as a Trump outcome when the debt is a decades-long accumulation that Bush, Obama, Biden and both Trump terms all added to, a nuance the article's own body concedes but the headline doesn't carry.
What actually happened
This is a signed opinion column, not a news report, but its central factual claims hold up: candidate Trump repeatedly claimed he could eliminate the national debt within eight years, and the debt has continued rising through his first and second terms to reach $40tn. The piece uses the gap between that 2016 promise and the current total as its argument, then walks through the "big, beautiful bill," tax cuts and rising interest costs as drivers.
Key facts
- Article states the debt was under $20tn (less than half $40tn) when Trump made his 2016 elimination pledge.
- Trump's first term added $7.8tn to the debt (a 39% increase), per the article's own accounting.
- The "big, beautiful bill" is projected to add $3.4tn to the debt over the next decade.
- Biden's term added $8.4tn; George W. Bush's two terms added $4.9tn, figures the article cites to show the debt build-up is bipartisan and long-running, not Trump-exclusive.
- Annual interest costs are cited as rising toward $2tn by the mid-2030s, double the roughly $1tn being paid now.
What to watch for
Watch whether Treasury's actual debt-to-the-penny data confirms the $40tn crossing on the date implied, and whether the projected $2tn annual interest figure holds as rates move. Also watch how other outlets frame the same $40tn milestone, since a straight wire-service headline on the number alone would carry a much lower score than this pledge-versus-reality framing.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
