Fact checkPoliticsPublished November 4, 2026

“The United States has attracted $22 trillion in investment over 15 months and seen a $25 trillion increase in national net worth.” — Donald Trump. Our verdict: Unverified.

“The United States has attracted $22 trillion in investment over 15 months and seen a $25 trillion increase in national net worth.” — Donald Trump. Our verdict: Unverified.
Donald TrumpSpeechNovember 3, 2026

Donald Trump made the claim during a live interview with Dan Bongino on his podcast on 3 November 2026.

Our verdict

Unverified

Donald Trump said the United States had attracted $22 trillion in investment over 15 months and gained $25 trillion in national net worth. We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute either figure, so the claim is unverifiable.

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What we found

We could not verify the two main numbers. On investment, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that new foreign direct investment into the United States was $232.2 billion in 2025, and that the total foreign direct investment position was $5.86 trillion — far below $22 trillion. The White House's own running list of announced investments adds up to a few trillion dollars at most, and those are announcements rather than money actually spent. On national net worth, the Federal Reserve publishes household net worth, which was about $195.9 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, but it does not publish a single figure for the net worth of the whole country, including government and businesses, over the 15-month period in question. Without a starting and ending value for total national net worth, the $25 trillion figure cannot be checked. Because the core numbers cannot be confirmed or refuted with public data, we rate the claim unverifiable.

The evidence

  • Background

    The interview transcript shows Donald Trump discussing economic achievements, including the investment and net worth figures in the claim. [1]

  • Supports the claim

    The White House published a running list of major corporate investment announcements in the US during Trump's second term, including commitments from Apple, Meta, SoftBank/OpenAI/Oracle, NVIDIA, Amazon, AT&T and Micron. These are announcements, not audited spending, and total a few trillion dollars at most. [2]

  • Supports the claim

    Federal Reserve data show household and nonprofit net worth was about $195.9 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, but this covers only households and nonprofits, not the whole country. [3]

  • Supports the claim

    The Federal Reserve's Z.1 report provides household net worth data for late 2025 and early 2026, but does not give a single figure for total national net worth over the 15-month period. [4]

  • Background

    New foreign direct investment in the United States was $232.2 billion in 2025, far below the $22 trillion figure in the claim. [5]

  • Supports the claim

    In the third quarter of 2025, US international investment liabilities rose by $3.17 trillion, including $797.8 billion in financial transactions from foreign purchases of US securities. This is a single-quarter change in liabilities, not a 15-month investment total. [6]

What we could not confirm

  • No official data on the change in total national net worth over the specific 15-month period; only household sector data is available.
  • It is unclear which measure of investment the claim refers to — gross private domestic investment, foreign direct investment, announced commitments, or broader financial flows.
  • The White House investment list is self-reported announcements, not audited expenditure.
  • The transcript snippet does not contain the exact quoted figures; attribution relies on the source being the correct venue.

How we checked

We looked at the interview transcript, White House investment announcements, Bureau of Economic Analysis data on foreign investment, and Federal Reserve data on household and national wealth. We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute the claim, and we invite readers who have evidence to send it to us. We reviewed 6 relevant sources.

Sources

  1. [1]rollcall.com · Roll Call Factba.se - Interview: Dan Bongino Interviews Donald Trump Live for His Podcast - November 3, 2026 · November 3, 2026
  2. [2]whitehouse.gov · TRUMP EFFECT: A Running List of New U.S. Investment in President Trump’s Second Term · March 10, 2026
  3. [3]federalreserve.gov · The Fed - Table: Balance Sheet of Households and Nonprofit Organizations, 1952 - 2026
  4. [4]federalreserve.gov · Financial Accounts of the United States–Z.1 · March 19, 2026
  5. [5]bea.gov · New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, 2025 · June 10, 2026
  6. [6]U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis · U.S. International Investment Position, 3rd Quarter 2025 · January 16, 2026
  7. [7]Photo: Daniel Torok / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Help us check this claim

We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute this claim. If you know of an official record, dataset, transcript or report that settles it, send us the link. We review every submission and update this fact check when the evidence changes the picture.

Measured Take updates fact checks when new evidence emerges. Corrections are noted on the page.

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