Trump’s latest tariffs face a fresh set of legal hurdles - POLITICO

"A balance of payments deficit is a term of art incorporating into law a settled meaning from international financial accounting," the blue states' lawsuit says. "A trade deficit does not qualify, either as a matter of economics or of law, as a balance of payments deficit."

 "The president has tried to pull a fast one by switching the term balance of payments to mean balance of trade, in other words, a trade deficit. But those two things aren't the same thing," said Jeffrey Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/15/trump-tariffs-legal-challenges-00828854

 

Analysis: GDP growth, trade deficit figures blow a hole in Trump’s rosy narrative | CNN Politics

Two new pieces of economic data, one released Thursday and one released Friday, blew another hole in President Donald Trump's triumphant narrative about the effects of his tariffs…

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/politics/economy-gdp-trade-deficit-trump-tariffs 

 

Someone explain to #trump that if he hates #trade #deficits, he should LOVE Harvard education

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YzV-Xj2j8Bk

 

Fact-checking Donald Trump's May interview with 'Meet the Press'

…Trump claimed that the trade deficit under Biden meant that "we lost 5 to 6 billion dollars a day." 

This is a mischaracterization of the data: The annual trade deficit for the U.S. in 2024 was about $918 billion, according to government figures. Sliced up in an average daily rate, that would be about $2.5 billion a day — less than Trump's claims. 

More importantly, however, trade experts take issue with Trump's characterization of a trade deficit as "losing" money. A trade deficit refers to when a country is buying more goods and services from another nation than it is selling back to that nation. While it is integrally related to manufacturing, it has nothing to do with the concept of a nation making or losing money, and economic experts have explained that a trade deficit doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. is losing money.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/fact-checking-donald-trumps-may-interview-meet-press-rcna203513 

 

Trump Tariffs Are Attacking the U.S. Trade Deficit—Does It Need Fixing? ...WSJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CygrmYdJOXg

America’s trade gap soared under Trump, final figures show - POLITICO

As Trump tamped down on imports from China, U.S. companies turned to other foreign suppliers.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/05/2020-trade-figures-trump-failure-deficit-466116

Why can’t Trump cut the trade deficit with China? - POLITICO

And does it make sense that he's trying? ...
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/06/trump-china-trade-deficit-growing-1243639

Trump vowed to shrink the deficit. Instead, it exploded - The Washington Post

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the United States last year posted an $891.2 billion trade deficit in merchandise, the largest in the nation’s 243-year history despite more than two years of President Trump’s “America First” policies. The results were a sobering reminder that the laws of economics still apply to a president who had promised to supercharge economic growth while simultaneously shrinking the chronic U.S. trade deficit...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-promised-to-shrink-the-trade-deficit-instead-it-exploded/2019/03/05/35d3b1e0-3f8f-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html

Trump keeps claiming the trade deficit is going down. It’s not - The Washington Post

The president really, really, really wants trade deficits to decline. But reality keeps biting. During his news conference in Hanoi after the collapse of summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump made the observation above. It reminded us of the time in mid-2018 when he repeatedly claimed the quarterly trade deficit had declined $52 billion and complained that “nobody reports it.” Well, that’s because it was not true. He stopped making that claim after our fact check appeared...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/01/trump-keeps-claiming-trade-deficit-is-going-down-its-not/

Trump's Habit of Inflating Trade Deficits - FactCheck.org

When asked whether he would impose tariffs on cars imported from the European Union, President Donald Trump, as he regularly does, used an inflated figure for the trade balance between the U.S. and the EU. The deficit was $101 billion for 2017, not $151 billion, as he repeatedly claims...
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/trumps-habit-of-inflating-trade-deficits/

It remains unclear if Trump fully understands how the federal debt works - The Washington Post: Analysis

Two incidents on Thursday raise the question yet again. ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/01/it-remains-unclear-if-trump-fully-understands-how-federal-debt-works/

Trump’s two favorite economic metrics are failing him - The Washington Post: Analysis

The stock market is careening and the trade deficit is the widest in 10 years as Americans buy more foreign goods but struggle to sell products abroad. ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/12/06/trumps-two-favorite-metrics-economy-are-both-failing-him/

Fact-checking President Trump’s interview with The Washington Post - The Washington Post: Analysis

Here's a guide to nine false or misleading statements made by the president in his interview with The Washington Post ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/28/fact-checking-president-trumps-interview-with-washington-post/

Trump's favorite report card for the trade war keeps getting uglier - Business Insider

The US trade deficit grew in the month of August. President Donald Trump has made the reduction of the trade deficit one of the focuses of the trade war. The goods trade deficit with China, a key focus of Trump's, also hit a record high by one measure. ....
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-trade-war-tariffs-china-mexico-us-trade-deficit-grows-2018-10

Possibly Trump’s stupidest tweet ever -- The Washington Post: Opinion

Trump’s zero-sum economics is wrong, and as we see, harmful to America.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/08/16/possibly-trumps-stupidest-tweet-ever/

Trump claims the US lost $817 billion on trade last year. That’s wrong - Vox

Trump either doesn't know how trade deficits work or he's lying. ....
https://www.vox.com/latest-news/2018/7/25/17612200/trump-tweet-trade-deficit-loss

Donald Trump Has Totally Kicked China's Ass on the Trade Deficit - Mother Jones

After looking at the latest trade deficit figures, I think I've figured out why Donald Trump decided to call off his trade war on China. As you can see, after skyrocketing during the Obama administration, Trump has turned things around and the trade deficit is now getting smaller. Wait. That doesn't seem quite right....
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/05/donald-trump-has-totally-kicked-chinas-ass-on-the-trade-deficit/

Industry touts economic gains of Obama’s climate policy to Trump - Axios

A climate policy pursued under former President Obama is poised to create thousands of jobs and lower America's trade deficit. ...
https://www.axios.com/industry-touts-economic-gains-of-obamas-climate-policy-to-trump-4c14291b-6284-4622-be27-6f86e445561d.html

Why Trump’s admission that he made stuff up to Justin Trudeau is particularly bad - The Washington Post

In a fundraising speech Wednesday, President Trump admitted once and for all that he just makes stuff up. The man who has racked up more than 2,000 false and misleading claims as president said he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that United States runs a trade deficit with Canada — despite having “no idea” whether that was the case. (Surprise! It's not.)...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/15/why-trumps-admission-that-he-made-stuff-up-to-justin-trudeau-is-particularly-bad/

Trump apparently made up the meeting where he lied to Canada's Trudeau - Raw Story

When Donald Trump bragged to donors about making up facts during a meeting with Justin Trudeau, he apparently was making up the meeting he supposedly had with the Canadian prime minister, Canadian Press correspondent Alexander Panetta reports. ....
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/trump-apparently-made-meeting-lied-canadas-trudeau/