Trump’s Trade War Has Caused US Trade Deficits To Skyrocket

One of the many reasons that Donald Trump has claimed he started a trade war was because the US has trade deficits with other countries that are too high. The irony is that his trade war has actually sent US trade deficits soaring as American importers began hoarding goods before his 25% tariffs went/go into effect. He’s actually accomplishing the exact opposite of what he thought he would do because he’s the dumbest person to ever serve in the White House. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

One of the very many reasons that Donald Trump has said he had to launch a trade war with the entire globe is because we've just got big trade deficits with a lot of countries, which obviously means Trump says, uh, clearly they're taking advantage of us. If they weren't taking advantage of us, we wouldn't have a trade deficit with them. Right? Now, that logic makes no sense because it's not actually logical. But that is one of the many things Trump has said to justify his trade war. We gotta bring those deficits down. And unfortunately, according to a new analysis from the data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, um, he's actually having the opposite effect. The latest month for which we have statistics available, February shows that Trump's trade war and the threat of the trade war didn't bring down the trade deficits. In fact, they caused trade deficits to grow by 11.2%. So, Trump's out there telling us, I'm gonna bring down the trade deficits. Then his policies literally balloon the trade deficits to the highest point they've ever been. He is literally, at this point, the worst president for trade deficits we've had in modern times ever.

And he's the one who made the biggest stink about it that he was gonna fix it. He's a brilliant negotiator. He knows how to get deals done. He hasn't done a single deal. They're not even talking to most of the countries they claim they're talking to like China, which Scott Bassman admitted this week. We've never talked to them. They're lying to us about everything, and their policies are doing the exact opposite of what they said they were gonna do. Not only is this harmful for America, but to be honest, it's also kind of funny. I mean, the economic perils of American citizens, you know, all of us is not funny, but the situation that Donald Trump is basically turning everything he touches into pure garbage that does the opposite of what it's supposed to do, that is funny. We can chuckle at that. Now, here's the thing. Trump loves to tell us that trade deficits are bad because he doesn't understand what a trade deficit is. He's a very stupid individual that doesn't understand basic concepts. A trade deficit just means that we buy more from you than you buy from us. That's, that's not a bad thing. That kind of relationship is still mutually beneficial. They're buying some stuff from us because they need it. We're buying lots more from them because we need it and we have the money to buy it. So we, we do. Nobody's getting hurt in these situations. We're not losing money, as Trump loves to say, we're not losing anything. We're getting what we need. We're getting rid of what we don't need.

That sounds like a win-win. Even if there is a trade deficit, a trade deficit is not like a budget deficit, right? But Trump doesn't get that. A trade deficit means we are spending more than we are bringing in, or not a trade deficit, excuse me. A budget deficit means we're spending more than we're bringing in. Just like a household, you make five grand a month, but you're spending seven grand a month. That's bad. Like you don't want that. But a trade deficit just means I need to buy more from you than you need to buy from me. I'm not losing money and I'm getting what I need. That's, that's good. Trade deficits are not inherently bad, but again, we have a man in the Oval Office that does not understand basic concepts. He does not understand anything about the economy. He just doesn't understand anything, period.