Remember the Trade Deficit?

[Whateverman]

The current so-called president said we were essentially giving away hundreds of billions of dollars to other countries.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...es/3083731002/

China, Japan, Mexico and others were “stealing our businesses, stealing our jobs, stealing our money,” Trump told throngs in Poughkeepsie, New York. “We can't continue to allow China to rape our country," he said to crowds in Fort Wayne, Indiana. “We will end our chronic trade deficits,” he vowed before folks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Trump would achieve this, he said, by getting tough with trade partners and tearing up, or renegotiating, deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Those steps were taken. And last week the Commerce Department reported that America’s trade deficit for goods has been increasing, not decreasing, since Trump became president. It reached a record high of $878.7 billion last year, up from $795.7 billion in 2017 and $736.6 billion in 2016.

The trade deficit has gone up each and every quarter of his administration. Can't blade COVID-45 tor that...|

Even when this country supposedly had the best economy in the world during his administration, the US Trade Deficit kept going up.

So: did he fail miserably, or was he just stupid and dishonest?

[Reepicheep]

The trade deficit has gone up each and every quarter of his administration.

CNN had a segment on this topic this morning. In the first three years of Trump's trade wars, the US goods trade deficit has risen:

$57.1 billion - 2017
$136.7 billion - 2018
$119.1 billion - 2019

or well over $300 billion over three years. The trade statistics for 2020 are about the same as 2019. It appears that Trump's strategy of insulting all of the US's trading partners, and starting trade wars with them, has not resulted in a net increase in US exports. Canadians and Mexicans have been especially offended by Trump's behavior, I expect it will take years for the US trade deficits with these countries to recover to pre-Trump levels, assuming they ever DO recover.

[Starlight]

But he said trade wars are so easy to win!

Did he mean easy for the other side to win?

[Whateverman]

But he said trade wars are so easy to win!

Did he mean easy for the other side to win?

I don't even think he knew what he meant...

---

It seems to me support for Trump is based entirely on confirmation bias: cheer and parade around every single little thing he's done right, and ignore / feign-disinterest-in everything else. This strategy would turn any politician into a bonified cult leader...

[Starlight]

It seems to me support for Trump is based entirely on confirmation bias: cheer and parade around every single little thing he's done right, and ignore / feign-disinterest-in everything else. This strategy would turn any politician into a bonified cult leader...

Repeat after me:

If he gets something wrong, he was being sarcastic.
If he tells a lie, he's being a great politician.
If he commits tax fraud, he's being a smart businessman.
If it turns out he's broke, it shows he's great at marketing.
If he owes billions in debt, it shows he's a good deal-maker.
If he commits electoral crimes, the democrats are the real criminals for investigating them.
If he steals from charity, it shows he's a great guy to have been running a charity in the first place.
If he cheats at golf, it shows he's a sharp dealer and will deal sharply with America's enemies.
If America's allies hate Trump and mock America because of him, it must be because he's stopped sending them checks that America must totally have previously been sending to them.
If Trump expresses admiration for the world's dictators and expresses sadness that he can't be more dictatorial in America, that's a wonderful diplomatic method to prevent wars with them.
If he denies science, science is a liberal hoax.
If people who work with him say he's an awful person, that's him draining the swamp.
If he fills his cabinet with wealthy elites, that's also him draining the swamp.
If he funnels government money into his own businesses, also draining the swamp.
If he's wrecking the country, that's him owning the libs.
If he committed adultery with a porn star, isn't that something we all aspire to?
If he was friends with Epstein, Bill Clinton was worse.
If he does drugs, Biden has a relative who does.
If he only got into Wharton because his father bribed the school, and his professor there said Trump was the worst student he'd ever taught, Wharton is a great school and Trump's education was first-class.
If his attention span is too short to sit through intelligence briefings, that's him fighting the deep state.
If he spends all day watching Fox News and posting on Twitter instead of governing, that's him getting the real news and being in touch with the people.
If he hasn't built the wall, or fixed healthcare, or done anything much else he promised, it's because he's busy fighting a secret war against a cannibalistic satanic pedophile ring within the government.
If he's running up the debt and deficit, it's a cunning stratagem to own the libs.
If he asks foreign leaders for help in his reelection, Biden had a relative who was once in Ukraine.

[Starlight]

No defence of Trump's increased trade deficit from any Trump supporters in this forum?

[Whateverman]

No defence of Trump's increased trade deficit from any Trump supporters in this forum?

I'm not expecting any.

In other news, China's economy grew this last quarter. Those easily-winnable trade wars are profiting someone, but it aint us...

[shunyadragon]

No defence of Trump's increased trade deficit from any Trump supporters in this forum?

Silence, drip . . . drip . . . drip.

[Whateverman]

The other forum I came from had several right-wing trolls who'd bleat claims about US GDP, too.

They said the so-called president was going to push it to an all-time high, and that it'd even reach 5-7%; Drumpf himself claimed it'd hit 6%. Even before COVID-45 hit, though, GDP under the orange dufus averaged only 2.5%.

The man is simply incompetent on economic matters.

[Reepicheep]

The US trade deficit figures for 2020 were just released. The US's deficit with the world for the past few years:

-$736 billion - 2016 (last year Obama)
-$792 billion - 2017
-$872 billion - 2018
-$854 billion - 2019
-$905 billion - 2020

for a cumulative increase in the goods trade deficit with the world of -$479 billion over Trump's presidency. Apparently, trade wars AREN'T "good and easy to win".

I think the country with the most dramatic increase in a trade deficit with the US is Mexico:

-$63 billion - 2016 (last year Obama)
-$69 billion - 2017
-$78 billion - 2018
-$101 billion - 2019
-$113 billion - 2020

for a cumulative increase in the goods trade deficit with Mexico of -$109 billion over Trump's presidency.

Those crazy Mexicans. Just because Trump and his followers repeatedly insulted Mexicans and Hispanics by calling them a bunch of drug dealing criminal rapists is no reason for Mexicans to stop buying American cheese and pork...

[whag]

The US trade deficit figures for 2020 were just released. The US's deficit with the world for the past few years:

-$736 billion - 2016 (last year Obama)
-$792 billion - 2017
-$872 billion - 2018
-$854 billion - 2019
-$905 billion - 2020

for a cumulative increase in the goods trade deficit with the world of -$479 billion over Trump's presidency. Apparently, trade wars AREN'T "good and easy to win".

But he sincerely BELIEVED that, so that makes it okay.

[Littlejoe]

Bushes deficits, weren't Bushes, Obama's deficit's weren't Obama's and Trump's aren't Trumps...and Biden's will not be Biden's. Congress spends the money, not the President. Civics 101. Yes, I know when the Republicans had control it was just as bad...that's why we need to fire our Congress and Senators for their incompetence, and get people in that are serious about reining in the spending...and not bag on a President for it.

[Bill the Cat]

Many economists and trade experts do not believe that trade deficits hurt the economy, and warn against trying to “win” the trade relationship with particular countries. Others, however, believe that sustained trade deficits are often a problem, and there is substantial debate over how much of the trade deficit is caused by foreign governments, as well as what policies, if any, should be pursued to reduce it.

As Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Zhiyao Lu of the Peterson Institute for International Economics point out, several forces influence the size of trade deficit:

• More government spending, if it leads to a larger federal budget deficit, reduces the national savings rate and raises the trade deficit. A portion of the budget deficit is effectively financed through a rise in the total amount Americans borrow from abroad.
• The exchange rate of the dollar is important, as a stronger dollar makes foreign products cheaper for American consumers while making U.S. exports more expensive for foreign buyers.
• A growing U.S. economy also often leads to a larger deficit, since consumers have more income to buy more goods from abroad.

Economists generally see these factors as more important than trade policy in determining the overall deficit.

[Cow Poke]

Bushes deficits, weren't Bushes, Obama's deficit's weren't Obama's and Trump's aren't Trumps...and Biden's will not be Biden's. Congress spends the money, not the President. Civics 101. Yes, I know when the Republicans had control it was just as bad...that's why we need to fire our Congress and Senators for their incompetence, and get people in that are serious about reining in the spending...and not bag on a President for it.

Term Limits!

[whag]

Repeat after me:

If he gets something wrong, he was being sarcastic.
If he tells a lie, he's being a great politician.
If he commits tax fraud, he's being a smart businessman.
If it turns out he's broke, it shows he's great at marketing.
If he owes billions in debt, it shows he's a good deal-maker.
If he commits electoral crimes, the democrats are the real criminals for investigating them.
If he steals from charity, it shows he's a great guy to have been running a charity in the first place.
If he cheats at golf, it shows he's a sharp dealer and will deal sharply with America's enemies.
If America's allies hate Trump and mock America because of him, it must be because he's stopped sending them checks that America must totally have previously been sending to them.
If Trump expresses admiration for the world's dictators and expresses sadness that he can't be more dictatorial in America, that's a wonderful diplomatic method to prevent wars with them.
If he denies science, science is a liberal hoax.
If people who work with him say he's an awful person, that's him draining the swamp.
If he fills his cabinet with wealthy elites, that's also him draining the swamp.
If he funnels government money into his own businesses, also draining the swamp.
If he's wrecking the country, that's him owning the libs.
If he committed adultery with a porn star, isn't that something we all aspire to?
If he was friends with Epstein, Bill Clinton was worse.
If he does drugs, Biden has a relative who does.
If he only got into Wharton because his father bribed the school, and his professor there said Trump was the worst student he'd ever taught, Wharton is a great school and Trump's education was first-class.
If his attention span is too short to sit through intelligence briefings, that's him fighting the deep state.
If he spends all day watching Fox News and posting on Twitter instead of governing, that's him getting the real news and being in touch with the people.
If he hasn't built the wall, or fixed healthcare, or done anything much else he promised, it's because he's busy fighting a secret war against a cannibalistic satanic pedophile ring within the government.
If he's running up the debt and deficit, it's a cunning stratagem to own the libs.
If he asks foreign leaders for help in his reelection, Biden had a relative who was once in Ukraine.