Analysis: Not only did the trade deficit increase, it increased exactly where Trump said it wouldn’t
President Trump at the White House on Tuesday. By Philip Bump Philip Bump National correspondent focused largely on the numbers behind politics Email Bio Follow March 6 at 12:43 PM President Trump’s 2016 campaign did not include very many solid predictions of what he might accomplish, but a few nonetheless stand out. Trump insisted he would punish foreign countries he said were taking advantage of the United States economically and bring manufacturing back to U.S. shores.
— Donald J. Trump July 3, 2015 We learned on Wednesday morning that, in broad strokes, Trump’s effort has been unsuccessful: The trade deficit has climbed during his presidency.Overall, the deficit hit $621 billion, the widest since 2008. But that was boosted by a net surplus in trade of services, which helps pull the overall trade balance — a combination of both services and manufactured goods — upward.
Since the data provided by the Commerce Department goes back only to 1992, this graph obscures the truth: It is the highest in U.S. history. See that spike in goods at the end of the graph? That was a drop in the trade deficit in manufactured goods that occurred in November. Trump even bragged about this change, crediting it to tariffs his administration had imposed. We noted last week this argument was incorrect. We learned on Wednesday it was also short-lived.
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