Fact Checker: Trump’s many mangled comments on trade

The truth behind the rhetoric

Trump’s many mangled comments on trade Listening to President Trump talk about trade can be a disorienting experience, so we wanted to give readers a field guide to some of the tortured claims in Trump’s repertoire. The president tends to get worked up over the fact that the United States has a trade deficit with some countries. But he incorrectly argues, again and again, that the United States is “losing money” as a result. We are going to keep explaining this until we are blue in the face but countries do not “lose” money on trade deficits. What is actually happening is U.S. consumers are choosing to buy more from some countries than U.S. businesses are selling in those countries. Alas, Trump makes faulty trade claims so often they appear to be catching on in the White House. We also fact-checked one of his trade advisers, Peter Navarro, who claimed that the United States has the lowest trade barriers in the world. They’re not as low as he suggests.

Scroll down for this week’s Pinocchio roundup. —Salvador Rizzo

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