According to audio provided to the Washington Post from a Trump fundraiser last night, Trump boasted on how in a meeting with Justin Trudeau that he made up the claim that Canada has a trade deficit with the US:
President Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was true.
“Trudeau came to see me. He’s a good guy, Justin. He said, ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,’ ” Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio of the private event in Missouri obtained by The Washington Post. “Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — ‘Donald, we have no trade deficit.’ He’s very proud because everybody else, you know, we’re getting killed.
“ … So, he’s proud. I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. … I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid. … And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong, Justin.’ He said, ‘Nope, we have no trade deficit.’ I said, ‘Well, in that case, I feel differently,’ I said, ‘but I don’t believe it.’ I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, ‘Check, because I can’t believe it.’
‘Well, sir, you’re actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesn’t include energy and timber. … And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year.’ It’s incredible.”
So we have no deficit with Canada….unless you spin it a certain way. Uh huh.
Wapo then points out…
The Office of the United States Trade Representative says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada.
They aren’t alone. Scott Lincicome quotes from the 2018 economic report signed by Trump:
2018 Economic Report of the President (which the President signed): "All countries show a services surplus offsetting a goods deficit, with the U.S. running a net bilateral surplus only with Canada and the United Kingdom" https://t.co/DIeeUOOUnK
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) March 15, 2018
So the US government says we have a trade surplus with Canada, but because our protectionist president likes trade wars, he lies to Canada about it, trying to make them think they have the trade surplus. Ugh. What a jerk.
And then to make matters worse, he tweets it again this morning!
We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn’t like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that’s how I know!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2018
If I were in Congress and I read this, I would definitely be doing something about Trump’s unilateral trade powers because this is ridiculous. Trump’s going to start a trade war all because he wants to ‘win’ or something, when he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.
UPDATE:
Here’s part of the audio from Trump in this NBC News report from this morning. They got their hands on the audio from a Republican donor.
President Trump admits he made up facts during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and @NBCNews has obtained an audio recording of those remarks. pic.twitter.com/kmm62IYENz
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 15, 2018