Here we highlight a number of key statistics about trade, and summarize some of the stories we have written when these facts have been misrepresented.
Facts on Trade
Issues: trade deficit
A Rally Filled with Repeats
Trump’s August speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was packed with familiar factual distortions.
Trump’s Trade-Balance Mistake
President Donald Trump is saying that the U.S. balance of trade improved by a “tremendous” $52 billion in the second quarter of 2018. But the correct figure is much smaller — $22 billion — as two economists with expertise in trade statistics have confirmed for us.
FactChecking Trump’s Nashville Rally
At a campaign rally in Nashville, President Donald Trump repeated a bushelful of false and misleading claims, and added a few new ones.
Trump’s Numbers (First Quarterly Update)
Statistical measures of how things have changed since the president took office.
FactChecking Trump’s MAGA Rally
In a campaign speech supporting the Republican candidate in a special House election in Pennsylvania’s 18th District, President Donald Trump made several false and misleading statements on a range of topics, from drug smuggling to the stock market.
Trump’s Trade Mistweet
President Donald Trump claimed the U.S. has “large trade deficits with Mexico and Canada,” which isn’t accurate. The U.S. actually runs a small trade surplus with Canada, and the deficit with Mexico isn’t all that large, relatively speaking.
FactChecking Trump’s State of the Union
The president exaggerates his accomplishments in his address to Congress.
Trump’s Numbers
Statistical measures of the president’s term to date.
Obama’s Final Numbers
The numbers are nearly all in now. What they show about what really happened during the eight years that Barack Obama was president is sometimes different from what politicians claimed.