In our fourth installment fact checking Donald Trump’s April 27th foreign policy speech, we look at a popular whipping boy for Trump: trade deficits. He blamed Obama for a laundry list ills in the US, including trade deficits:

“[Obama] has crippled us with wasteful spending, massive debt, low growth, a huge trade deficit and open borders. Our manufacturing trade deficit with the world is now approaching $1 trillion a year.”

There are a couple of problems with that statement. Trump blamed Obama for a “huge trade deficit” but the trade deficit has gone down under the Obama administration. According to the good people at Factcheck.org, the trade deficit has shrunk by a significant amount since the Bush administration. In 2008 the trade deficit was $708.7 billion, which has dropped to $539.8 billion in 2015. That’s a 24% reduction in the trade deficit under the Obama administration.

It is hyperbole and an exaggeration to say that the trade deficit is “approaching $1 trillion a year.” The all time record for the US trade deficit was $762 billion in 2006, hardly “approaching $1 trillion” even at the highest point ten years ago. As stated above, the deficit has shrunk since the mid-2000s, and has stayed stagnant in the $500 to $600 billion range for the last 7 years. Again, hardly “approaching $1 trillion.”

Sources:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feg-onymzXA
Graph: http://www.factcheck.org/2016/04/obamas-numbers-april-2016-update/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/04/29/fact-check-trumps-foreign-policy-speech/83703200/
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/04/trumps-foreign-policy-speech/