China, in his words · First term · № 46
Said the trade war with China "was lost many years ago"
“We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!”
- Said
- , Post on Twitter (@realDonaldTrump)
- Subject
- trade deficit and IP theft
- Threat
- Economic threat
- Topic
- Trade & tariffs
- Era
- First term
What the record showed
Census Bureau figures show the U.S. goods deficit with China was $375.2 billion in 2017, not $500 billion, and peaked at $418.2 billion in 2018. Four days after the tweet, on April 8, 2018, Trump wrote, "President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade." The goods deficit was $342.6 billion in 2019 and $308.0 billion in 2020.