Trump’s claim of reducing the trade deficit by 78 percent dramatically blows up.
Balance of Trade Deficit Jumps in December
The Census Bureau’s International Trade Report shows huge increases in the trade deficit for December.
- International Trade Deficit: $70.3 Billion, up 32.6 Percent
- International Trade in Goods Deficit: $98.5 Billion, up 19 Percent
For the full year, the goods deficit was 1.237 trillion, an increase of 32 billion.
Top 10 US Trade Deficits 2025
2025 Full Year Trade Balances
- China: -202 Billion
- Mexico: -197 Billion
- Vietnam: -178 Billion
- Ireland: -114 Billion
- Taiwan: -147 billion
- South Korea: -56 Billion
- Japan: -64 Billion
- Canada: -53 Billion
- Germany: -73 Billion
- India: -58 Billion
2024 vs 2025 Trade Balances
2024 vs 2025 Trade Change
- China: +94 Billion
- EU: +17 Billion
- Mexico: -26 Billion
- Vietnam: -55 Billion
- Ireland: -27 Billion
- Germany: +12 Billion
- Taiwan: -73 billion
- Japan: +5 Billion
- South Korea: +10 Billion
- Canada: +9 Billion
- India: -12 Billion
Congratulations to Trump for reducing the trade deficit with China by 94 billion.
Unfortunately, nearly all of that trade improvement was masked in Vietnam, India, and Mexico (-93 billion).
Meanwhile, the trade deficit with Taiwan surged to 73 billion.
Everything netted out to a full year increase in the deficit by 32 billion.
Exploring Total Nonsense
Brightening Up America
“Missed the est trade number by $20 billion and you want to tar him? $70 billion pales in comparison to Biden’s $80-$120 billion monthly average. Brightening up a lot in America.”
Brightening Up America Trade Math
- 2021: -1,071 Billion
- 2022: -1,167 Billion
- 2023: -1,056 Billion
- 2024: -1,205 Billion
- Biden Average: -1,125 Billion
- Trump 2025: -1,237
Trump in 2025 increased the trade deficit vs Biden average by 112 Billion.
I feel a lot brighter today, especially because Trump reduced the trade deficit by 78 percent.
Looking Ahead
Trade deficits do tend to collapse in recessions.
If stupid tariffs put enough people out of work, Trump just might be able to do something about the deficit in 2026.
Related Posts
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There is no manufacturing recovery.
February 7, 2026: Education and Health Services Is Now the Sole Driver of Jobs
A recession proof industry is the last industry standing.
February 18, 2026: Industrial Production Rises 0.7 Percent in January, Utilities Surge 2.1 Percent
The utilities index hit a new record high.
Medical Care Costs Surge. What’s the Inflation Impact on PCE and CPI?
For discussion of health care services price impacts, please see Medical Care Costs Surge. What’s the Inflation Impact on PCE and CPI?
I expect a 10 percent jump in health care services. More for knock-on impacts.
The U.S. goods and services trade deficit in 2025 was $901.5 billion, a slight 0.2% decrease from $903.5 billion in 2024, despite record-high imports. And its a lot lower than $959 billion in 2022.
The 2025 data, released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, showed exports rising to $3.43 trillion and imports to a record $4.33 trillion.
It’s going so good. Just imagine the boom when he takes over the Federal Reserve and all the wetbacks are gone.
Even the saltwater wetbacks?
Trump’s total trade deficit in 2025 is lower than Biden’s deficit in 2024 and 2022.
@nextmajorgenre seems to have deleted his tweet/reply. Looking through his timeline he appears to be a dedicated to the idea that any issues with the economy are the fault of Powell keeping rates too high, Schumer for temporarily shutting part of the government down and, well, anyone but the current administration.
I love eating bananas and paying import taxes, while enjoying the large banners of Trump hanging from federal buildings. The one at the Justice Department is particularly splendid
The demolition of the nation’s soul and economy continues, enjoy!
did you actually think Nihilist imperial warmongers had souls?
FAKE NEWS!.
Impossible things.
Mish, You are fired from this blog starting tomorrow.
Remember! TOMORROW
Thank you for paying attention to this matter. Thank you.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/18/trump-eric-don-jr-cryptocurrency-world-liberty-financial.html
trump crime family has the answer to the trade and gov debt problem……..https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/18/trump-eric-don-jr-cryptocurrency-world-liberty-financial.html
At a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Lieu cited an unclassified FBI document containing claims from an anonymous man who said he worked as a limousine driver in 1995. The man alleged he overheard Donald Trump on a phone call with someone he called “Jeffrey,” referencing “abusing some girl.” The man later identified himself publicly as Dan Ferree (via The New York Post).
The FBI intake document states that Ferree claimed he later met a young girl. She alleged that Trump and Epstein raped her at a hotel. Ferree also claimed that authorities later found the girl dead with her head “blown off.” He said the coroner ruled the death a suicide. Reports state that Lieu reposted two of the three pages of Ferree’s FBI statement. The third page contained additional unrelated assertions.
At the hearing, Lieu and Attorney General Pam Bondi exchanged remarks. Lieu stated, “I believe you just lied under oath.”
The post Ted Lieu Makes Wild Claims About Donald Trump & Epstein Files appeared first on Mandatory.
Critics, including the New York Post, have characterized Ferree as an “unhinged source,” pointing to hundreds of anti-Trump memes and politically charged posts on his Facebook account.
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
― John Adams 1826
time seems ripe for PEDOTUS trump to issue a jubilee. extinguish all debts for citizens. mortgate notes, credit cards and us treasury notes due foreigners. like the old Kings who did jubilees every 3 or 4 generations. Queen FOR A DAY, just like epstein would have loved it. what would epstein do?
A NIHILISM HISTORY to white wash the evil empire from 1776 to present. Washington to Lincoln to FDR and Raygun and all our bullshit war mongering imperial pursuits made nice for the weak minded nihilists that were spoon fed a cartoon to make them feel good and be good little dumbfuck nihilist employees and warmongering twats…………………..quite profound and stupid too
i’m going to go out on a limb and surmise that Mish and company knows there is NO such thing as a trade deficit. china sends us products. we pay them USD for them. they also buy services from USA…………i repeat, there is no such thing as a trade deficit. i go to grocery and pay USD and receive products i need to sustain life on planet earth. no such thing as a trade deficit. hat tip austrian economists.
Friend, I think you’re misrepresenting the Austrian economists. I don’t think they would argue that you can go into debt – which is what America is doing by printing dollars – and not be in debt.
why of course they understood debt. i’m just using austrians to account for trade deficits. there is no such thing. debt has been used in every society for the past 5000 years. read Graebers history of debt 5000 years.
A sovereign fiat can and has always been inflated until the debt was nominally meaningless.
Trump just added 10 billion to the budget deficit by giving it to the “Board of Peace” that he chairs.
If he wins his lawsuit against the IRS, he’ll get another 10 billion.
Is grift counted in GDP?
100 percent it counts. GDP counts as productive, amerikan taxpayers paying cunts at the MICC to charge million dollars per little bomb…… to blow up in stupid pursuits of idiotic imperialism. PRODUCTIVE. anyone who pays GDP more than a minute per annum is a damn fool.
Administration after administration over decades have contributed to digging a hole that has become virtually impossilbe to recover from. Digging further is what they will continue to do. All the promises are, and will continue to be, fruitless. Tune out all the noise and seek the root of the problem, which is now unfixable. This isn’t a left vs right problem. These discussions are a waste of time.
Here is the summary for the next decade, regardless of the president: The deficit has increased and we cannot continue down this path.
This will not stop until we reach the terminal state. Same story over and over and over and over….
all evil empires end up in the same rubbish heap of history. usually currency defaults or printing to make all folks billionaires. see USSR from 1991 to 1999
Let’s not blame the government. This is the result of a weak-minded, useless population demanding tax cuts with no corresponding spending cuts. WE THE PEOPLE, hate our children.
You can certainly blame the public, but aren’t the people in authority, and the people claiming expertise, more culpable? They lie to us; they don’t CARE. Keynes justified ultimately irresponsible policies by saying that “in the long run, we’re all dead.” The long run has arrived.
The public will pay the price. I suppose you can take the view that the citizens of Rome were rabble when they were kept at peace by “bread and circuses,” but I am more inclined to blame the people who provided the bread and circuses by plundering the rest of the empire. That said, I won’t spend much time feeling sorry for the people of New York or California if they get what’s coming to them.
It’s hard to understand why people take Trump seriously when he spouts economic numbers. He is obviously clueless about the economics behind the numbers, and his arithmetic skills are demonstrably below first-grade level.
anyone who uses the USD as a denominator in any calculation for more than a day is a moron dumber than a first grader. try gold or silver the past year or 250 years against the continental and greenbacks to today’s computer currency USD. STOOOOOOOOPID
Did you say – ABERBIJAN?
Please be serious.
Haha
He calls himself Tariff Man. He should call himself Deficit Man.
Ireland, lol
Has taco hit on ANY of his promises (in fact, ever?) Tariffs excluded.
Thousands of brown people have been brutalized. I don’t think that one was explicit, but I’m sure it’s appreciated.
well, closing he border was an easy one. that is one i agree with
HE HITS on blondi and little 14 year olds. his specialty. pederast president and commander of diddling.
I haven’t quite figured out this 5D chess yet. It’s a good thing Trump was elected to explain it to us mere mortals.
Do these deficit numbers include tariffs. Are these numbers before or after tariffs. If tariff costs are included of course the numbers will go up.
tariffs are not included in balance of trade calculations
I don’t believe it works that way. Tariffs are taxes paid by the importer and are not included in the calculation of the trade balance.
The tariffs are not included in the calculation.
Mish, are you sure of your facts? POTUS recently told us his tariffs reduced the deficit by 78%, or was it 800%. I don’t recall.
Now I understand why trump wants to constantly invade countries. If the whole
world is America then there will be no more trade deficit! Impressive stuff, that 5D chess.
As Clinton said in a different context:-“Its the economy, stupid”!
So this is the pro MAGA agenda? Tax American consumers to death with tariffs which do nothing, cut social benefits for Americans, deploy military to destroy countries and kidnap leaders, and protect pedophiles.
I wonder what the 2028 MAGA agenda is going to be….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/18/doug-wilson-pentagon-hegseth-christian-nationalist/
Jesus demands the blood of the unholy, and demands a sacrifice of the proles.
jesus was a man who loved other men. he wondered like a beatnik with 12 other men………and never married or schtupped a female. no wonder the roman catholic popes and cardinals………created a pederast cult
He was a friend of Bessent.
He’s been back 6 times. Died in jail every time.
Unfair!
Why don’t you talk about tax reduction?
Tax reduction to the billionaires.
Trickle down effect will go to the last 10% of the people over time.
Hmmmm. May be.
Stop reporting facts!
This is a punishable offense!
😉
Just remember – it’s not a lie if you believe it.
True, but if you don’t believe it and you have a little vomit come up whenever you are blatantly lied to?
Such is the life of an ethical person…
Get the fuck over it and go plant something healthy!
composting and planting since the 1960s as a child……….city to country………..beans to marijuana………
ha ha ha. seinfeld. i loved it. show about nothing. i knew since the 1970s that most amerikans were nihilists. too funny. read “ominous parallels” to understand the how and why and when…….
You know what this means, dontcha?
[Adjusting my MAGA hat.]
Fire the people who publish these fraudulent statistics!! They’re holdovers from Biden, I tell ya!
fire em, this is treason. hang em i say!
LOVE IT. i’m amazed at how fucking vile most amerikans truly are. keep on voting uniparty warmongering imperial cunts. democracy works. cunts vote for cunts to do cunt things……..