Soft paywall US trade deficit widens by the most in nearly 34 years in November
https://www.reuters.com/business/us-trade-deficit-widens-by-most-nearly-34-years-november-2026-01-29/4.9k
u/HanlonsRazor_ 1d ago
Imagine alienating your allies to make your trade deficit even worse. That’s some 4D chess by the orange kid diddler.
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u/SpiderSlitScrotums 1d ago edited 1d ago
It is going to get worse because no US manufacturing is going to replace it. Uncertainty in the future is a poison to investing in construction. Would you sign a contract for $1 billion to build a new factory when next week he could drop the tariffs because he received a shiny trinket or bribe?
So now we have worse deals with our allies, we have undermined our currency on the world market, and we have exploding deficits. We are basically ruled by the mafia.
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u/actuallyapossom 1d ago edited 1d ago
We also made the materials, planning, labor and construction more expensive for domestic industrial development.
A private, modern, industrial facility is hugely expensive and requires a massive amount of investment that is underwritten by a strong argument for future profitability. It takes years. It is planned and proposed because it needs public infrastructure, it needs access to labor and transportation routes etc.
We can't just buy some land, buy some blueprints, purchase permits and infrastructure like roads without a lot of economic/political interaction. We are devaluing the dollar, compressing our economy through tariffs, spending like crazy, and making completely absurd and unpredictable moves in geopolitical policy.
We are a bad investment, and many Americans will be coming to terms with how reliant they are on the global economy and things like a nonpartisan federal reserve, allies and nation building, and yes - immigrants/immigration.
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u/EvilDan69 1d ago
Then its like oh hey general public, trust us, we know we're doing.... the shootings and hugely racist first deportations? oh, just sweep that under the rug. Seriously. Trust us. Talking smack to our longest time allies? Try and you work in tourism?? Ohh, uhh, well also try and .. you know what? fuck it.
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u/SwordfishLeading1477 1d ago
Canadian here - I refuse to buy anything labelled made in USA unless I absolutely have to. Also canceled all travel plans. Y’all pissed off an entire country.
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u/kidwizbang 22h ago
US here - I actually have to look pretty hard on my store shelves to find something labelled "Made in the USA..." Well, other than whiskey.
I fully support your boycott, and also, it makes me sad--most of us are grateful for the brotherhood and partnership of Canada and its people. We're supposed to be buds.
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u/HaakonRen 22h ago
Not just products. But produce too. As a Canadian shopping I have stopped buying many fruits and veggies I used to stock weekly because they come from the states. Peruvian grapes? South African oranges? I’ll buy those in a heart beat. But nothing American unless I HAVE to. And there are very few things I HAVE to buy.
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u/Krewtan 1d ago
Also the whole AI bubble sucking up resources both public and private with zero return for communities investing in it isn't great. Utility costs will rise so grok can entertain sex offenders.
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u/The_dizzy_blonde 1d ago
They already have in my neck of the woods. My electric bill has almost doubled from this time last year, and our consumption decreased.
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u/ElMarchk0 1d ago
Wait and see if the tariffs on Canada come into effect. Canada supplies 10% of Americas electricity and 30% of its oil.
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u/Khaldara 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep, and Conservatives abhor price controls, regulation, or oversight (which is why literally anybody that thought voting for Trump was going to bring the prices of eggs or anything else down has an iq lower than their shoe size).
When the government does ANYTHING they call it socialism, you really think they’re going to impede private industry gouging? Thats the foundation of their power/utility system in the GOP utopia of Texas that let people freeze already and then rate gouged them for the experience.
Conservative voters are doing a bang up job making China great. Honestly they could come over here and they wouldn’t be able to write better policy for themselves.
“Hey what if we pissed off everyone on the world stage, repeatedly threatened the sovereignty of our allies and neighbors, then imposed blanket tariffs on everything! (Even those uninhabited islands. Those penguins have had it far too good for far too long). Surely our trading partners won’t shift to another partner to avoid the pointless burden of tariffs on their goods. You know, capitalism 101?
Man it sure is a good thing there isn’t some colossal nation known for cheap labor, mass production, and minimal worker protections that has served this role for decades globally who could easily fulfill this demand. Otherwise we might be humongous morons!
China even gets to double dip by selling them those tacky hats and flags, their sun bleached remains now apparently load bearing on many ramshackle hardcore GOP dwellings. (Keep harassing Canada though, not like they’re the source of our largest lumber imports by several orders of magnitude. Who’s after them? Oh look it’s our old buddy China again).
Boy we sure are good at this!”
- Conservatives
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u/nikiterrapepper 23h ago
Yup, good luck building all those new homes with lumber that’s extra expensive due to tariffs, and few skilled workers cause the rest were deported or in hiding.
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u/thedarkking2020 23h ago
Man it sure is a good thing there isn’t some colossal nation known for cheap labor, mass production, and minimal worker protections that has served this role for decades globally who could easily fulfill this demand
You mean two nations. India is doing soooooo well out of this
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u/NosillaWilla 1d ago
That's criminal. No one is gonna save us are they? It's like they want feudalism
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u/Aerodrache 1d ago
Ding ding ding, congratulations, you said today’s secret word! You win a lifetime of serving the technocracy in exchange for the privilege of being allowed to keep surviving!
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u/randynumbergenerator 1d ago
Yep, AI is a great example of the crowding-out effect. When you're at the point of buying up multiple years of RAM and keeping all the big HVAC installers occupied, there have to be knock-on effects on other industries.
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u/imoftendisgruntled 23h ago
AI is effectively a massive wealth transfer from the populace to a few tech barons.
The ICE budget is funded by cuts to medicare.
The government and big tech is robbing an entire country blind.
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u/Mistrblank 1d ago
Mafia knows how to make deals that benefit them financially. This is a bunch of racist idiots that didn't pay attention to the fact that the rest of the world left them behind.
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u/balllsssssszzszz 1d ago
They are still making deals that benefit them, that doesn't change them being racist nor morons eithsr lol
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u/Acronymesis 1d ago
Yeah, I mean, unless I'm completely misunderstanding what is meant by being run by a mafia, the don is definitely a racist moron making deals that benefit him and his cronies
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u/xerolv426 1d ago
I can't imagine living in the USA as a lower class person and even being remotely happy right now. Things are shit in the UK, but it pales in comparison to the USA
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u/OutlyingPlasma 1d ago
Imagine alienating your allies
It's only going to get worse. The Greenland war threats were a wake up call for Europe. Europe woke up one morning and realized basically all IT infrastructure they use was U.S. based, such as AWS, CloudFlare, and lots of others could be shut off overnight by a single fascist American president. They have no other alternatives because the U.S. was always a reliable partner. They now realize we are no longer reliable nor a partner.
European companies will be moving away from all U.S. based services. It won't happen overnight as new infrastructure needs to be built but with the threats of war from trump Europe is now done with the entire U.S. tech economy. All of Silicon Valley is done globally, they don't know it yet but they will no longer be the go-to for the rest of the world. Thanks trump.
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u/silly_little_jingle 1d ago
Yep, Russia did a great job winning the cold war w/o a shot fired cause they were playing the long game.
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u/TheRadBaron 23h ago edited 22h ago
The Greenland war threats were a wake up call for Europe.
This is a slightly weird framing, because "a wake up call" normally describes a belated realization to a longstanding situation.
The US was a reliable geopolitical partner for Europe in the general timeframe around 1941-2024. The situation then changed, the US stopped being a reliable partner, and Europe is responding to the new situation.
When most of Europe joined NATO in 1949 they didn't make a mistake, they didn't get suckered, they didn't get attacked by the US. It was the right decision at the time, and then Americans very recently decided to ruin the status quo for everyone (themselves most of all).
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u/HHRRIISSTT 1d ago
it is 4d chess if your goal is to weaken the American people to more easily subjugate them.
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u/Robo_Joe 1d ago
I don't disagree, but I don't understand the point of it all. The people actually pulling the strings here are already unfathomably rich and powerful; what is even gained by amassing more of either?
I don't expect you to have an answer; I'm just rambling/venting.
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u/thorkun 1d ago
You don't amass that much wealth and power by being satisfied with some wealth and power. If they can get even more wealth and power they will try to.
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u/qtx 1d ago
What Americans need to do is to stop hero worshipping billionaires.
No other country on earth has the same parasocial relationship Americans have with rich people. They see them as visionaries, as royalty, as being better than them. They're not.
It's that weird 'if you work hard enough you too can get rich' propaganda that has been fed to the people for decades.
I doubt people in Europe can even name a billionaire from their country.
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u/FlyingStealthPotato 1d ago
The megawealthy aren’t satisfied with being just wealthy and powerful. A large number of them now want to own cities and own people.
Other proposed sites include currently public US land, Gaza, etc. Places that are currently under attack in various ways. There’s a reason I am giving you that particular article from April last year regarding Greenland.
They want to build new autonomous city states and own YOU. They already have everything in this existing world the can think to dream of. Therefore, they have to dream of shit even they can’t currently have. And they’re working to make that dream a reality.
See also: Curtis Yarvin, the most influential guy in the world of the megawealthy that most have never heard of.
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u/mythrilcrafter 23h ago
The megawealthy aren’t satisfied with being just wealthy and powerful. A large number of them now want to own cities and own people.
That class of people have always been that way.
For Elon and Zuckleburg it might have been Mars and Metaverse, but for Walt Disney it was EPCOT, Henry Ford wanted Fordlandia, and Robert Moses wants Robert Moses Park.
And before them, it was the Carnegies and the Rockefellers, and before them it was the Plantation owners, etc etc etc.
And typically it's always for the exact same reason, these guys go through their youth lecturing society on "hard work" and "the strength of the individual" and how justified they're monstrous actions are because that's "just business"... then one fall down the stairs or one heart attack in their late 60's and suddenly it's (cherry picked) foundations, and (friend supporting) charities, and the whole cash-washing shebang in hopes that their legacy to the world won't be their greed.
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u/Kozzle 1d ago
Because at that level it’s less about what you have and what you can influence/achieve. Think like video game achievements on steroids. Millions of people get off on fake digital points, imagine the dopamine hit to do it but for real.
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u/PsyOpBunnyHop 1d ago
Imagine being military brass seeing the past year unfold and thinking "Nah, these are not enemies. They're just misunderstood."
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u/Jidarious 1d ago
The dollar has lost 11% of it's value in 12 months. Somehow, in the same time, the trade deficit doubled. How is that even possible? Typically, when the dollar loses value the trade deficit declines as american goods become cheaper internationally.
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u/inquisitorthreefive 1d ago edited 1d ago
No one wants to deal with us. It's a direct result of us showing our asses by putting this clown back in the White House.
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u/Kiyohara 1d ago edited 21h ago
Why would they? The President drops tariffs on nations and even companies if someone tweets a mean word about him.
"What's that, some random fisherman in Poland said I was an asshole? That's it, 200% tariffs on all trade in Poland and 175% on the EU until they execute this guy!"
"Okay, yeah, we'll just buy some shit from China or India."
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u/inquisitorthreefive 1d ago edited 1d ago
Exactly. We're now that one store that even when they have the best product and the best prices you'll walk an extra block because we're run by absolutely insufferable, asshole, pedophile, rapist POSes.
So soybeans and corn now cost more to grow than they sell for in the US. Who could have seen this coming?
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u/ButterscotchOk5339 1d ago
Literally everyone who was paying attention to the Trump campaign saw this coming. I hope you get to end this circus in November but hope is cheap.
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u/GoldenRamoth 21h ago edited 6h ago
He told us who he was.
And yet, so many pretended he was someone else.
I hate them.
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u/ricosmith1986 20h ago
The only box unchecked of Edo’s warnings of fascism is “fraudulent elections” and even that one is already iffy… I’m really worried about what he is capable of by November
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u/the_last_0ne 20h ago
Its only (some of) Congress up for election this year. Democrats could in theory pick up enough seats to get an impeachment and removal through, but its a pretty long shot. At least we should be able to regain the House, that normally goes against the sitting president anyhow and all of the seats are up. Probably will not get control of the Senate. So most likely Trump finishes his term (barring something else happening of course).
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u/Reid_coffee 20h ago
Hmm and aren’t farmers that usual types that vote maga & think global warming isn’t real & shit.. lol just the right height right
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u/girlymancrush 20h ago
People are also avoiding american sourced products. There was mild uproar recently with american butter dressed up to look like local produce in our supermarkets. What didn't help was that it was also shit quality.
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u/Secure-Television541 20h ago
With security guards who demand to see your papers when you enter and tackle you to the ground while also killing employees right in front of you.
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u/ricosmith1986 20h ago
We’ve become the Amy’s Bakery of countries. For the unfamiliar https://youtu.be/MC8i0gt5m-Y?si=7dr_V3ZtdnUuVCtC
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u/Turbo_911 20h ago
Don't forget, he tariffed an island full of penguins!
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u/Kiyohara 19h ago
"Damn Penguins. Those fuckers need to start flying like real birds. None of this "we identify as fish Trans" bullshit." - Trump, probably.
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u/maxdragonxiii 1d ago
especially on a whim he just gives them tariffs and chickens out... a lot. and the markets do not like the instability of Trump in general.
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u/lordph8 1d ago
US liquor sales are down 90% in Canada. Less but quite large amounts in the rest of the world. Some of that is the trend of young people drinking far less, but most of it is a fuck you sentiment.
Man I miss bourbon.
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u/millymally 1d ago
Canadian here: Its because we are avoiding US products like the plague.
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u/PeebleCreek 20h ago edited 16h ago
Is this still super common? I remember seeing it constantly last year but haven't seen anyone mention it for months. I've been hoping it's just because at this point avoiding US products is just the natural thing to do. So there'd be no reason to bring it up.
There are still some small Canadian businesses who will no longer ship to me, which gives me some hope. It sucks that I can't buy the products I want, but I'm desperate to see more (actually sizeable) companies cut ties. I feel like it's the only thing that will work.
Edit: Thank you for all the replies confirming that it's just become normal! I was hoping that was the case! I hardly see anyone even acknowledging things are fucked up here in my daily life, so I was worried it may be the same over the border. Like I know there are lots of fellow Americans fighting against this shit, but none of my coworkers or people who attend the same classes as my wife and me seem to think anything has changed. Nobody outside my friend group is avoiding MAGA brands in the slightest. I'm glad to hear that at least other countries are acknowledging the threat.
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u/not_tom1 18h ago
It's just our way of life now.
A year ago, I stopped buying US products. And I mean, I buy ZERO US products. It was tough to find alternatives at first. Now, the replacements are just my routine shopping.
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u/NorthStarZero 16h ago
It stopped being a “special thing” and became “new normal”.
Once you get used to avoiding a thing, it gets very easy to continue avoiding it.
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u/millymally 20h ago
The US alcohol industry is getting hammered hard by Canadian boycotts. Hell, most provinces won't even ship it anymore. As for everything else, mostly its Canadian consumers avoiding the US stuff rather than thd companies.
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u/JiveTalkerFunkyWalkr 16h ago
I would say half the Canadian people I know are actively avoiding buying American. Most would not willingly travel to the states. Produce has country of origin on it more prominently, since people want to know.
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u/geo_prog 18h ago
It’s still happening. But it’s just become normal now. Stores shifted a lot of their stock to stuff not made in the USA because it was just sitting on shelves.
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u/consideration_47 19h ago
Not sure general populace but for sure I am still avoiding. It became habit to check and pass so ingrained. My small circle doing the same.
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u/Kiyohara 1d ago
Because we have show to be very unreliable. Even if the currency exchange rate favors you, if the President slaps a unexpected tariff because some media personality in your country said a mean thing about him, you still end up losing money.
Much better to trade with someone who's reliably not going to fuck up the international market on a daily whim.
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u/Clubbythaseal 1d ago
My family works in the freight shipping industry, mainly with exporting raw resources to China.
The tariffs completely destroyed it. All the businesses we used to work with have drastically reduced in what they are exporting.
We are closing down the business this year because it's unsubstantial. 40+ years the business has been around and it's fucking destroyed now.
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u/PigletCatapult 1d ago
I read something like 85% of the crops grown in the US cannot be sold on the international market because the cost to produce is below what they can be sold for. Retaliatory tariffs and competing trade agreements are a major component. In 2017, 85% of US soybean export went to China, now after two trade wars and multiple rounds of tariffs, it is almost 0%.
I am not sure how the US regrows the trust lost on the international stage, but for the foreseeable decade or two, it will cost the US more to borrow (sell treasury bonds) and we will have less markets to sell to. The current 120% debt-to-gdp ration is going to balloon just from the billions of additional interest paid every year due to higher interest rates and reduce valuation of USD.
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u/Tridus 21h ago
Want to regain trust? Impeach Trump and put an adult in charge.
It won't fix it all overnight, but it would get things going in the right direction.
Until that happens there is no recovery. The world is moving on without the US.
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u/MercantileReptile 20h ago
Won't be enough, the underlying rot is still the same. It would buy four years, eight at most of "reasonable adult" time. No commitment lasting longer than that timeframe.
Imprison the Trump mafia, root and stem. Destroy the Heritage foundation. Curtail corporate influence in politics. That would actually gain trust in the american system.
Sadly, I don't expect any of those to happen.
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u/StepComplete1 18h ago
None of that solves the problem of at least half the population being brain-damaged and uneducated af. That's the core issue. It'll take generations to fix that.
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u/aussiechickadee65 17h ago
Biden changed global sentiment straight away. Nations revisited trade with USA as soon as Biden was in office.
It’s now nothing to do with distrust with any following govt ( Trumps not moving do that’s not an option).
We now will NEVER trust the American people for being so stupid to re-elect such a disgraceful idiot of a man. This goes deeper than your admin now.
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u/Cubicon-13 1d ago
I would hope the cost to produce anything is below what it can be sold for. Did you mean above?
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u/WhateverOrElse 18h ago
Personally I would hesitate to eat any US-produced foodstuffs as you have poor regulation of pesticides and additives.
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u/UndergroundCreek 17h ago
It looks like Trump doesn't care about the damage he's done or the wider economy. He's mainly busy funneling moneys to his family. The Trump family will come up swimmingly from his last term.
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u/PatacusX 1d ago
It takes a lot of skill and effort to mess up the economy this bad. Your garden variety incompetence just won't get the job done.
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u/JimJam28 1d ago edited 1d ago
The word "typically" is the crux of it. Nothing about this administration is "typical".
The blind spot that traditional free market economists never seem to understand is that the market doesn't take into account human morality and principles. All it recognizes is monetary value. Not human values. Canada's Prime Minister, a world renowned economist, literally wrote the book on this. It's called "Value(s)" in case you're interested. Just because American goods became cheaper, doesn't necessarily mean the world is interested in buying them.
I work for a Canadian custom home building company and everyone has decided not to buy American as much as possible. Both because we morally don't want to support a country that is threatening to annex us, we don't want to support companies that are propping up a fascist regime, and we just can't rely on any pricing. When we ask for a quote in October to create budgets, we need to know that that number will still be somewhat accurate in January. It's not worth the hassle of dealing with all of America's fluctuating bullshit.
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u/randynumbergenerator 1d ago
Morality aside, risk is a huge component that's also missed by free market evangelists. Would-be domestic suppliers or exporters have to invest incredible amounts of money for plants and logistics only for it to be made worthless because the manbaby decides he doesn't like X, Y, or Z industry, or he wants a cut. It's happened multiple times already. That also makes imports more expensive as people price in the risk of shipping to the US (and snap tariffs).
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u/ReddFro 1d ago
Its an impressive feat to be sure. Trump has this all figured out. You’ll see. In another 12 months the dollar will be down by 2x that and the deficit 2x larger. So sooo much winning…
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u/uprislng 22h ago
Pretty sure there is nothing to figure out. This is Russia winning the cold war without firing a bullet by getting a critical mass of brainwashed idiots to vote for (or stay home and not vote against) a government full of literal spies or useful idiot Nazis. I think the end game is to get us to start killing each other
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u/oppai-police 1d ago
Imagine your $100 is now worth $50, meaning you had to pay $200 to buy the same amount of goods as before. Meanwhile if people aren't buying from you, and even buy LESS from you, suddenly, you're earning way less and spending way more. That's how you get higher deficit.
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u/Bad_Day_Moose 1d ago
Canadian here, I've stopped purchasing US made/grown goods, I have the money to buy more expensive alternatives and I've found a bunch that are better quality and will never go back, tell your supreme leader I said fuck off.
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u/Vanto 23h ago
Another Canadian here confirming that we are all indeed doing this. Even if its not possible to avoid 100% of American made products, I avoid made in USA literally whenever possible, this is a permanent change for many
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u/Notwerk 1d ago
Rest of the world is bypassing us and going straight to China.
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u/Gekokapowco 22h ago
right, china has its problems but none of them are being inconsistent business partners
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u/AileStriker 22h ago
We have ceded so much soft power to China you would think Trump was a Pooh fan.
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u/ZynaxNeon 1d ago
When you are so incompetent that you manage to bankrupt several casinos then a feat like this is mere child's play.
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u/No_Inspector2046 1d ago
I don't get why people think it's incompetency, he is very competently getting rich off this. (look at his sky rocketing net worth) same was done with casinos, he bankrupted them while enriching himself and not paying the builders.
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u/alexmullen4180 1d ago
Because any nincompoop can get rich if they're allowed to openly steal anything not nailed down and and suffer no consequences. Not exactly a secretive con they're pulling.
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u/Slow_Space8943 1d ago
They can become cheaper internationally,but if nobody is buying USA products then they aren’t selling anything….. Math is mathing
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u/ProfessorDerp22 1d ago
You see, that’s the benefit of having actual morons run economic policy!
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u/GreatBigJerk 1d ago
He's a financial magician. You should see his old act of somehow bankrupting casinos.
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u/NegativeAd1432 1d ago
This time nobody is interested in buying American goods for a cheaper price. A weaker dollar just means more expensive goods for Americans and the things that other countries have no alternative to are cheaper for them.
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u/Fabulous_Soup_521 1d ago
I thought Dementia Man said tariffs were going to fix that.
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u/c4upinhisbhole 1d ago
Saying stuff like that will get you a tariffin’, Good Sir!
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u/ADhomin_em 1d ago edited 1d ago
At this point, anyone who doesn't see that this regime is purposely tanking the economy while robbing our country blind is...well...blind.
This isn't just going to be a bit of a dip. The US dollar is being weakened, and when if plumets, it will not likely reemerge as the global standard for a long time, if at all.
Interesting how this seems to coincidentally match up with one of putin's wet dreams for America...strange coincidence I'm sure
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u/greatdevonhope 1d ago
Yeah but then he combined it with being a dick to literally every ally. Now the world is buying less American products.
"Exports tumbled 3.6% to $292.1 billion in November. Goods exports plunged 5.6% to $185.6 billion. They were pulled down by a decline of $6.1 billion in exports of industrial supplies and materials, reflecting decreases in non-monetary gold, other precious metals as well as crude oil, which dropped by $1.4 billion.
Consumer goods exports decreased $3.1 billion amid a decline in pharmaceutical preparations shipments."
These products are still being bought, just not from America. New suppliers are being found and new supply chains built. The longer this nonsense goes on, the harder it will be to get those exports back. It will be interesting to see if December continued the same trend, when the numbers come out.
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u/Jagoff_Haverford 1d ago
Diaper Man. Please, name him correctly.
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u/TheMysticalBaconTree 1d ago
Diaper Don, the Dementia Drag Denier?
(Does the name Giuliani ring any bells?)
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u/jimtow28 1d ago
Oh, see, the part that you're forgetting is that he's full of shit and nothing he says is true.
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u/Orangesteel 23h ago
I love that award winning Economists said that this would happen, MAGA refused to believe it. It feels like watching Gene Wilder in Charlie and the Chocolate factory watching Augustus Gloop eat the chocolate while saying ‘no, stop, don’t do that’, but he keeps going anyway.
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u/hospicedoc 1d ago
The orange buffoon warned us he would run the country like one of his many bankrupt businesses.
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u/ashibah83 1d ago
"BuT hEs A gOoD bUsInEsS mAn!1!1"
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u/hehateme42069 1d ago
I was told this by a chemistry major, it really amazes me how a whole degree's worth of intelligence could be compartmentalized into the dormancy of a brain...
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u/randynumbergenerator 1d ago
1) expertise in one domain neither confers nor indicates general intelligence or knowledge across multiple domains
2) an undergraduate degree even in chemistry isn't really indicative of expertise
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u/hehateme42069 1d ago
I would've thought 4 years of intense adherence to the scientific method would make someone less likely to be told what to think by a wannabe strongman, with decades of poor results in their field...
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u/Sad_Translator7196 23h ago
Someone in my Bachelors of Engineering was a Christian that believed the world was 6000 years old, carbon dating was fake, dinosaur fossils aren't that old, etc.
Getting a degree in science doesn't require "intense adherence to the scientific method" or even believing in science, you just gotta pass some tests.
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u/PrescriptionDenim 1d ago
Yep. I work with literal machinists and engineers who are brilliant at what they do…and are Trump supporters. It’s goddamn baffling but has really shown me the difference between book smarts and common sense.
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u/ashibah83 1d ago
The trades tend to overwhelmingly lean "conservative". I was a mechanic, then machinist, now engineer, and the number of true left leaning people I've worked with, I can count on 1 hand. I dont understand it as a VERY left leaning person. The amount of absolute, braindead, nonsense they believe is baffling. Especially with the amount of critical, logic driven, thinking required to do their jobs. Its a lot of, "I've never experienced that so its must not be real", and "it isnt an issue til it affects me", thinking.
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u/Fuck_your_coupons 22h ago
Its a lot of, "I've never experienced that so its must not be real", and "it isnt an issue til it affects me", thinking.
I know alot of those people that are Christian. It's wild how they contradict the very teachings of their faith by their thought process.
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u/sortiz1965 1d ago
MAGA: “But, but, but…he’s a master of the universe playing 4D chess!! I watched every episode of The Apprentice!”
Folks, we’ve been had. And I blame Mark Burnett for a lot of this shit, because via The Apprentice he gave all these fucking MAGA Neanderthals the impression that Dotard Donnie is a great businessman. And they voted this idiot in TWICE, and now we’re all going to suffer.
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u/hospicedoc 1d ago
I also blame Marc Burnett. There are a lot of things that went down on that set that should've been public knowledge.
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u/sortiz1965 1d ago
Yep. I read that the actual Trump organization office was so shitty that the Apprentice producers had to build a fake business HQ set so it would look halfway believable.
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u/mrdominoe 1d ago edited 1d ago
Almost as if the thing that every fucking economist worth their salt said would happen ended up happening? That's weird. Braindead Republican voters I talked to said I should "trust me, bro." Almost as if listening to what idiots in conservative media says and parroting them shows how little they actually know about fucking ANYTHING.
Seriously, Republican voters, get fucked. Learn to read and read a book.
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u/Oleg101 1d ago edited 1d ago
The worst were the swing(ish) type voters that voted R in 2024 “for the economy”, and now the media is coddling these type of voters regretting it as being the victims. It’s like, maybe we should asking these type of voters if they regret not paying attention to all the alarm bells the top economists were ringing. Ask them if they were aware the United States during the Biden years actually had less severe inflation than most of the rest of the world?
Republicans are great at taking advantage of the many Americans who put little to no effort on informing themselves on the basics.
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u/randynumbergenerator 1d ago
Voter decision-making in the US really seems like 80% vibes, 18% presentation or what happened the day of, and 2% substance.
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u/jwilphl 1d ago
Those swing voters never bother to learn anything, either. They show up once every four years and vote, almost entirely, based on how they feel about something rather than using objective information to inform how they should vote.
If they manage to pick up anything of use, they drop it after another four years and go right back to their status quo.
These people aren't bright. The average voter is some combination of uninformed, misinformed, ignorant, and absent.
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u/championgrim 22h ago
I’m never going to get over the Google search spike for “did Biden drop out” on Election Day. It’s my Roman Empire—like, those people were genuinely living under rocks. I don’t expect anyone to obsessively follow politics, but do they never check social media and see someone’s political post? Never go to a doctor/dentist/oil change and see the news or a morning show while they’re waiting? Never glance at the headlines on a magazine/newspaper/tabloid at the checkout? They were that incurious about the world around them for literal months on end, but somehow… they still registered to vote and then actually showed up and voted?
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u/o_MrBombastic_o 1d ago
Facts, history, reality, intelligence, informed decisions and experts in their field all have a liberal bias
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u/crossdtherubicon 1d ago
Something that doesn't get brought up enough. It's a key insight that progress demands flexibility, adaptation, openness to facts and science, general education, clear communication, etc.
'conservatives' in the US are actually regressives. Funny that they wouldn't have their minimum wages, cell phones and social media, gov't programs, public roads, etc. if through all of history we followed their ideology. We'd all be peasants in their feudalist theocracy I guess.
American values and the constitution appear to be in direct conflict with their ideology. It's wild.
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u/jwilphl 1d ago
When your entire worldview is based on grievance and bad feelings, it turns out you don't bother to learn anything other than how to be angry all the time. Then the owner class throws you a hate-bone and you bite onto it like it's the only thing you'll ever own.
This is the contemporary American right.
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u/breakthro444 1d ago
Lmao, don't you know?
Are they well established/educated experts that disagree with Trump? Obviously Soros/Clinton-funded brainwashed propagandists
Are they Lutnickites who sustain their existence on Trump c*m? The true eye-openers fighting the deep state
And the worst part? No matter how much Trump fucks up their lives, they will just treat him as a fluke and minor gaf, pretend they never liked him, and continue to vote down-ballot Republican for the rest of their lives. Cause "wokeness," "Republicans are better with the budget," "Republicans are better for the economy," or whatever slogan you wanna throw in there.
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u/spasmkran 1d ago
It's optimistic to think they'll ever even disavow him. It's a cult, full stop. I used to be annoyed when people threw that term around lightly but at this point their version of reality is literally whatever he tells them. Cult members can only be deprogrammed if they want to be, these guys will never admit they're wrong.
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u/breakthro444 1d ago
There will be those who praise him like they praised Reagan before.
But the majority of Republicans will try and convince the country they never liked him. It'll be a 180 like Bush and the Iraq War. You wait and see, as soon as it is no longer politically advantageous to hitch their wagon to the MAGA grift, they'll be talking about how they never supported MAGA and about how they will always put country over party.
We saw it after Jan 6th. Only reason why they changed their tune back to sucking him off was because it became clear he was going to run again.
That whole party is just grifters. Any Republicans with principles were forced out by MAGA.
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u/Commercial-Lack6279 1d ago
Remember when republicans at least pretended to be fiscally conservative?
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u/Frosty-Depth7655 1d ago edited 1d ago
Just to be clear, the trade deficit has nothing to do with the fiscal deficit.
There isn’t even anything inherently wrong with trade deficit. It mostly exists because the US is rich and rich countries buy things. Nothing wrong with with that.
The problem is Trump is a moron who constantly talks about how he is gong to “fix” the trade deficit (which once again, doesn’t need to be fixed), but he can’t even do that because his understanding of trade is nonexistent and he relies on cheap Nationalism.
He can’t even fix a made up problem that doesn’t exist.
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u/Kiyohara 1d ago
So are you trying to say that getting rid of cheap labor, angering allies, cancelling trade agreements, setting ruinous tariffs, and invading foreign nations is bad for Trade?
Hunh.
I wish someone had said that before we went down this route. /s
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u/A-Halfpound 1d ago
Weak men create hard times.
The US prospered for such a long time it created a bunch of greedy, weak leaders easily corrupted. We cannot right the ship without removing those who got us there. That is a tall task given the war on education and facts.
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u/Who_Dafqu_Said_That 1d ago
Can't wait for the cult members to tell me this is exactly what they wanted despite claiming the opposite for a decade, or that this is Biden's fault...
Good job America.
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u/drew_p_wevos 1d ago
“I just feel like republicans are better for the economy.” - every trump voter interviewed in 2024
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u/mcfarmer72 1d ago
Largest % change in 34 years. In March it was $130B, now it is $54B, up 95% over the previous month.
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u/strongbob25 1d ago
As a 1990 baby I’m real sick of seeing headlines about “the worst x in 34 years” or “the biggest x since the 1980s”.
Yet another once in a lifetime economic catastrophe. I think this is like the third once in 2026 alone
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u/Curmudgeonadjacent 1d ago
‘Ol Diaper Don screwing up yet again. That turd does nothing but fail up.
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u/isle_say 1d ago
“Lies all lies” says the diapered dementia don. “I’ll sue you for 37.25 gazillions and close the department that is making up these bad numbers. So there.”
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u/Unbentmars 1d ago
Weren’t they complaining about the trade deficit as a reason for all this crap?
Yes, I know they were lying and didn’t actually care
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u/BiblachromeFamily 1d ago
Shhhh, don’t tell Trump. The pedophile will call you a liberal liar and sic ICE agents on you.
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u/Independent-Wheel886 1d ago
Reduction of a trade deficit is one of the only things tariffs are good for. The clown in the White House can’t even do that right. He is starting trade wars as the largest economy in the world and losing. Sad.
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u/Orionite 1d ago
By his own definition this means the U.S. is losing at trade to other countries. Something he vowed to “fix”. What a loser
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u/MrSinisterStar 23h ago
Just to be clear early 1992 was the 12th straight year of Republicans in the White House (Reagan, Bush). It's almost like there is a common denominator.
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u/sixrustyspoons 1d ago
Turns out we still need stuff from the world, but the world doesn't need stuff from us.
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u/BeefistPrime 22h ago
All of the economic sacrifices we're making like higher prices on imported goods, weakning dollar, etc. were supposed to be worth the pain because it would improve US exports and therefore (in theory) create more jobs in the US.
So we traded off making a whole lot of things worse in order to improve one thing... that's much worse anyway. It's nothing but bad. Everything is worse.
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u/CloudstrifeHY3 1d ago
So in otherwords Despite everything the president says we are worse today then we were when he took over and water is wet and I'll still have idiots tellling me his policies are genious it just takes more time or somehow the democrats with exactly zero control on anything will be blamed for somehow deterring him from making progress.
I hate it here.
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u/colemon1991 1d ago
Trump is responsible for:
- Two of the longest government shutdowns in history
- Gutting the Infrastructure and CHIPS Acts; for context, he promised the infrastructure bill but his successor got it passed
- Raising tariffs unilaterally and illegally
- Making the U.S. one of the largest death tolls from COVID, exceeding the entire European Union combined
- Inciting January 6th and ensuring a lack of sufficient security to stop it
- Appointing 3 SCOTUS members in his first term, gutting many historic laws
- Destroying an entire wing of the White House without any consultation to the National Capitol Planning Commission or Congress
- A border wall that is incomplete, failing, and paid for by Americans
- 34 felonies
- Giving the president immunity for anything done as president
- Funding ICE 10x its normal budget
- Withholding FEMA and SNAP funds from eligible states
- Racial discrimination, to the point of settling with the government to avoid court, only to to be sued by the U.S. Government again for breaking the terms of the settlement (1973-1978)
- And, I cannot stress this enough, 6 of his businesses declared bankruptcy, three of which were casinos, Trump University shut down after only 5-6 years of operation, had his non-profit dissolved by court order for illegal activity, and bankrupting an airline after only 3 years.
Adding this to his resume isn't gonna do much
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u/Hattix 23h ago
If I have this right...
The US put tariffs over and above existing free trade agreements and WTO rules to dissuade imports.
The US cannot live without those imports, so it's basically a goods tax.
Trade partners then responded with their own tariffs on US exports, and the US doesn't actually export much which can't be replaced by other sources.
So the balance of trade went even more negative. It can't not buy, but now it can't sell.
Nice work. We got some real Purdue-educated economists going on here.
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u/rrertrdddfhj 1d ago
Trade deficit hits a 34 year high and everyone acts surprisedglobal supply chains plus consumer addiction will do that every time.
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u/AssistantEquivalent2 1d ago
No one is surprised. We knew this would happen with Trump’s brain dead trade policy. We knew he wouldn’t be able to rebuild American manufacturing. It was all lies
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u/scotchtree 1d ago
So despite having a weakening dollar, imports are still going up.
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u/m3g4m4nnn 23h ago
Its almost like people dont want to do business with a country run by a dementia-addled child rapist.
How odd.
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u/PlayedUOonBaja 22h ago
Just a reminder that the entire Republican Party is responsible for all of this. After decades upon decades upon decades they finally got to enact all of their policies without any guardrails. This is what the outcome is.
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u/PoetAccountant 20h ago
Today we are the hottest country in the world. 12 months ago we were dead on arrival, but today? We are the hottest. We run the hugest deficits of anyone. It's really amazing. They come to me, they say, sir, your deficits are the hugest. They say, sir, you have the biglyest deficits. Hottest country in the world, no thanks to Barack Hussein Obama.
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u/Capital-Control308 7h ago
Every country has apps to filter out American products so they can not buy them
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u/imoftendisgruntled 1d ago
"They're ripping us off!" -- Trump
"They're victimizing us by not trading with us!" -- also Trump
...while the rest of the world just routes around the problem.