The overall trade deficit has risen to a record $891.2 billion, the highest in the country's 243-year history.
The United States had the largest trade deficit of its 243-year history last year, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to address the growing gap through “America first” policies that have levied new tariffs against allies and foes.
Despite Trump’s promise and his efforts to address the trade deficit through increased tariffs, after two years in office, it rose to a record $891.2 billion, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. The trade gap with China, which has received the brunt of the president's ire for its “unfair” trade practices, also reached a record high of $419 billion. The previous trade deficit recrod, of $838.3 billion, was in 2006, under President George W. Bush, as the housing bubble peaked.
The president has repeatedly argued that the trade deficit is “unsustainable” and classified it as transferring wealth from the U.S. to foreign countries. He has made reducing the gap a primary component of his economic and foreign policy, launching a multi-billion dollar trade war with China while adding new tariffs to imports from allies in Europe, North America and other countries.
President Donald Trump holds up a signed presidential memorandum aimed at what he calls Chinese economic aggression in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on March 22, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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