As the week got underway, NBC News aired Donald Trump’s latest appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which the president shared some odd claims about trade policy. “We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China,” he said. “Now we’re essentially not doing business with China. Therefore, we’re saving hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Of course, by that reasoning, if I stopped doing business with my local grocery stores, I could boast about all of the money I’m saving, which would be great except for the related fact that I wouldn’t have any food.
A couple of days later, Trump again said that he didn’t care about the collapse of economic activity between the U.S. and China. “You know, we lost a trillion dollars to China on trade … and by not trading, we’re losing nothing,” the Republican claimed. “So, we’re saving a trillion dollars. That’s a lot.”
Roughly 24 hours later, Trump pushed the same line, arguing that the collapse in trade between the world’s two largest economies was a positive development. “We were losing a trillion dollars a year,” he said. “Now we’re not losing anything, you know? That’s the way I look at it.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, on Thursday, the president’s neo-mercantilist vision came into even sharper focus, when a reporter reminded Trump that economic activity at American ports has dramatically slowed. “That’s good,” the Republican replied.
The same reporter noted that thousands of American dock workers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs. Trump effectively shrugged with indifference, adding, “That means we lose less money. … When you say it slowed down, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
In terms of fact-checking, it’s relevant that Trump keeps dramatically exaggerating the size of the U.S.-China trade deficit. It’s also relevant the president continues to suggest he’s not altogether clear what a trade deficit is.
But while Trump’s dishonesty and policy ignorance is a routine problem, what struck me as notable in this week’s rhetoric was what it suggests about the future of the White House’s trade war.
What the president made clear — to an almost refreshing degree — is his apparent belief that every dollar American consumers spend on foreign-made products is, by definition, a “lost” dollar. That’s absurd, but this assumption seems to be a guiding principle for Trump.
When most economists see increasingly empty shipping ports in the U.S., they see a problem — not only because of the potential for laid-off dock workers and truck drivers, but also because of the prospect of empty store shelves and higher prices on the remaining consumer goods.
Trump, however, sees a success story.
The more the president convinces himself that all imports are bad imports, the less likely he is to abandon his failing policy.
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