JOBS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “At a meeting Thursday [2-23-17] with the country’s top manufacturing executives, President Trump made a puzzling statement about trade. ‘We don’t have any good deals. In fact, I am trying to find a country where we actually have a surplus — surplus of trade. Everything is a deficit,’ he said. ‘I actually said to my people: Find a country where we actually do well. So far, we haven’t found that country.’
Data from his own federal agencies tell a much different story. This chart shows the top 15 countries with which we run a trade surplus in goods. At the head of the list are Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Belgium and Australia.”
–Jeff Guo, “Trump just said he can’t ‘find a country where we actually do well.’ We just did.,” The Washington Post online, Feb. 23, 2017