Trump insists U.S. runs deficit with Canada, statistics notwithstanding

What an unprofessional twit that guy is! He didn't know? Unbelievable. He lied? Way too believable!

Trump's starting to give politicians a bad name.

Seriously, which world leader will ever believe another word the serial con-man (Trump U anyone?) says. Maybe some of his staunchest devotees will start to accept that their political messiah is flawed beyond redemption and is hurting the US and its few remaining allies.

Masha Gessen redux: It’s not just that both Putin and Trump lie, it is that they lie in the same way and for the same purpose: blatantly, to assert power over truth itself.

Thankfully Canadians know this temporary creature occupying the WH, like a squirrel invading an attic, isn't a reflection of the majority of US citizens.

Sure way to impress the leader of a close ally -- lie about his country to his face.

One trait of narcissism is delight in BSing others, successfully or not. It's just a game for them, a display of power. Like as a businessman, when Trump would enter into contracts with no intention of fulfilling them.

Heard Trump's lawyers been trying to prep him for the Mueller interview. Good luck with that!

"Trudeau came to see me. He's a good guy, Justin. He said, 'No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,'" Trump was quoted as saying, imitating Trudeau.

"Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — 'Donald, we have no trade deficit.' He's very proud because everybody else, you know, we're getting killed.

"... So, he's proud. I said, 'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.'"

That's a world leader talking. Speech abilities over 9,000...

And, seriously ? Still on the whole trade deficit thing ? Will someone ever teach basic economy to president Calimero over there ?

The USA runs a trade deficit of 17.6 billion in goods trade. is it accurate now? Seems to me that’s not what he said but what he should have said.

The USA runs a trade deficit of 17.6 billion in goods trade. is it accurate now? Seems to me that’s not what he said but what he should have said.

Here we go with the left coming unglued again. We’ll be over this in about 48 hours.

Sure way to impress the leader of a close ally -- lie about his country to his face.

Oh, stop! The world lies about the US almost every single day. We deal with it, Canada can as well. Everyone needs to grow up.

. is it accurate now? 

No, because that's not how surpluses/deficits are calculated.

Agreed, Black. He also should not have continued

We have no deficit, but that doesn’t include energy and timber.... And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year.

Neither where he came up with that concept of energy and timber nor what the figure means (he often applies actual statistics to erroneous targets) is clear.

If trudeau had a brain he could have effectively countered. Sadly he is a failure.

Defining terms would be useful here. Harry Frankfurt wrote in his 2005 book On BS (the actual title uses the full word, as does the quote below, but mods):

It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing BS requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the BSer, however, all bets are off.... He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, BS is a greater enemy of truth than lies are.

Is Trump a liar? You'd have to get into his head to know what he knows and remembers at the time to make that call (for example, when he said a few days ago that he'd won "52% of the woman vote", omitting the crucial modifier "white"- the actual figure was 41%. Was he lying or simply remembering incorrectly?). Is he a BSer? Yes! and he delights in it! BSers often do. They'll often brag to confidants about it. And that is what Trump was doing.

This is a bad trait in anyone but so debilitating as to be disqualifying in a president.

I wonder why Trump always complains about the same countries ? China, Mexico, Canada...

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c4621.html

Everything Trump says is untrue and no serious person believes for a second anything he says. The only people stupider than Trump are those who blindly defend whatever bilge seeps from his mouth, which is tricky as it changes from one second to the next. Good luck guys!

If you make a habit of telling bald faced lies to our friends and allies, they won't know whether to trust us or not when it really counts, especially regarding matters of national security.

It's bad enough when you lie to your fellow countrymen, but you make matter worse by doing the same with other countries.

Mr. President, please don't lie to our friends and make jokes about how ignorant you are pertaining to the actual facts. You're just making an ass of yourself.

Trump looks at economics from a very simplistic mercantilist viewpoint. He sees raw materials and goods as originating in a single location. He doesn't consider services or labor as particularly relevant factors in trade.

So in this case, Trump is not lying. He is just articulating his own very myopic, uninformed view of international trade. And he may have been given this figure by Peter Navarro.

Yes it is an interesting point whether Trump is actually lying. He has no concept of fact vs fiction, truth vs falsehood. So what he says is simply what he wants to be true and there is no conscious decision necessarily to lie.

He was not properly raised by his parents, and he has clearly passed on the 'favour' to his offspring, the first three at least. Utterly amoral.

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

Abraham Lincoln

Lying about the statistics probably doesn't help negotiations.

"Trudeau came to see me. He's a good guy, Justin. He said, 'No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,'" Trump was quoted as saying, imitating Trudeau.

"Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — 'Donald, we have no trade deficit.' He's very proud because everybody else, you know, we're getting killed.

"... So, he's proud. I said, 'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.'"

That's a world leader talking. Speech abilities over 9,000...

Bintaro you forgot the last part

Trump added: "You know why? Because we're so stupid. ...

No just you Twit in Chief.

And I thought they were smart. I said, 'You’re wrong, Justin.' He said, 'Nope, we have no trade deficit.' I said, 'Well, in that case, I feel differently,' I said, 'but I don't believe it.' I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, 'Check, because I can't believe it.'"

Ok. Forget diplomacy. Isn't this guy supposed to be a deal maker? What kind of deal making conversation is this?

You know what, let NAFTA fail. And as it looks now, the UK and EU talks are failing as well. The US and the EU are pushing Canada and the UK closer together and closer toward OZ and NZ that could result in a new third global power between these four countries. The calls for a Canzuk Union are growing louder.

Trump has never made a deal in his life and wouldn't know one if it jumped up and bit him. The emperor has no clothes.

Trump (or whatever alias he may be using at present) does not know, because his one and only source of information is the TV -- he does not read.

More alternative facts from Trump, and his believers lap it up off his boots.

He's like a stable kind of genius.

One more sign that Trump inhabits how own little world: alt-reality.

More alternative facts from Trump, and his believers lap it up off his boots.

So what crime was committed? Should he be flogged for it? Will that make the left happy? Actually, it probably won’t, except taxes.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-12/trump-may-actually-be-right-about-the-trade-deficit-with-canada