Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/19/us-trade-deficit-totaled-901-billion-in-2025-despite-trumps-tariffs.html

The U.S. trade deficit swelled in December, closing out a year in which the imbalance was essentially unchanged despite efforts by the Trump administration to close the wide gap.

Closing out a tumultuous year in the global marketplace, the goods and services shortfall in December totaled $70.3 billion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That marked an increase of $17.3 billion from November and was well above the Dow Jones consensus estimate of $55.5 billion.

For the full year, the U.S. ran a $901.5 billion deficit, down slightly from 2024 but only by 0.2%, or $2.1 billion. The total was also a bit less than the record $923.7 billion shortfall in 2022.

So shocking!!

The only logical explanation for this is that Trump’s “discounts” were too high and he needs to raise the tariffs even more to fix it

So you are telling me Trump lied when he posted that the trade deficit was reduced by 78%?

Why would I believe your fake math with real numbers and evidence over what the president says? Clearly everyone has TDS and cannot accept their new God Emperor.

/s because the internet is a silly place and someone might think i believe this slop.

It's easy if you see it as intentional sabotage to force more reliance on the private sector.

It's surprising that the tariffs didn't drive it much higher. That must be because of all the climbdowns.

Yeah, no shit. Need to make things that people buy in order for that to budge. Tariffs don't do shit for "trade deficits" (which, like, what does that even mean if you're the global currency?) and never will.

Money can travel, labor cannot. So long as we allow these rich pricks to move work offshore we'll never return manufacturing to the US