Illustration: Lucas Burtin
Trump Says the US Trade Deficit Is an Emergency. Is It?
The president has used the designation to justify the majority of his tariffs on imports. Here’s what to know.
Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term, he has implemented the biggest increase in tariffs in almost a century. One of his goals, he says, is to shrink or even eliminate the US deficit with its trade partners.
Trump has long been fixated on trade deficits, which occur when the value of a country’s imports surpasses the value of its exports. According to the president, trade deficits are evidence that other nations are “ripping off” the US by putting up unfair barriers to American goods. Declaring the trade deficit a national emergency, he used the designation to justify the vast majority of the tariffs that he has announced since his return to the White House. (Trump’s decision to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, is now the subject of a legal battle; a federal appeals court plans to hold a hearing on July 31 to consider the closely watched case.)