CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

May Trade Deficit Jumps to Highest Level Since March 2025

Donald Trump has made reducing the trade deficit a centerpiece of his economic agenda. As he has put it, the deficit means foreigners are ripping us off. Trump’s whole “Liberation Day” story was about putting an end to the rip-offs.

We can debate the extent to which the trade deficit means we are getting ripped off, but even accepting Trump’s claim, he is not doing a very good job by his own metric. On Tuesday, we got data from the Commerce Department showing that the monthly trade deficit jumped by $23 billion in May to $77.6 billion. The deficit would be $931 billion if this rate continued for a full year. This is the highest it’s been since March of 2025. If the trade deficit measures the extent to which we’re being ripped off, we’re going the wrong way.

To be........

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