NPR

Trump Admits To Making Up Trade Deficit In Talks With Canadian Prime Minister

While speaking to Republican donors, Trump said he told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada, while admitting he really "had no idea."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with President Trump at the White House in October. Trump was recorded telling attendees at a private GOP fundraiser that he had falsely stated the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada in a meeting with Trudeau.

Updated at 12:26 p.m.

In audio of a closed-door fundraiser obtained by the Washington Post and NBC News, President Trump boasts to donors that he "had no idea" whether he was correct when he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada.

It doesn't. In fact, in 2016, the U.S. had a $12.5 billion goods and services trade surplus with Canada.

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