The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that at a fundraising dinner, President Donald Trump bragged that he made up facts during meetings with Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
The Post got their hands on reports that Donald Trump insisted at a recent diplomatic dinner that the US had a trade deficit with Canada, even though that wasn’t the case.
“Trudeau came to see me. He is a good guy. Justin. He said ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,’” Trump said. “Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in – ‘Donald we have no trade deficit.’”
I said, ‘Wrong Justin, you do.’ I did not even know. … I had no idea. I just said ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we are so stupid. … And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong Justin,’ Donald Trump continued.
“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,’” he said.
“‘Well sir you’re actually right. We have no deficit but that doesn’t include energy and timber … And when you do we lose $17 billion a year.’ It’s incredible.”
The Post asked a US trade representative who clarified that, indeed, the US actually has a trade surplus with Canada.
At the dinner, Donald Trump also inferred that in case there was no deal trade deal made that was favorable to the US, he would pull out all US troops stationed in South Korea.
“We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them. We lose money on the trade, and we lose money on the military,” Donald Trump said. “We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let’s see what happens.”