President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a baffling and incoherent tweet defending his decision to simply make up facts during discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Reacting to reports that he boasted about inventing false facts while talking with Trudeau, Trump insisted that he knew what he was talking about -- even if he didn't actually know what he was talking about.
"We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive)," the president wrote. "P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn’t like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that’s how I know!"
In fact, the United States government says that the U.S. actually does have a trade surplus -- not a deficit -- with Canada.
"U.S. goods and services trade with Canada totaled an estimated $627.8 billion in 2016," writes the Office of the United States Trade Representative. "Exports were $320.1 billion; imports were $307.6 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade surplus with Canada was $12.5 billion in 2016."
Trump's tweet falsely claiming that America has a trade deficit with Canada comes after the Washington Post reported that Trump admitted to giving made-up information to Trudeau while he was speaking at a closed-door fundraiser in Missouri.
"I didn’t even know," Trump admitted of the time he insisted to Trudeau that Canada had a trade surplus with America. “I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid.”
