CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale appeared Tuesday afternoon to address the recent Oval Office press availability with President Donald Trump and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Dale said Trump "did not repeat a lot of the lies about Canada that I've been fact-checking for months," as he counted "at least 11 false claims" from the president this year. During the meeting on Tuesday, which lasted under an hour, Trump repeated just two of those claims about Canada.
One of those is Trump's claim that the United States is "subsidizing Canada" to the tune of $200 billion a year.
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"So this $200 billion figure he uses to describe the trade deficit with Canada, and it's imaginary," Dale said. "The deficit with Canada isn't even close to that high."
He explained that it's a little closer to $36 billion.
"Even if you only count goods trade, ignore the services trade, at which the U.S. excels, about $71 billion," Dale said. "So, just wrong."
The other claim from Trump was that the United States "doesn't do much business with Canada from our standpoint. They do a lot of business with us. We're at like 4%."
"So, that 4% figure is wildly inaccurate, again," Dale said. "About 17% of U.S. exports go to Canada. I can't definitively fact-check this claim that 'we don't do much business with Canada.' But Canada was the No. 1 buyer of U.S. exports in 2024. Again, through March this year, is year, the number three source of U.S. imports."
He said that by "any reasonable standard," Canada is "a major business partner/trading partner of the United States.
See Dale below or at the link below.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
