What happens when you bring alternative facts to the negotiating table
Donald Trump had a rally Friday night in Florida and he decided to share a truly bizarre story of how he was negotiating NAFTA with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He lamented the $71-billion trade deficit with Mexico, then told the crowd that there's also a deficit with Canada.
Here's the video:
"I like the prime minister very much. Prime Minister Trudeau. Nice guy. Good guy. No, I like him. But we had a meeting... He said, 'No, no, you have a trade surplus.' I said, 'No we don't.' He said, 'No, no you have a trade surplus,"' Trump told the Florida crowd.
"Trudeau said, 'How do you know?'. I said, 'Because we don't have a trade surplus with anybody!"
"(Trudeau) said, 'I'm telling you that Canada has a deficit with the United States.' I told my people - in front of a lot of people - I said, 'Go out and check'."
This is so bizarre.
Trudeau must have been like, "we don't need to ask people to check. Let me bring it up on my phone. We'll go to the website of the United States Census Bureau and open the latest U.S International Trade in Goods and Services Report."
Here it is:
Trump's people then come back in the room and are like, "yeah, Trudeau's right"
Trump then goes onto insist to the crowd that those trade numbers don't include lumber and energy.
In fact, they most certainly do.
His claim that the US doesn't have a surplus 'with anybody' is also laughable. The US has a trade surplus with many countries including Brazil, the UK, Singapore and all of OPEC.
So Trump is bringing alternative facts to trade negotiations now. How does that work? How did he get this far?
In real estate would he be buying a 30-floor building and be like:
"Your building only has 20 floors"
"Ummm, sir, we're on the 30th floor right now."
"No we're not"
"Would you like to count them?"
"I already did, only 20, I'll pay you for a 20-floor building"
"Uhhhhhhh"
Trudeau must have sat in the room and been, like:
