Checking facts: Is he subsidizing Canada through the trade now, as Trump claims? | News Donald Trump

In his Super Bowl on Sunday, President Donald Trump defended Elon Musk’s efforts to reduce the federal budget, including the US International Development Agency (USAID), and said he still was coming.

Trump told Bret Baier from Fox News that “maybe in 24 hours” he would tell a male, a billionaire led by the Ministry of Government Efficiency, to “check the Ministry of Education” and “Army”.

“We will find billions, hundreds billions of dollars of fraud and abuse“, Trump said in an interview, filmed in Mar-a-stature, his Palm Beach estate in Florida.” But for that I was a campaign, Bret. “

Without citing specificity during the seven -minute segment, Trump alluded to the list of “funny” Consumption Projects of USAID. As Trump, Musk and the White House described what they see as a wasteful consumption, we found that not all their programs were singled out in USAID.

The interview then turned to something that Trump was not a campaign on: making Canada 51. When asked if Trump’s idea was “The right thing”, he said, “Yes,” and then talked about an American trade deficit with his northern neighbor, using an inflated number.

Trump attended Kansas City Chiefs-Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans A deadly attack Weeks earlier. In a statement, Trump invited to remember 14 people who were killed while celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street.

Here’s the development of moments of interview. Politifact sent an E -mail office to the White House to comment and did not immediately answer.

Trump’s assessment of trade deficit with Canada

Trump defended his Canadian trade policy by saying to Baier: “Why do we pay $ 200 billion a year, basically in the Canada subsidy?”

The $ 200 billion number is far higher than the American trade deficit with Canada, which Trump cited in his effort to hit the neighboring country with tariffs. (They The tariffs are at a break of 30 days.)

The US trade deficit in the Canada goods was about $ 63 billion in 2024. Total trade deficit with Canada drops to about $ 41 billion when facting in an American excess in the services.

Trade deficit is not a subsidy. This could be considered a subsidy if they now transferred billions of dollars every year to Canadian companies purely “out of goodwill”, analysts from TD Economics, a research center based in Canada, wrote in January. Instead, the money that goes from the USA Canada is the purchase of goods and services with cash value.

What else can contain $ 200 billion? The Trump transition team has previously said to CNN that most of this stems from US defense costs directly to Canada. The current expense of the Canada defense amounts less than 1.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is less than 2 percent of NATO aiming.

However, Canada spent an estimated $ 30.5 billion on the defense of 2024, which ranking the sixth tallest among all NATO countries. This was far less than what they now spent that year, $ 968 billion, but Canada has one eight population of the US and one of the 13 years.

Comparing American wealth with peers

Baier noticed “nervous” signs with shares markets and consumer confidence, asking when families will be able to feel the lower food prices and energy he promised.

“Look, we’re not that rich right now,” Trump said. “We are $ 36 trillion [in debt]. This is because we let all these nations use us. “

Compared to the rest of the world, they are now really rich. American GDP is the highest in the world, with $ 27.7 trillion. Chinese GDP, second closest, is $ 17.8 trillion.

Adjusting to the population, now the fourth richest, only three smaller countries: Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland are lagging behind.

Different measurements (Global Finance Global Finance Magazine, USA has occupied the ninth global level on a list of smaller countries, including Makau, Singapore, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and San Marino.