NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Waylon Wong.

And I'm Darren Woods.

And I'm Adrienne Ma.

At the core of President Trump's earth-shaking tariffs is a belief that countries should not

sell stuff to the U.S. without buying more stuff in return. In other words, Trump hates that the U.S.

has trade deficits. Yeah. For the big tariff announcement last week, the administration actually

used the U.S. trade deficits with each country to figure out the size

of their new tariffs.

And when we talk about the trade deficit, it might conjure up images of closing car factories

and American workers losing their jobs.

But the reality is more complex.

In fact, the trade deficit on its own isn't necessarily the boogey man that Trump claims.

Today on the show, why the trade deficit is neither good nor bad.

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