Fact of the Day: The Trade Deficit Is Getting Worse

Every president promises to reduce the trade deficit, but few come through. The elder Bush did it and Barack Obama did it, but that’s it for the past six presidents. The rest of them just made it worse. In recent years, the trade deficit stayed steady during Obama’s second term at about -2.8 percent, but despite Trump’s widespread imposition of tariffs and his promise to reduce the trade deficit, he was unable to make a dent in it when he took over. In fact, the trade deficit is set to get worse this year, projected to finish at about -3 percent.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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