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Posted on February 10, 2025
In his interview with Super Bowl Sunday, President Donald Trump defended Elon Musk's efforts to reduce the federal budget, including at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and he said he was yet to come.
Trump told Brett Bayer of Fox News that “maybe in 24 hours” he will tell Musk, the billionaire who heads the Ministry of Efficiency of the Government, to “check the Ministry of Education” and “Military”.
“We will find billions, hundreds billions of dollars fraud and abuse“Trump said in an interview enrolled in Mar-A-Lago, his Palm Beach mansion in Florida.” But I fought by it, Bret. “
Without citing specifics during the seven -minute segment, Trump mentioned a list of “ridiculous” USAID Spend ProjectsS Since Trump, Musk and the White House described what they consider to be wasteful costs, we have found that not all their individual programs include USAID funding.
Then the interview turned to something Trump did not campaign to: it turns Canada into a 51st country. When Bayer asked if Trump's idea was a “real thing”, he said, “Yes,” and then talks about the US trade deficit with his northern neighbor using a bloated number.
Trump attended the Kansas City City Boss-Filadelphia's game of Eagle, New Orleans, A website Deadly weeks earlier. In a statement, Trump called for to remember the 14 people who were killed while celebrating New Year on Bourbon Street.
Here are one times for interview. Politifact sent an email to the White House's prescription for comment and was not immediately heard.
Trump evaluation for commercial deficit with Canada
Trump defended his Canadian trade policy by telling Bayer: “Why do we pay $ 200 billion a year, essentially in a subsidy in Canada?”
The $ 200 billion figure is far higher than the US trade deficit with Canada, something Trump has quoted in his efforts to hit the neighboring country with tariffs. (These Tariffs are a 30-day pause.)
The US trade deficit in Canada was about $ 63 billion in 2024. The total trade deficit with Canada drops to about $ 41 billion in factor in US surplus.
The trade deficit is not a subsidy. It can be considered a subsidy if the United States is transferring billions of dollars every year to Canadian companies purely “from goodwill,” writes analysts at TD Economics, a brain trust based in Canada, writes in January. More recently, the money passing from the United States to Canada is to buy goods and services of monetary value.
What else can a $ 200 billion figure include? Earlier, Trump's transition team told CNN that much of it stems from the US defense costs directly in favor of Canada. The running costs of defense in Canada amount to less than 1.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), which is less than the 2 percent purpose of NATO.
However, Canada spent approximately $ 30.5 billion a defense in 2024, ranked sixth among all NATO countries. This was much less than what the US spent this year, $ 968 billion, but Canada has an eighth population of the United States and one-13th GDP.
Comparing the US wealth with peers
Bayer noted the “flutter” signs with the stock markets and the confidence of consumers, asking when families would be able to feel more prices for groceries and energy they promised.
“Look, we're not so rich at the moment,” Trump said. “We are $ 36 trillion (in debt). This is because we have left all these nations to take advantage of us. “
However, compared to the rest of the world, the US is really rich. The US GDP is the highest in the world, at $ 27.7 trillion. China's GDP, the second closest, is $ 17.8 trillion.
Adapting to the population, the US qualifies the fourth largest, behind only three smaller countries: Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland.
Different measurement (GDP per capita), Global Finance Magazine, ranks the US ninth worldwide in a list of smaller countries, including Macau, Singapore, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and San Marino.
