The public continues to hear or read that President Trump's trade policies are hurting the U.S. economy and destroying our relationship with the world and hurting the U.S. consumer.  They say the tariffs are especially harmful and causing price increases.  I am having trouble finding factual data that support those talking points.  Why do we see general statements in the media instead of the actual data?

Here are some of the data:

In 2016, the last year of President Obama, exports were $1.45 trillion, and imports were $2.19 trillion.

In 2017, the first year of President Trump, exports were $1.55 trillion (up around 7%), and imports were $2.4 trillion (up around 10%).

In 2018, exports were $1.67 trillion (up around 8%, or up 15% over 2016).  Imports were $2.54 trillion (up around 6%, up 16% over 2016).

In 2019, the first six months show around an $8-billion decrease in exports, or down less than 1%, and imports are up around $3 billion, or up less than 0.25%.

On August 14, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that from July 2018 to July 2019, import prices were down 1.8%, and export prices were down 0.9%

So which economic statistic shows that Trump's policies have hurt our relationship with trading partners around the world?  Which statistics show that the U.S. consumer has been hurt?  Think how much Trump's energy policies have helped the U.S. consumer. 

The truth is, the U.S. economy is doing much better than most of the world and much better than projected precisely because of Trump's tax and regulatory policies.  Trump is right that China and other countries have gotten away with murder on trade for decades, and Trump is dealing with it after previous presidents and Congress looked the other way.  The media, in their reporting, act as though there were no tariffs prior to Trump, and that is an intentional attempt to mislead the public.

Does anyone think China would have stopped at taking manufacturing jobs instead of going after service jobs as well?  The U.S. becomes vulnerable to enemies if we let them control such a high percentage of our manufacturing.

If the media weren't so biased, they would be pushing Pelosi and the Democrats to get the deal done with Mexico and Canada.  It certainly appears that journalists and other Democrats would rather have power and a bad economy than jobs for the American people.

If we had an honest media, instead of most journalists campaigning to elect Democrats and destroy Trump, they would cheer on the good economic results instead of seeking to remake America with massive job destruction in the private sector.  Why would anyone want to go back to Obama policies and worse that gave us the slowest economic recovery in seventy years? 

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