Day 412: Trump Impersonates Dr. Evil Regarding Trade Deficit With China

In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Dr. Evil has just been thawed from a decades-long cryogenic slumber and is hellbent on living up to his name. He decides to steal a nuclear warhead and extract ransom payments from the world to the tune of … [dramatic pause] … ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

Donald Trump had his own Dr. Evil moment Wednesday as he took to Twitter to implore China to reduce the annual deficit between the two nations to the tune of … [dramatic pause] … ONE BILLION DOLLARS!

In Austin Powers, Dr. Evil’s right-hand man, aptly named Number 2, has to clear his throat and tell Dr. Evil that a million bucks wasn’t a particularly large amount of money at that time, despite the dramatic announcement of the figure.

Here, someone needs to tell Trump the same.

Data from the U.S. census shows that in 2017 the U.S. had a $375.2 billion deficit — $28 billion higher than 2016 — when it came to trading with China, meaning Trump’s demand that China drive down that figure by $1 billion equates to a mere 0.27 percent reduction.

For context, $1 billion is about the same amount of money the government spends annually on unnecessary printing costs.

412 days in, 1050 to go

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