The U.S. merchandise trade deficit hit a record $1.2 trillion last year, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate it by imposing the highest tariffs in eight decades on foreign-made products. The president has described the trade deficit in goods, which the U.S. has run every year since 1975, as a “national emergency” resulting from unfair trade practices on the part of foreign nations. The sizable U.S. budget deficit, a sign of a nation living beyond its means, inevitably draws in large amounts of foreign goods, despite tariffs, they note. Although the president has failed thus far in his bid to shrink — let alone eliminate — the trade deficit, he has set in motion a fundamental reordering of global trade flows. At the beginning of 2025, businesses increased imports of foreign goods in hopes of front-running the new tariffs, which caused the trade deficit to balloon.

Source: Washington Post February 19, 2026 15:45 UTC