PENNSYLVANIA — Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the U.S. trade deficit hit $63.6 billion in July — a 12-year high.
The news drops on the same day that Trump is scheduled to return to Westmoreland County, where in 2016 he gave a speech laying out his trade agenda. He loudly criticized trade deficits and promised Pennsylvania workers that he would “turn it all around — and we can turn it around fast.”
In the same speech, he also promised to “create massive numbers of jobs.” Westmoreland County’s current unemployment rate is nearly 14%. The Pittsburgh area has lost 5,200 manufacturing jobs in the past year alone.
“Donald Trump made a lot of promises to workers in Western Pennsylvania — that he would bring back manufacturing jobs and sharply reduce the trade deficit,” said Pennsylvania Democrat Party spokesman Brendan Welch. “What did he actually deliver? The greatest economic crisis in a century and the highest trade deficit in a dozen years. Pennsylvanians needs jobs — not more photo ops and broken promises.”
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