Free Trade

Eric Boehm | 2.2.2026 11:10 AM

President Donald Trump argued in a Saturday Wall Street Journal op-ed that his myriad tariffs have boosted America's economy without causing the harms that many economists predicted. "We have proven, decisively, that, properly applied, tariffs do not hurt growth—they promote growth and greatness, just as I said all along," Trump claimed.

That conclusion rests on misleading claims, inaccurate data, and logical fallacies. Here are the three most egregious examples.

The trade deficit. Trump's op-ed claims that he has "slashed our monthly trade deficit by an astonishing 77%."

That would be astonishing. But in reality, the Census Bureau reported last week that the trade deficit increased—not decreased—by nearly 37 percent in November, the most recent month for which data are available. Through the first 11 months of 2025, the trade deficit was 4 percent higher than it had been in 2024. That is literally the opposite of what Trump is claiming.

It's somewhat astonishing that the Journal allowed such a wildly misleading claim to appear in its pages. Someone really should have fact-checked this before it went to print.

Who pays the tariffs? "According to a recent study by the Harvard Business School," Trump wrote, foreign........

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