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Released on February 10, 2025
In an interview Sunday for the Super Bowl, President Donald Trump defended Elon Musk’s efforts to significantly cut federal budgets, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), saying he’s coming more.
Trump told Fox News’ Brett Bayer “maybe in 24 hours” that he would “check the Department of Education” and “military” to the billionaire leading the government’s Department of Efficiency.
“We’re going to find billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Trump said in an interview, recording at Mar-A-Lago, his Palm Beach Estate in Florida. “But I campaigned about this, Brett.”
Without quoting details in the seven-minute segment, Trump hinted at a list of “silly” USAID spending projects. Trump, Musk and the White House have discovered that not all of their single-out programs have anything to do with USAID funding, as they explain what they consider to be wasteful spending. did.
The interview then turned to what Trump hadn’t campaigned for. Canada has become the 51st province. When Baier asked if Trump’s idea was “real,” he said “yes,” then used the bulging numbers to talk about the US trade deficit with his north neighbor.
Trump attended the Kansas City Chiefs Philadelphia Eagles Game in New Orleans, the location of the deadly attack a few weeks ago. In a statement, Trump sought to remember the 14 people killed while celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street.
Here is a summary of the interview moments. Politifact emailed the White House press for comments and did not immediately respond.
Trump’s assessment of trade deficit with Canada
Trump defended Canada’s trade policy, saying, “Why are they paying $200 million a year for subsidies to Canada?”
The $20 billion figure is far higher than the US trade deficit with Canada, and Trump quoted in his efforts to strike neighbors with tariffs. (These duties are suspended for 30 days.)
The US trade deficit for goods with Canada was approximately $630 billion in 2024. The trade shortage with Canada is about $41 billion when considering the surplus of US services.
The trade deficit is not a subsidy. Analysts at TD Economics, a Canada-based think tank, are considered a grant if the US transfers billions of dollars each year to Canadian companies in January, purely “good intentions” and purely “good intentions” to a Canadian company. It might be. Rather, money going from the US to Canada is to buy goods and services at monetary value.
What else does the $20 billion figure include? Trump’s transition team previously told CNN that much of it stems from US defense spending that directly benefits Canada. Canada’s current defense spending is less than 1.4% of GDP, which is 2% covered by NATO.
However, Canada spent an estimated $30.5 billion on defense in 2024, ranking sixth among all NATO countries. That was far less than what the US spent $968 billion that year, while Canada is one eighth of the US population and one third of GDP.
Comparing American wealth with peers
Baier focused on “unsteady” signs with stock market and consumer trust, asking when the family could feel the food and energy prices he promised was lower.
“Look, we’re not that rich right now,” Trump said. “We’re $36 trillion (debt), because all these countries have made us take advantage of.”
However, compared to other parts of the world, the United States is certainly rich. The US GDP is the highest in the world, at $27.7 trillion. China’s second-closest GDP is $17.8 trillion.
Adjusting population, the US is the fourth-richest, chasing only three small countries: Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland.
Another measure (GDP per capita) by Global Finance Magazine ranks the ninth US on the list controlled by small countries such as Macau, Singapore, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and San Marino.