Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Washington CNN —
President Donald Trump repeated false claims about the US trade relationship with Canada and Europe in virtual Thursday remarks to the World Economic Forum in Davos. He also delivered a smattering of other misstatements and exaggerations about trade, tariffs and economic policy.
Here is a fact check of some of his remarks.
In his speech at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Trump repeated false claims about the European Union. He said: “They don’t take our, essentially, don’t take our farm products, and they don’t take our cars.”
It’s not true, “essentially” or otherwise, that the EU doesn’t buy US farm products. The US government says the EU bought $12.3 billion worth of US agricultural exports in the 2023 fiscal year, making it the fourth-largest export market for US agricultural and related products behind China, Mexico and Canada.
And while US automakers have often struggled to succeed in Europe, according to a December 2023 report from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the EU is the second-largest market for US vehicle exports — importing 271,476 US vehicles in 2022, valued at nearly 9 billion euro. (Some of these are vehicles made by European automakers at plants in the US.)
Trump complained of the US trade deficit with China, saying, “We’ve been having massive deficits with China. Biden allowed it to get out of hand. He’s -...
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The State Bar of Texas is dropping efforts to discipline Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton over allegations that his failed efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 pr...