As he hosted the NATO secretary general on Thursday, President Donald Trump once again took the opportunity to bash NATO member Canada. “We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need anything that they give,” he said, arguing that Canada’s 40 million people should give up their sovereignty and agree to become the 51st state. We were curious about Trump’s math about the alleged $200 billion subsidy. Trump has a habit of exaggerating trade deficits to justify tariffs, but the $200 billion figure is so off-kilter that we suspected Trump was counting something else. Indeed, a White House official said he was also counting military expenditures allegedly spent on behalf of Canada. So we did the math, after receiving information from a White House official. We added up trade deficits (which as we’ve explained before are not a “subsidy”), NATO expenditures that Canada is falling short on and the U.S. share of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a combined U.S.-Canada air defense program originally aimed to detect Soviet bombers. Does this even come close to $200 billion? To read the full fact check and find out the Pinocchio rating, click the link below. |