When Donald Trump was running for president, he swore, among other things, that he would shrink the U.S. trade deficit, which he blamed on previous leaders’ supposed inability to negotiate deals that put America first. This wasn’t just some offhand comment, like the time Trump said he wouldn’t take a nuclear war in Europe off the table, but the centerpiece of his vision for reviving America’s manufacturing base. Yet in a turn of events that will undoubtedly shock you, his economic policies have had the exact opposite effect of what was promised: on Wednesday the Commerce Department said the United States posted a $891.2 billion trade deficit for 2018, the largest in our 243-year history. Oops!

The trade deficit exploded for a variety of reasons, some of which can be blamed squarely on the guy who said he was going to shrink it. For starters, experts say there was a rush to import goods ahead of a potential increase in tariffs on Chinese goods that was set to go into effect on March 1 if the U.S. and Beijing didn’t cut a deal (Trump later delayed this, citing progress on talks). Meanwhile, exports were hammered thanks to retaliatory tariffs on things like soybeans and other farm products. On top of that, many economists believe the giant tax cut passed in late 2017 “juiced demand from U.S. consumers and businesses as growth in the rest of the world was slowing.”

The widening trade deficit is, of course, just one of several areas in which Trump has failed to make good on his campaign pledges. Earlier this month, he came back from Vietnam empty-handed after blustering about his great relationship with dictator Kim Jong Un, who declined to drop his nukes and, in fact, appears to be rebuilding a rocket-launching site. And on Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a report saying unauthorized border crossings jumped to their highest level since 2007. “Almost the only time he has been successful at one of his goals is when he can set the terms unilaterally,” Rep. Joaquin Castro told The Washington Post. “That’s why he’s done a lot of executive orders, executive actions, like the travel ban, deregulations, emergency declaration. Those are things that don’t require any negotiation at all.” Simon Rosenberg founder of liberal think tank NDN, put it slightly more bluntly: “The reality is he can’t point to a single thing that’s better today than when he came to office.”

Obviously, President Firm Grasp on Reality doesn’t see it that way. Over the weekend, in one of his most bizarre speeches to date, he told conservatives America “is winning again,” and winning like it’s never won before. And where the winning has been less fruitful, he insists it’s everyone’s fault but his own:

He has criticized the administrations of President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush for not reforming the immigration system or reining in North Korea. He has railed against Democrats for failing to support his proposed border wall and implored them to ratify new trade deals. And he has even attacked fellow Republicans, obliquely slamming former House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) during a Rose Garden news conference last month for not having pushed faster to get a deal on the wall.

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