As a German spokesman explained in high-school-level economic terms, “Germany’s position on the issue of trade balances and surpluses is well known. A surplus is neither good nor evil. It’s the result of supply and demand.”

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Germany, of course, gets dollars in return for goods sold in the United States. In turn it plows those monies back into the U.S. economy. The Organization for International Investment found that between 2012 and 2014, German investment in the United States tripled. In the United States, German firms employ more than 670,000 people. (The State Department reported, “In 2015, German direct investment in the United States was worth $255 billion, while U.S. direct investment in Germany was worth $108 billion. German investments in the United States focus largely on manufacturing and wholesale, as well as finance and insurance. Altogether, U.S. affiliates of German firms employ over 670,000 American workers. Together, our companies represent over one million jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”)

“German automakers employ about 33,000 American workers and German automotive suppliers employ an additional 77,000,” Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute tells me. “Germans invest so much in the United States because we have a trade deficit with them. Germans have extra dollars and they decide to invest them here. They wouldn’t have those extra dollars if they didn’t run a trade surplus with us.”

Trump’s gripe cannot be that Germany is “cheating” on trade agreements. Steven Rattner, President Obama’s “car czar,” tells me, “No serious economist has ever accused Germany of cheating on trade. Yes, they are guilty of being highly efficient manufacturers.” He continues, “Yes, they benefit from a cheap euro that they don’t control. But none of that makes them ‘very bad’ on trade.”

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Indeed, Germany is about the worst target one can pick for trade demonization. “Many German cars are produced in the United States (BMWs in South Carolina and Mercedes in Alabama),” Dan Mitchell of Cato explains. “But even if American consumers only purchased cars built in Germany, that wouldn’t be a bad thing since that money inevitably comes back to the U.S. economy, either to purchase American-produced goods and services or to invest in America.”