During his 2016 presidential campaign and his presidency, Donald J. Trump made the assertion that "trade is a competition, one that the U.S. is losing, because of our trade deficit with China, Japan, and Mexico." These claims are a direct response to the trade deficit the US has. For example, in 2019, the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services was $616.8 billion. Imports were $3.1 trillion and exports were only $2.5 trillion. Do you agree with Trump's correlation of a trade balance deficit = bad = losing? Why or why not? (Please stick to the economic implications. We are not discussing political views here).

watch this ~3 min1video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv5SiQpG6sgfrom a seminar in 1978 (still relevant to this day) by Dr. Milton Friedman, winner of the Nobel Price in economics. Do you agree with Dr. Friedman?

How then should the U.S. define it's trade policy in the future? Should policies be determined based on the Balance of payments?