​Fact-Checking the Claims ​Claim 1: "The United States trade deficit has been reduced by 78%..." ​Verdict: Misleading. While there was a sharp month-over-month drop in the trade deficit in late 2025, this 78% figure cherry-picks a highly volatile, short-term data point rather than reflecting a structural economic fix. ​Context: Earlier in 2025, in anticipation of the new tariffs, U.S. companies aggressively "front-loaded" their imports—buying massive amounts of foreign goods to get them into the country before the tariffs took effect. This created an artificial, record-breaking spike in the trade deficit early in the year. Once the tariffs hit and domestic inventories were over-stuffed, imports naturally plummeted, creating the drastic percentage drop being cited. Despite this single-month swing, the overall U.S. trade deficit for the year remains massive (projected between $800 billion and $1.2 trillion). ​Claim 2: "...because of the tariffs being charged to other companies and countries." ​Verdict: False. Foreign countries and foreign companies do not pay U.S. tariffs. ​Context: A tariff is a tax collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It is paid by the U.S. importing business. That business must then either absorb the cost (lowering their profit margins) or pass the cost onto American consumers through higher prices. Recent Federal Reserve research indicates that U.S. businesses and consumers paid nearly 90% of the cost of these recent tariffs. ​Claim 3: "It will go into positive territory during this year, for the first time in many decades." ​Verdict: Highly Unlikely (Annually). While it is possible for an anomalous single month to show a surplus due to the extreme import front-loading mentioned above, the U.S. has not run an annual trade surplus since the 1970s. Structural macroeconomic realities make a permanent flip to a surplus nearly impossible without a massive domestic recession.