The trade deficit is a reflection of both the increased spending...

The trade deficit is a reflection of both the increased spending capacity of Americans and the rise in value of the US dollar.   The trade deficit doesn't take into account the increase in size of the US economy.  It probably needs to be expressed as  a per capita metric so it doesn't fool the financially illiterate on this forum, who as usual have made complete idiots of themselves, swallowing a piece of propaganda from a news organisation as equally as illiterate