Trump’s justification for the tariffs was rebalancing the trade deficit—it’s not going the way he wanted

President Trump hates the United States’ trade deficit. Indeed, he is so concerned about the “economic and national security risks” the deficit creates that he imposed a tariff regime that raised geopolitical tensions across the globe.

The only problem is that his tariffs don’t appear to be rebalancing the huge volume of goods and services the U.S. imports, versus its declining exports.

The goods and services deficit for the U.S. was $70.3 billion in December, up $17.3 billion from $53 billion in November...