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Trump can't find any US trade surpluses. Here you go, Mr. President

Evan Vucci | AP

President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that he cannot find a country with which the United States has a trade surplus.

The U.S., in fact, has a merchandise trade surplus with more than half of the countries in the world, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. A trade surplus means America exports more goods to a country than it imports from it.

"The deals we have with other countries are unbelievably bad. We don't have any good deals," Trump told a group of business executives at the White House. "In fact, I'm trying to find a country where we actually have a surplus of trade as opposed to a deficit. Everything's a deficit."

Trump has heavily criticized international trade deals and U.S. trade deficits with Mexico and China, in particular. He has called to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and pledged to negotiate bilateral trade deals instead of pursuing the Trans-Pacific Partnership , an Obama-era pact.

Trump's comments Thursday supporting his stances skew the facts about America's trade relationships. The U.S. has a merchandise trade surplus with key partners, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Belgium and the Netherlands.

"I actually said to my people, find a country where we actually do well," he said. "So far, we haven't found that country. It's just losses with everybody and we're going to turn that around."

On Thursday, Trump highlighted the U.S. deficits with Mexico and China. He called the relationship with Mexico "unsustainable" and said, "We're not going to let" the deficit happen anymore.

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