Most of us don’t quite understand the facts and figures when it comes to the tariffs that Donald Trump has implemented on various countries’ imports to the United States. So what does he do? He makes things even more complicated by sharing a banana analogy, seemingly telling people not to eat or buy bananas, and calling it a day.
Well, sort of. In a clip on X, Trump speaks to reporters in North Carolina outside of Air Force One on a tarmac. He discusses trade deficits and how we can save billions of dollars a year by not trading with a certain country. Per the post, that includes Brazil and its import of bananas, though the clip doesn’t reflect that in Trump’s actual comments to the press.
Donald Trump’s trade deficit comments are confusing for some.
President Trump Explains Trade Deficits:
— Steven Huffman (@Poeslawisalive) September 17, 2026
“If we buy 2 billion dollars worth of Bananas from Brazil, we’re actually losing 2 billion dollars. So if we stop eating bananas, we actually save 2 billion dollars”.
It’s just simple Economics. pic.twitter.com/IiY99a7Azq
In the clip, Trump mentions the trade deficit and says that “for example,” if we spend “$50 billion” per year trading with a country, but then stop trading with them, then we don’t lose that $50 billion per year. The quiet part, of course, is that this lack of a trade means the U.S. would be missing out on something the country needs.
The user joked in the post that Trump essentially said, “If we buy 2 billion dollars worth of Bananas from Brazil, we’re actually losing 2 billion dollars. So if we stop eating bananas, we actually save 2 billion dollars.” It’s not too far off, especially with the issues regarding trades with Brazil.
According to Fox 54 News, the U.S. had a $14 billion trade surplus with Brazil. So, if we’re keeping track, the U.S. has spent less money on Brazil imports. But, according to Trump’s logic, all we have to do is not spend money and we will have more. Why didn’t any of us think of that in order to save our bank account balances?
People are especially annoyed by Trump’s solution to money troubles.
In the comments under the X post, users slammed Trump for talking about not spending money in order to save it. While the banana analogy’s source isn’t too clear, and might have just been meant as a joke, people still don’t love the idea of Trump talking about trade deficits and tariff amounts without further explanation.
“I have a trade deficit with my local grocery store,” one person joked. “I pay them a lot of money and they don’t ever pay me any. Should I just stop eating?”
Another wrote, “Eat less if you don’t like the price of food. Freeze in winter if you don’t like the price of heating. I think I get it.”
Someone else added, “Imagine how much Americans could save if they never bought anything any more.”
I think we’re sensing a trend here.
“You have to sacrifice bananas because Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” another X user commented, when someone wrote that they like bananas.
Most of the MAGA critics don’t trust Trump’s math anyway.
Someone else commented on the post to joke that Trump must have learned economics from “Trump University.” Those who don’t support him and have never supported his MAGA movement as a whole don’t seem to trust much of what he says when it comes to economics. And this issue on trade deficits isn’t any different.
When someone else shared the same video on X, they wrote, “He doesn’t know anything about anything. It’s incredible.”
And, in the comments under that post, most users seemed to be in agreement that they aren’t here for the banana analogy or the idea of spending less on things like food and water to have more money. Go figure.
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