AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s fallacious tariff tale

In escalating his trade war, President Donald Trump is persisting in his deceptive argument that tariffs are a pure win for the U.S. and a loss for China. He will not acknowledge that the costs of tariffs are being borne by Americans.

Trump has vowed to impose a blanket tariff of 25% on everything Americans buy from China. That would mean raising tariffs from 10% on $200 billion worth of goods by the end of the week and hitting an additional $325 billion in Chinese products with the same penalty “shortly.” His skewed explanation of how tariffs work — a staple of his rhetoric — unfolded over Twitter, where he also spread a false assertion about hurricane aid to Puerto Rico.

TRUMP: “For 10 months, China has been paying Tariffs to the USA of 25% on 50 Billion Dollars of High Tech, and 10% on 200 Billion Dollars of other goods. These payments are partially responsible for our great economic results.” — tweet Sunday.