U.S. Trade Gap Ballooned in July

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services grew to the biggest gap in 16 months in July, as America imported more electronics to feed the country’s artificial intelligence boom.

The monthly trade deficit, the gap between what the United States imports and what it exports, hit $88.6 billion in the month, according to data the Commerce Department released on Thursday. That was an increase of more than 24 percent compared with June.

While some economists said the data mostly reflected the strength of the U.S. economy and the A.I. build out, the data still threatened to present a setback for the Trump administration. Mr. Trump has imposed steep global tariffs on the theory that they will reduce the trade deficit and bolster domestic manufacturing.

But the war with Iran, as well as new tranches of tariffs and court battles that have stripped away some of those levies, have disrupted supply chains and led to uncertainty for companies. America’s A.I. boom is also continuing uninterrupted, requiring significant imports of expensive computing products.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/business/economy/us-trade-defecit-july.html