Oh, Well, This is Awkward. Trump's Apathy to "Unfair Trade" with Russia.

At the recent NATO summit, the Mango Mussolini tore into German chancellor, Angela Merkel, over her country's approval of a direct-from-Russia natural gas pipeline.

But what about the United States? We know the United States depends on imported oil. Canada is its major supplier. But what about Russia? This from Forbes.

The United States receives more of its imported gasoline from Russia than any other nation on Earth except our neighbor, Canada, which has a network of pipelines into the United States. 

And the gap between the two nations -- Canada and Russia -- is narrowing. Last year, 22% of our gasoline game from Canada, with 14% from Russia. So far this year, those perentages are separated by six percentage points, 19% to 13%. In May alone, the latest data available from our government, the spread is four points, 18% to 14%. 

In fact, the United States has imported more gasoline from Russia than all exports combined this year. Total imports of gasoline -- the category can include related fuels like propone and butane -- were $3.24 billion while all U.S. exports to Russia totaled $2.82 billion. Isn't that worth at least a tweet? 

Then there's trade deficits and the balance of trade. 

Throughout his campaign and his presidency, Trump has railed against nations with which the United States has a trade deficit, particularly China but including Germany and other nations. 

Needless to say, the United States has a trade deficit with Russia, though not nearly as large as with Germany and a number of other European nations. But that's only because overall U.S. trade with Russia is relatively small -- it ranks as the United States' 30th most important trade partner -- making it difficult for the deficit to "compete" with many other European nations. 

The U.S. trade deficit with Russia, which topped $10 billion in 2017 for the first time since 2014, is growing this year and will almost certainly top the 2014 total.  

...Five years ago, in 2012, 45 cents of every dollar in trade between the two nations was a U.S. export. Balance would be 50-50, of course. In 2017, the latest annual data, that figure is 29 cents on the dollar. So far this year, the perentage is down to 26 cents on the dollar. For the month of May alone, it was 23 cents. 

Among the 29 U.S. trade partners that rank ahead of Russia, no nation has registered such a rapid decrease in that balance over the last five years. China's trade with the United States is actually more balanced since 2012, although still terribly out of balance, having changed from 17 cents on the dollar to 20 cents. The U.S. average is 40 cents. When considering Russia, to Trump's way of thinking and in his parlance, we are getting ripped off.