The U.S. dollar is getting weaker, and that's just how the president wants it. During an appearance last Tuesday at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, Donald Trump told reporters that the dollar's declining exchange rate was 'great.' Trump understands that a weak dollar doesn't sound good. In his first term, he tweeted, 'As your President, one would think that I would be thrilled with our very strong dollar. I am not!' His logic is that the relatively weak currencies of America's foreign competitors, such as China and Japan, can make their goods cheaper in international markets, and that the United States would do well to replicate their strategy. This theory isn't unfounded'a weak dollar would boost the economy in certain respects'but the president's unpredictable foreign-policy and global-trade decisions are threatening to erode America's economic standing abroad in a far more significant way. When Trump talks about the relative strength or weakness of the dollar,...
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