After all the efforts of surrogates to give other rationales, Trump literally just thinks that when you buy more from a country than they buy from you, that means you are giving them money, and he intends to stop that.

I wonder what Trump would say if you asked him whether this applies to US states as well. If a US state has a bilateral trade deficit with another US state, is that a wealth transfer of some sort? Are all 50 states meant to have breakeven trade with all the other states?