In an interview with the German papers Bild and The Times, Trump complained that the car trade was “out of balance” with Germany.

“If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, isn’t that the case?” he said. “How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all … it’s a one-way street.”

— Donald Trump

First of all, I just walked down Fifth Avenue a couple of days ago, and there are no houses, and there are no cars parked in front of houses. It’s midtown Manhattan. But that’s beside the point.

Asked what Trump could do to make sure German customers bought more American cars, the German deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said:

“Build better cars.”

It appears that Trump does not realize or know that BMW is already employing directly and indirectly nearly 70,000 people in the United States. Seriously, Trump really thinks our relationship with Germany is a problem for the United States?

Starting a trade war with Germany does not seem a smart move to me.