Subject: Re: Trump Steps on his own Trade Policy
You identified several possible ways to obtain US $ if/when needed. Selling assets owned could be one way. US Treasury debt is continuously being retired and resold, so any debt owned by the Saudis could be used to pay bills in US $ as they came due (IMO, they have the ability to do so--if they find it necessary). Another point is simple: They will almost always have US $ being paid to them for oil sales, so those funds could also be used when available.

Sure, but all that's kind of "baked in" to the status quo. This happens all the time, and has been happening for years and years - we run a current account deficit, and our trading partners invest their surplus dollars in the U.S. That's the "other things being equal" part of the discussion.

What we're talking about here is the President using his influence to jawbone the Saudis into doing more FDI in the U.S. - choosing to go out and buy more dollars than they otherwise would, so that they can "import" more U.S. assets. When you do that, other things being equal, you drive up the "investment" component of the national savings and investment equation, which drives up the trade deficit.