A New York Times report published Thursday seemed mystified about where President Donald Trump got a statistic, only to confirm Trump was correct in the next paragraph.
Trump attacked China for ramping up trade with North Korea in a Wednesday tweet, saying that "trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter."
Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us - but we had to give it a try!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2017
The New York Times called attention to the statistic and questioned Trump's source.
"It was not clear where Mr. Trump got his 40 percent figure. A South Korean trade group said on Monday that China had imported much more iron in the last few months than previously," the newspaper reported.
But Trump did not say 40 percent; he said "almost" 40 percent. In the very next paragraph, the Times reported that he was in the right ballpark and provided the source.
"China's trade with the North grew 37.4 percent during the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2016, Chinese trade data released in April showed. China said the trade grew even as it stopped buying North Korean coal," it reported.
By standard incremental rounding practices in a base ten system, 37.4 percent is "almost" 40 percent.