As far as I can tell, even though uneven exchange of trade between nations means that someone, somewhere must be taking on debt or selling off assets, only Nationalists actually care about the trade deficit.
The Left in general would prefer to see the end of nations, and want “reparations” to go to “brown people” from the developed countries for the sins of colonialism. (Never mind the colonialism of their own movements.)
The Liberals also want an end to nations, and everyone singing along happily together, but under Capitalism. Also they really are individualists, so they don’t think countries have a ‘right’ to hang onto their wealth.
The Capitalists like it because, aside from making the money themselves, weakening nations and loading them up with debt messes with the state’s abilities to regulate their behavior and make them do things like quit using child labor. Further, weakening nations weakens the states themselves, but most people cannot see this.
“Global trade, but we don’t keep a net trade deficit or surplus across the total of our trade with all nations” would likely be beneficial to American workers, but who cares about that?
Are you so sure nationalist elements are opposed to this? It’s the other side of the account you want to pay attention to, the capital account. It’s about America’s role as the global hegemon. Having the US dollar as the global reserve currency means that the US can use to enforce it’s will. Nations stockpile US dollars to fend off the IMF. It’s about increasing the desire of others to hold US assets. The trade deficit is the result of decisions the US has made to increase it’s national power since the Second World War.
It depends a lot on what US assets they’re holding. In general, to maintain sovereignty, you don’t want foreigners owning all of your real estate and other assets unless you’re planning to purge their ownership without compensation later. If they own your physical dollars, that may not be as big of a deal, since you can unilaterally change your currency if necessary, leaving them with piles of worthless paper. (That and, of course, significantly strengthening China is not a good long-term plan for American hegemony.)
Although, this does make me curious based on the level of implied competence in the ruling elites’ actions based on your evaluation, what do you think the purpose of the Iraq War was? The purpose of the Euro?
Though, to refine the previous statement, it isn’t that all Nationalists want to balance the trade deficit, but rather I think most people who want to balance the trade deficit are going to lean Nationalist (prioritizing the nation’s workers over capital or foreign workers).