Hillary Clinton supporter Frank Lavin, a former Republican White House aide to President Reagan, denied the growing trade deficit with China poses a significant threat to American workers Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham pressed Lavin on how he can look at the trade deficit, which has ballooned over the last 15 years, and want to continue with the same policies.

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Ingraham argued for the need for a leader like Republican nominee Donald Trump who stands for “smarter, better, more pragmatic trade agreements that take into account our strategic and our economic interests, both short-term and long-term.”

Lavin, who’s planning to cast his ballot for Hillary Clinton in November, touted the benefits of reducing trade barriers. “Movement of free trade agreements do work and do help the American economy and do help the American workers.”

Lavin, now CEO of a company that helps get consumer brands into China, recommended countering the trade deficit by reducing “barriers with the countries that do play fair.”

“Let’s work with like-minded societies that do play by the rules,” Lavin said, suggesting trade with countries in the E.U. “Let’s liberalize trade across the Atlantic and at least capture the benefits there.”

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Ingraham countered, saying that’s just an extension of what’s already done, like WTO and NAFTA, which “led to massive deficits.”

Ingraham said being stuck in a $220 billion deficit is money that could better be put toward military space technology.

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She suggested the United States should get tough on trade with China in much the same way Reagan made a “strategic decision based on our adversarial posture with the Soviet Union” to cut trade ties with the Soviet Union.

“We have an adversarial relationship, whether people want to realize it or not, with Communist China. We see what they’re doing in the South China Sea, we see what they’re doing in buying up critical infrastructure and other companies … and yet we are enriching them year after year after year.”