Again even within that quote it's: "on US exports or assets or exchange"
You are ignoring the or, if it said 'on US exports such as assets' then you would be correct in your interpretation.
Exports are a subcategory of total trade, which again is a useful distinction otherwise they would say trade not Exports. This was intended to confuse without being wrong, but exports and trade are meaningfully different and used in context correctly, but you are interpreting them as the same thing when they are not.
PS: Another way of stating this is trade must be balanced. I exchange one apple for one orange then by the existence of the trade the implication is the orange and the apple have equivalent value with each side valuing the others item more than their own. That's still true if you replace apple with Yen or whatnot which is again why trade deficits are only meaningful when you only look at goods.
You are ignoring the or, if it said 'on US exports such as assets' then you would be correct in your interpretation.
Exports are a subcategory of total trade, which again is a useful distinction otherwise they would say trade not Exports. This was intended to confuse without being wrong, but exports and trade are meaningfully different and used in context correctly, but you are interpreting them as the same thing when they are not.
PS: Another way of stating this is trade must be balanced. I exchange one apple for one orange then by the existence of the trade the implication is the orange and the apple have equivalent value with each side valuing the others item more than their own. That's still true if you replace apple with Yen or whatnot which is again why trade deficits are only meaningful when you only look at goods.