One of Donald Trump’s campaign promises was to stand up to China.
That is one promise he followed through to a tee.
But now China is sick of it, and just did one thing that means war with the United States.
Since being elected, there is perhaps no promise that he took as seriously as standing up to China.
For many years he has been sounding the alarm about trade deals with China that have ripped off the United States.
So in the most “America First” fashion possible, President Trump has stopped talking and made a major threat to slap a ten percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
To anyone who supports Donald Trump’s economic nationalism, this is a great move that undoubtedly would lead towards both fairer deals and further U.S. manufacturing.
For China, and the anti-Trump crowd it is disastrous.
For China, it will undoubtedly harm their economy, which is the point.
To the anti-Trumpers, they believe it will create immense harm to the U.S. economy because of increased costs on Chinese goods.
China is so upset about President Trump’s threats that they have threatened to retaliate against Trump for launching what they believe, probably correctly, is a trade war.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on their website that “[t]he United States has initiated a trade war,” before threatening to fight back against President Trump.
Fighting back against President Trump in a trade war would end badly for China.
China benefits much more heavily from trading with the United States than the United States does trading with China.
In classic “Art of The Deal” fashion President Donald Trump knows this.
After all, he wrote the go-to book on deals.
One of the central tenets of Trump’s book is “using your leverage.”
And in this case, President Donald Trump has $200 billion of leverage against China.
That leverage will eventually force China to come to the negotiating table.
This is something that no other President was willing to do.
The most sure-fire way to create more jobs in the United States is to encourage more manufacturing.
In the past, there wasn’t much incentive to manufacture U.S. goods, and China had an unfair advantage in the market.
It is hard to promote free trade with a country that has an unfair advantage.
That’s why President Trump is so supportive of “fair trade,” which puts American interests first.
This is a stark contrast to the strategy by former President Barack Obama, who was fine with foreign countries having freer trade with the United States than domestic manufacturers, who were tacked with heavy regulations.
During his eight-year reign, China had it made, while Americans were forced to struggle for work.
But thankfully Donald Trump was elected President, who believes the exact opposite of Obama and is making that clear with his policies.
And the fact that the unemployment rate is at near-historic lows shows that Trump’s plans are working.
Do you support President Trump’s trade policy with China?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
