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Donald Trump, the Lord of Bankruptcy, took to Twitter today to bestow his “expertise” on American companies. The man who would be wasting away in anonymity if he hadn’t had the good luck of being born into a family capable of handing off hundreds of millions of dollars of tax evaded dollars to him is clearly somehow still convinced that he is a master businessman.
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In the little tweetstorm he unleashed, the president once again bemoaned the money he thinks the United States has lost in its trade relationship with China and through intellectual property theft. But rather than offer a sane solution to the problem, he pronounced that: “We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better of without them.”
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The outburst was in response to the enormous tariffs China hit the United States with this morning, a retaliation for the president’s escalating and self-flagellating economic war with the Sino-juggernaut.
Reader, make no mistake. We do in fact need China, at least under present conditions. They are our largest trade partner and as such a massive chunk of American exports depend on Chinese markets. If we were to stop trading with China entirely overnight our economy would grind to a halt. With that in mind, the president’s following tweets take on a distinctly unhinged light.
“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA,” he said, clearly conflating trade and manufacturing location. Even if every American company did start operating completely within the United States they would still need to sell a large portion of their products to China.
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Trump then promised he will “respond” to the Chinese tariffs later today (one should shudder at the thought), and tried to sell the entire debacle as a “GREAT opportunity” for the United States.
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He then did a weird pivot to talking about Chinese Fentanyl, presumably because he needs to paint this disaster more as a strategic development rather than the obvious blunder it is. By pretending that the Chinese tariffs have something to do with the opioid crisis he’s able to act like he is protecting Americans when really he’s just hurting their wallets.
Trump ended by claiming that because of his leadership the American economy is now “MUCH larger” than China’s. While the United States is still the world’s largest economy it is certainly not “MUCH larger” than China and if this president continues down this disastrous path we will soon be stumbling into economic ruin.
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Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
Follow Rob Haffey on Twitter.
