As you may know, China responded to Trump’s tariffs by proposing a 25% tariff on our exports to their country. This is a trade war. But Trump tweeted this morning that it’s not a trade war, that we’ve already lost:
We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018
How is this not they very definition of a trade war? We raise our tariffs on their goods and they do the same for us. That is a trade war.
Also, Trump said the other day that trade wars are easy to win, but now says we are not in trade war with China? C’mon, make up your mind Trump.
The bottom line is that this new trade war will hurt the economy. It will not only make their goods more expensive for us to buy, but on the flip side it will also hurt the American worker, as our exports are essentially being taxed in the same way so that less in China buy them.
Honestly Trump should forget about the ‘trade deficit’ and worry about the real trillion dollar deficit that he and Congress just created with that last spending bill. I know, fat chance.
Trump also tweeted that he would be taking strong action on the border today, which I assume means beginning to put the National Guard at the border:
Our Border Laws are very weak while those of Mexico & Canada are very strong. Congress must change these Obama era, and other, laws NOW! The Democrats stand in our way - they want people to pour into our country unchecked....CRIME! We will be taking strong action today.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018