He's plain stupid. Use it once and everyone can see it through now. He'll be the most dumb President to use it the second time, dumber than a stack of bricks as his best pal, Elon, will say.
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Serious Trump Won Again! Tariffs against China went from 125% to 10%!
- Thread starter Pinkieslut
- Start date
Why do you conclude so early? This trade war fight is just at the beginning stage now. 30% tariff for the US consumers is still hell of a lot. Inflation will set in and their people will sure to protest again. Just watch this space.
Nothing had worked out in USA ‘s favour. All the promises like the world begging for mercy, the manufacturers clamoring to bring their products back to the USA, the 90 deals in 90 days, the investors rushing to invest in the USA, the hundreds of new factories, etc, NOTHING. The only thing Trump has achieved is that other countries are making deals with each other, pulling away from the USA, alienating allies, and making the world think the USA has gone bonkers.
China has other alternatives to fight back. Their Treasury rates are low, their citizens' savings are high, they had been through 3 years of Covid with similar factories closures and stopped work, but they are still surviving pretty well today, that country is an authoritative regime where nobody dares to retaliate against the CCP, unlike America. Last of all, they still have Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America to sell their products albeit with restricted conditions and yields. Trump is going against the whole world with his tariffs implementation, whilst China is only against the US, so you tell me who will eventually win? Common sense will prevail if you still have any.
Trump only has his own interests in his mind. He would rather ensure all his own, and his family's, present and forthcoming investments in the Middle East will turn successful and would probably even offer to kiss the Arabs' arses in order to fulfill this achievement. He's eagerly waiting for that bitch Pam Bondi to give him the green light to take acceptance of his BOEING 747 present from Qatar, the key financial supporter of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, not only for his present own use, but also after he will step down as he had already said that it'll eventually go into his own Presidential Library.
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The key is does this agreement means AI chip export ban is relax? If yes then China win else USA win cos 30% tariff is no joke on china
This video explains everything I would want to say about this current tariff reprieve between China and US. It is definitely not a win for Trump. Enough said:
Bessent is clearly a sucker. He has no choice but to present what his boss wants him to say although when you look at his stammering and his body language, they seem very difficult to do so.
Bessent Fails Completely In Major China Backpedal As U.S. Bond Market Begins Selling Off:
Bessent is clearly a sucker. He has no choice but to present what his boss wants him to say although when you look at his stammering and his body language, they seem very difficult to do so.
Last edited:
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Forget about US. The future is china.
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https://www.straitstimes.com/world/...ith-china-can-south-east-asia-get-a-break-too
An obstacle in negotiations is that the White House is pushing for less Asean trade with China as the price for better trade terms with the US.PHOTO: REUTERS
Bhagyashree Garekar, Yew Lun Tian, Mara Cepeda, Philip Wen and Shannon Teoh
UPDATED MAY 13, 2025, 06:20 PM
WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK/MANILA - It took one weekend in Geneva for US President Donald Trump to roll back what has been seen till now as the raison d’etre of his presidency.
From May 14, gone are the 145 per cent tariffs on goods from China – down to 30 per cent, composed of 10 per cent baseline tariffs plus 20 per cent punitive levies aimed at curbing the inflow of precursors to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is causing tens of thousands of deaths in the US. Apart from these, some sector-specific tariffs remain.
The reversal on China invites the obvious question: What about the rest of the world, especially South-east Asia where reciprocal tariffs range from 49 per cent on Cambodia to 17 per cent on the Philippines to 10 per cent on free-trade agreement partner Singapore?
UPDATED MAY 13, 2025, 06:20 PM
WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK/MANILA - It took one weekend in Geneva for US President Donald Trump to roll back what has been seen till now as the raison d’etre of his presidency.
From May 14, gone are the 145 per cent tariffs on goods from China – down to 30 per cent, composed of 10 per cent baseline tariffs plus 20 per cent punitive levies aimed at curbing the inflow of precursors to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is causing tens of thousands of deaths in the US. Apart from these, some sector-specific tariffs remain.
The reversal on China invites the obvious question: What about the rest of the world, especially South-east Asia where reciprocal tariffs range from 49 per cent on Cambodia to 17 per cent on the Philippines to 10 per cent on free-trade agreement partner Singapore?
Trump blinked in trade war with China. Can South-east Asia get a break, too?
An obstacle in negotiations is that the White House is pushing for less Asean trade with China as the price for better trade terms with the US.PHOTO: REUTERS
Bhagyashree Garekar, Yew Lun Tian, Mara Cepeda, Philip Wen and Shannon Teoh
UPDATED MAY 13, 2025, 06:20 PM
WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK/MANILA - It took one weekend in Geneva for US President Donald Trump to roll back what has been seen till now as the raison d’etre of his presidency.
From May 14, gone are the 145 per cent tariffs on goods from China – down to 30 per cent, composed of 10 per cent baseline tariffs plus 20 per cent punitive levies aimed at curbing the inflow of precursors to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is causing tens of thousands of deaths in the US. Apart from these, some sector-specific tariffs remain.
The reversal on China invites the obvious question: What about the rest of the world, especially South-east Asia where reciprocal tariffs range from 49 per cent on Cambodia to 17 per cent on the Philippines to 10 per cent on free-trade agreement partner Singapore?
UPDATED MAY 13, 2025, 06:20 PM
WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK/MANILA - It took one weekend in Geneva for US President Donald Trump to roll back what has been seen till now as the raison d’etre of his presidency.
From May 14, gone are the 145 per cent tariffs on goods from China – down to 30 per cent, composed of 10 per cent baseline tariffs plus 20 per cent punitive levies aimed at curbing the inflow of precursors to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is causing tens of thousands of deaths in the US. Apart from these, some sector-specific tariffs remain.
The reversal on China invites the obvious question: What about the rest of the world, especially South-east Asia where reciprocal tariffs range from 49 per cent on Cambodia to 17 per cent on the Philippines to 10 per cent on free-trade agreement partner Singapore?
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China will negotiate on our behalf.
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in tis tariff war, there'll be no winner, the losers will be the working class, the poor... donald dumb is using the tariff war to manipulate the stock markets
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msm as usual is sexpecting a surge in cpi and inflation. what inflation?
Consumer prices rise at slowest annual pace since February 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cons...nnual-pace-since-february-2021-185747589.html
Consumer prices rise at slowest annual pace since February 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cons...nnual-pace-since-february-2021-185747589.html
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“de minimis” tariff drops from 120% to 54% with a $100 flat fee per item. this used to be the $800 online purchase that skips customs, duties, taxes and can be shipped directly from tiongcock to usa. many tiongcock online retail sites sexploit this loophole to ship junk and fakes to americans in order to boost their “sales”, “revenue”, and “volume” to dupe tiongs into investing in them. fentanyl is also shipped this way, bypassing inspection and scrutiny at the ports. with a $100 flat fee and relatively high 54% tariff, buyers are deterred from making rash purchases.
also, ccp lifts the ban on purchases of boeing aircraft.
also, ccp lifts the ban on purchases of boeing aircraft.
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Wow Trump lost....I am Soo upset
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purple carpet welcum. very rare in saudi labia.
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China Has Quietly Won the Trade War—and Now Leads the World
Ricardo Martins
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
—Vladimir Lenin
A Silent but Seismic Turning Point
In a silent but seismic shift, President Xi Jinping has ended five centuries of Western global dominance—not with bombs or blockades, but with strategic patience and unyielding confidence. Without firing a single shot, China has emerged not only as the victor of Trump’s chaotic trade war but also as the world’s new de facto leader.
This transformation did not happen overnight, but the past few years have accelerated an inevitable rebalancing, especially after Trump’s first administration. The West, and particularly the United States, once sat atop a unipolar world order. Today, that dominance has not just eroded—it has been decisively challenged.
The Biden administration, like Trump’s before it, ultimately came to terms with a critical truth: global decoupling from China is economically untenable. The U.S. Treasury now openly acknowledges that tariffs are unsustainable, signaling what amounts to a strategic surrender in a trade war that began with bravado but ended in backpedaling.
The Cost of Financial Hubris
America’s attempt to sever its economic entanglement with China unraveled under the weight of its own financialization. Tariffs imposed during the Trump years wiped out trillions in global capital, not by transferring wealth to Beijing but by annihilating it. Markets froze, supply chains fractured, and America’s inflationary spiral deepened as Chinese imports became pricier and scarcer. Grocery chains and tech firms sounded the alarm: shelves were going empty, and production lines were halting. A $1 trillion trade dependency can’t simply be wished away.
China, by contrast, played the long game. It neither retaliated rashly nor blinked. It held five powerful economic levers in reserve: U.S. Treasury holdings, currency manipulation, control over rare earth elements, asymmetric trade dependencies, and vast cross-border investments. Each of these tools remains in Beijing’s back pocket—unleashed only when necessary. That quiet strength was Xi’s real strategy: win without war.
A Battle of Ego vs. Shared Future
In truth, this wasn’t merely a contest of policies—it was a duel between two men: Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. One ruled by consensus and long-term vision; the other by tweetstorms and impulsive tariffs. While Trump chased headlines and short-term victories, Xi pursued civilizational restoration. His goal was not just to withstand American pressure, but to lead a new era of global governance rooted in sovereignty, economic connectivity, and multipolar cooperation.
Xi Jinping’s vision for the world is a shared future for mankind: a multipolar global order based on mutual respect, non-interference, economic cooperation, and sovereign development, which, to some extent, revives the spirit of Bandung and the aspirations of the Global South. It emphasizes connectivity through initiatives like the Belt and Road, stability over confrontation, and a shift from Western-dominated liberalism, where rules and norms are dictated by the market and leaders follow the market’s ruling, to a more inclusive, pragmatic global governance model rooted in civilizational respect.
The results are stark: The U.S. Navy is aging, and its shipbuilding capacity is stagnant. Military overstretch has weakened alliances, with even Europe questioning the future of NATO. Meanwhile, China builds ports, railways, and satellites. Through initiatives like the Belt and Road and critical mineral diplomacy, Beijing now anchors vast swaths of Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia into its sphere of influence, not by force, but by finance and infrastructure.
A Different Kind of Leadership
The question no longer is whether China will lead the world—it already is. The question is how it will share that leadership. Xi’s vision, contrary to Western paranoia, is not zero-sum. As Zhou Bo, senior fellow at Tsinghua University, eloquently put it in his recent book Should the World Fear China?, “The world is becoming less Western, and it’s about time the West learned to listen.”
What the West perceives as fear, the Global South sees as opportunity. In Africa, Chinese workers build roads and hospitals; in Latin America, Chinese investments fuel clean energy and education. Even amid complex territorial tensions, China has maintained a foreign policy grounded in non-interference and regional diplomacy. When was the last time China toppled a government or bombed a nation into regime change?
Toward a Shared but Multipolar Future
To those who say China seeks to upend the international order, the response is simple: What is the order worth if it only serves the few? China doesn’t reject rules—it seeks fairness in their making. The Belt and Road isn’t a trap, as some Western media narratives suggest; it’s a lifeline for nations long ignored by Washington and Brussels. Even the narrative of Chinese “militarism” collapses under scrutiny: China hasn’t engaged in foreign combat since 1979, while U.S. interventions stretch across every continent.
This doesn’t mean China is perfect—no nation is. But it does mean the West must move from denial to adaptation. The future will not be American or European-dominated. It will be co-governed, with China holding a preponderant role. The West must recalibrate, not in fear, but in mutual respect.
In the words of Zhou Bo: “You cannot be the world’s strongest power and still claim victimhood.” The same could be said of the U.S.—it must accept that others have risen, and that humility, not hegemony, will define the 21st century.
From Pax Americana to Pax Sinica?
We are indeed entering a new era—not marked by the collapse of the West, but by its maturation. Learning from China doesn’t mean becoming China. It means recognizing that leadership today is measured not just in aircraft carriers or GDP, but in resilience, diplomacy, and the ability to build.
The West ruled the world for 500 years. It is now time to share the stage with a resurgent power, one that has reclaimed its rightful place and carries within it the wisdom of a 5,000-year-old civilization.
Ricardo Martins
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
—Vladimir Lenin
A Silent but Seismic Turning Point
In a silent but seismic shift, President Xi Jinping has ended five centuries of Western global dominance—not with bombs or blockades, but with strategic patience and unyielding confidence. Without firing a single shot, China has emerged not only as the victor of Trump’s chaotic trade war but also as the world’s new de facto leader.
This transformation did not happen overnight, but the past few years have accelerated an inevitable rebalancing, especially after Trump’s first administration. The West, and particularly the United States, once sat atop a unipolar world order. Today, that dominance has not just eroded—it has been decisively challenged.
The Biden administration, like Trump’s before it, ultimately came to terms with a critical truth: global decoupling from China is economically untenable. The U.S. Treasury now openly acknowledges that tariffs are unsustainable, signaling what amounts to a strategic surrender in a trade war that began with bravado but ended in backpedaling.
The Cost of Financial Hubris
America’s attempt to sever its economic entanglement with China unraveled under the weight of its own financialization. Tariffs imposed during the Trump years wiped out trillions in global capital, not by transferring wealth to Beijing but by annihilating it. Markets froze, supply chains fractured, and America’s inflationary spiral deepened as Chinese imports became pricier and scarcer. Grocery chains and tech firms sounded the alarm: shelves were going empty, and production lines were halting. A $1 trillion trade dependency can’t simply be wished away.
China, by contrast, played the long game. It neither retaliated rashly nor blinked. It held five powerful economic levers in reserve: U.S. Treasury holdings, currency manipulation, control over rare earth elements, asymmetric trade dependencies, and vast cross-border investments. Each of these tools remains in Beijing’s back pocket—unleashed only when necessary. That quiet strength was Xi’s real strategy: win without war.
A Battle of Ego vs. Shared Future
In truth, this wasn’t merely a contest of policies—it was a duel between two men: Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. One ruled by consensus and long-term vision; the other by tweetstorms and impulsive tariffs. While Trump chased headlines and short-term victories, Xi pursued civilizational restoration. His goal was not just to withstand American pressure, but to lead a new era of global governance rooted in sovereignty, economic connectivity, and multipolar cooperation.
Xi Jinping’s vision for the world is a shared future for mankind: a multipolar global order based on mutual respect, non-interference, economic cooperation, and sovereign development, which, to some extent, revives the spirit of Bandung and the aspirations of the Global South. It emphasizes connectivity through initiatives like the Belt and Road, stability over confrontation, and a shift from Western-dominated liberalism, where rules and norms are dictated by the market and leaders follow the market’s ruling, to a more inclusive, pragmatic global governance model rooted in civilizational respect.
The results are stark: The U.S. Navy is aging, and its shipbuilding capacity is stagnant. Military overstretch has weakened alliances, with even Europe questioning the future of NATO. Meanwhile, China builds ports, railways, and satellites. Through initiatives like the Belt and Road and critical mineral diplomacy, Beijing now anchors vast swaths of Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia into its sphere of influence, not by force, but by finance and infrastructure.
A Different Kind of Leadership
The question no longer is whether China will lead the world—it already is. The question is how it will share that leadership. Xi’s vision, contrary to Western paranoia, is not zero-sum. As Zhou Bo, senior fellow at Tsinghua University, eloquently put it in his recent book Should the World Fear China?, “The world is becoming less Western, and it’s about time the West learned to listen.”
What the West perceives as fear, the Global South sees as opportunity. In Africa, Chinese workers build roads and hospitals; in Latin America, Chinese investments fuel clean energy and education. Even amid complex territorial tensions, China has maintained a foreign policy grounded in non-interference and regional diplomacy. When was the last time China toppled a government or bombed a nation into regime change?
Toward a Shared but Multipolar Future
To those who say China seeks to upend the international order, the response is simple: What is the order worth if it only serves the few? China doesn’t reject rules—it seeks fairness in their making. The Belt and Road isn’t a trap, as some Western media narratives suggest; it’s a lifeline for nations long ignored by Washington and Brussels. Even the narrative of Chinese “militarism” collapses under scrutiny: China hasn’t engaged in foreign combat since 1979, while U.S. interventions stretch across every continent.
This doesn’t mean China is perfect—no nation is. But it does mean the West must move from denial to adaptation. The future will not be American or European-dominated. It will be co-governed, with China holding a preponderant role. The West must recalibrate, not in fear, but in mutual respect.
In the words of Zhou Bo: “You cannot be the world’s strongest power and still claim victimhood.” The same could be said of the U.S.—it must accept that others have risen, and that humility, not hegemony, will define the 21st century.
From Pax Americana to Pax Sinica?
We are indeed entering a new era—not marked by the collapse of the West, but by its maturation. Learning from China doesn’t mean becoming China. It means recognizing that leadership today is measured not just in aircraft carriers or GDP, but in resilience, diplomacy, and the ability to build.
The West ruled the world for 500 years. It is now time to share the stage with a resurgent power, one that has reclaimed its rightful place and carries within it the wisdom of a 5,000-year-old civilization.
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Emperor Trump will run the world.
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Even anti Trump CNN has to acknowledge that Trump has played a master stroke locking in a 10% tariff regardless of how the negotiations play out.
By Phil Mattingly, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 9:58 PM EDT, Mon May 12, 2025
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L) and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer speak to the media in Geneva.
Valentin Flauraud/AFP/Getty Images
CNN —
President Donald Trump’s shock-and-awe tariff approach threatened to rupture the global financial system and drive the US economy into recession. Nervous about the prospect of empty store shelves and reignited inflation, Trump sent in his even-keeled and professional negotiators to Geneva to snag a win.
The unexpectedly dramatic de-escalation with China laid the groundwork for a growing series of trade negotiations that may produce a handful of rapid-fire, if less than fulsome, bilateral agreements to reduce US trade deficits.
“We actually have a fresh start with China,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an interview on CNN News Central. “That’s the way to think about these negotiations.”
The decision by both the United States and China to drop stratospheric tariffs by 115 percentage points at the conclusion of two days of talks marked the most significant development in a policy approach that has been equal parts maximalist and messy. The de facto trade embargo between the world’s two largest economies had produced domestic and global economic pressure that appeared on the brink of calamity.
The de-escalation sent markets soaring across the world Monday, as it shed light on a Trump administration’s strategy to maintain significantly higher tariffs while incentivizing its largest trading partners to come to the table with offers.
In Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Trump sent lead negotiators who are viewed by market participants and their Chinese counterparts as serious, levelheaded and empowered.
As those talks start in earnest, the ongoing effort to secure deals with roughly two-dozen other countries was given a boost last week after a small-scale agreement with the UK. That provided a model for what Trump wanted in the urgent scramble to secure bespoke deals with the US, according to several foreign diplomats involved in the bilateral talks.
The negotiators, parameters for negotiation and clearly serious approach from both sides that will drive the next three months are all viewed as tangibly positive signs by Trump’s advisors. Whether they lead to a substantive outcome remains an open question, but as one advisor put it to CNN, “this a hell of a lot better than the alternative both of us were staring down.”
“This is really the first time it’s been possible to actually see the path to land this plane without some cataclysmic economic disaster,” a Republican senator told CNN. “Doesn’t mean we will, but that’s a lot better than where we’ve been.”
The path from the market-panic-inducing “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on April 2 to this point was hardly linear. Trump’s advisors have long insisted, against plenty of evidence to the contrary, that it was all a deeply strategic roadmap that incorporated every possibility.
The fallacy of that insistence is laid bare by Trump’s own view that “flexibility” is paramount. Bessent, who is fond in private settings of talking through the game theory he sees as animating Trump’s approach, cites the value of the “strategic uncertainty” created by his boss.
It was Trump, after all, who hit the pause button on his hardest hitting “reciprocal” tariff rates on roughly 100 countries. And it was Trump who first publicly floated significant de-escalation with China after, in private internal discussions, his team weighed even more dramatic off-ramps to step back from the brink.
The bond market, supply chains blinking red and increasingly apocalyptic warnings from executives across major industries all served as critical accelerants for Trump’s personal pivots. The actions in some cases had the effect of hanging his own advisors out to dry hours after they’d been on television pledging there would be no exceptions, delays or revisions.
There has, however, been a broad strategy designed to push trading partners to the very place the administration finds itself now, officials say.
In the end, the Trump administration has somehow managed to lock into place dramatically higher tariffs – a 10% universal rate across the globe and sector tariffs that largely stand untouched. And, while recognizing that tariffs aren’t going back to zero, trading partners are still lining up to get a deal done with the United States.
That lawmakers and foreign diplomats alike appear willing to overlook – or even outright accept – that a 10% global tariff rate is basically a nonnegotiable reality at this point is perhaps the best window into the moment Trump has led the world into.
Trump’s team said that shock-and-awe strategy to get a “win,” even out of significant tariffs that remain in place was the strategy all along.
“We have had a plan, we have a process in place, now with the Chinese, we have a mechanism in place for future talks,” Bessent told reporters in Geneva.
The China talks would always be the most difficult, labor-intensive and time consuming. The lessons from Trump’s first term negotiations are deeply internalized among not just his advisors, but Trump himself.
For Trump, trade is the lynchpin to everything. That includes the India-Pakistan ceasefire agreement he told reporters was, in his view, primarily attributable to his promises of rapid increases in trade flows to both nations.
It seemed fitting that the most astute observation in the rush to analyze the dramatic de-escalation in US-China trade relations came from the man who drove them to the brink on an entirely unrelated yet no less consequential matter.
“People have never really used trade how I use trade,” Trump told reporters Monday morning.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
How Trump managed to get his much-needed China trade victory
By Phil Mattingly, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 9:58 PM EDT, Mon May 12, 2025
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L) and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer speak to the media in Geneva.
Valentin Flauraud/AFP/Getty Images
CNN —
President Donald Trump’s shock-and-awe tariff approach threatened to rupture the global financial system and drive the US economy into recession. Nervous about the prospect of empty store shelves and reignited inflation, Trump sent in his even-keeled and professional negotiators to Geneva to snag a win.
The unexpectedly dramatic de-escalation with China laid the groundwork for a growing series of trade negotiations that may produce a handful of rapid-fire, if less than fulsome, bilateral agreements to reduce US trade deficits.
“We actually have a fresh start with China,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an interview on CNN News Central. “That’s the way to think about these negotiations.”
The decision by both the United States and China to drop stratospheric tariffs by 115 percentage points at the conclusion of two days of talks marked the most significant development in a policy approach that has been equal parts maximalist and messy. The de facto trade embargo between the world’s two largest economies had produced domestic and global economic pressure that appeared on the brink of calamity.
The de-escalation sent markets soaring across the world Monday, as it shed light on a Trump administration’s strategy to maintain significantly higher tariffs while incentivizing its largest trading partners to come to the table with offers.
Sending the serious people
In Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Trump sent lead negotiators who are viewed by market participants and their Chinese counterparts as serious, levelheaded and empowered.
As those talks start in earnest, the ongoing effort to secure deals with roughly two-dozen other countries was given a boost last week after a small-scale agreement with the UK. That provided a model for what Trump wanted in the urgent scramble to secure bespoke deals with the US, according to several foreign diplomats involved in the bilateral talks.
The negotiators, parameters for negotiation and clearly serious approach from both sides that will drive the next three months are all viewed as tangibly positive signs by Trump’s advisors. Whether they lead to a substantive outcome remains an open question, but as one advisor put it to CNN, “this a hell of a lot better than the alternative both of us were staring down.”
“This is really the first time it’s been possible to actually see the path to land this plane without some cataclysmic economic disaster,” a Republican senator told CNN. “Doesn’t mean we will, but that’s a lot better than where we’ve been.”
The path from the market-panic-inducing “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on April 2 to this point was hardly linear. Trump’s advisors have long insisted, against plenty of evidence to the contrary, that it was all a deeply strategic roadmap that incorporated every possibility.
The fallacy of that insistence is laid bare by Trump’s own view that “flexibility” is paramount. Bessent, who is fond in private settings of talking through the game theory he sees as animating Trump’s approach, cites the value of the “strategic uncertainty” created by his boss.
It was Trump, after all, who hit the pause button on his hardest hitting “reciprocal” tariff rates on roughly 100 countries. And it was Trump who first publicly floated significant de-escalation with China after, in private internal discussions, his team weighed even more dramatic off-ramps to step back from the brink.
The bond market, supply chains blinking red and increasingly apocalyptic warnings from executives across major industries all served as critical accelerants for Trump’s personal pivots. The actions in some cases had the effect of hanging his own advisors out to dry hours after they’d been on television pledging there would be no exceptions, delays or revisions.
There has, however, been a broad strategy designed to push trading partners to the very place the administration finds itself now, officials say.
The new reality
In the end, the Trump administration has somehow managed to lock into place dramatically higher tariffs – a 10% universal rate across the globe and sector tariffs that largely stand untouched. And, while recognizing that tariffs aren’t going back to zero, trading partners are still lining up to get a deal done with the United States.
That lawmakers and foreign diplomats alike appear willing to overlook – or even outright accept – that a 10% global tariff rate is basically a nonnegotiable reality at this point is perhaps the best window into the moment Trump has led the world into.
Trump’s team said that shock-and-awe strategy to get a “win,” even out of significant tariffs that remain in place was the strategy all along.
“We have had a plan, we have a process in place, now with the Chinese, we have a mechanism in place for future talks,” Bessent told reporters in Geneva.
The China talks would always be the most difficult, labor-intensive and time consuming. The lessons from Trump’s first term negotiations are deeply internalized among not just his advisors, but Trump himself.
For Trump, trade is the lynchpin to everything. That includes the India-Pakistan ceasefire agreement he told reporters was, in his view, primarily attributable to his promises of rapid increases in trade flows to both nations.
It seemed fitting that the most astute observation in the rush to analyze the dramatic de-escalation in US-China trade relations came from the man who drove them to the brink on an entirely unrelated yet no less consequential matter.
“People have never really used trade how I use trade,” Trump told reporters Monday morning.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
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- Sep 22, 2008
- Messages
- 81,185
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- 113
That's because new stocks have not arrive.
The meeting in Switzerland has just taken place, and it has reset and normalized the tariff tax to its previous level, which was in effect as of April 8th.
ie The US has determined that imposing the tariff has not been effective and has had a negative impact on their domestic economy, which is why they are considering alternative approaches. They have 90 days to fulfil to make sure the Chinese and the rest will kneel to US
ie The US has determined that imposing the tariff has not been effective and has had a negative impact on their domestic economy, which is why they are considering alternative approaches. They have 90 days to fulfil to make sure the Chinese and the rest will kneel to US
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