In Trump’s words, “he doesn’t have the cards” “he has bad cards”. Which also makes it fairly clear he’s never played poker or has and is baffled by the rules.
Worse. This is really a “don’t negotiate with terrorists” situation. Trump could have gone to the Chinese, and any other country, and said, “look, this isn’t working. We need to renegotiate our trade deals.” Public opinion has soured enough on free trade that Trump likely could get some legitimate tariff package or set of new trade deals through. The public generally likes the idea of not trading so much with China. The problem is Trump is trying to do this via decree and blackmail. He thinks that by cutting off trade overnight, he can coerce China into giving the US favorable terms.
But all this shows is that the US is an unreliable partner that is willing to back on its word at any moment. Nations can renegotiate trade deals. That isn’t some unprecedented violation of international norms. But it’s common sense to do these things slowly, giving both nations time to adapt their economies to the new conditions. You can’t just cut this level of trade off cold turkey without causing a global depression.
Why would they be?
Trump has effectively handed all of the USA’s soft power over to the EU, China & Russia, depending on the part of the planet we are discussing.
All of it.
Not really “handed” over" as much as made it disappear. It’s up to other countries to fill the vacuum.
In Trump’s words, “he doesn’t have the cards” “he has bad cards”. Which also makes it fairly clear he’s never played poker or has and is baffled by the rules.
It’s like he’s NOT a deal maker, but some kind of absolutely unqualified idiot!
mostly to china, as they have the most leverage right now. russia is heavily codependant on USA surprisingly.
Worse. This is really a “don’t negotiate with terrorists” situation. Trump could have gone to the Chinese, and any other country, and said, “look, this isn’t working. We need to renegotiate our trade deals.” Public opinion has soured enough on free trade that Trump likely could get some legitimate tariff package or set of new trade deals through. The public generally likes the idea of not trading so much with China. The problem is Trump is trying to do this via decree and blackmail. He thinks that by cutting off trade overnight, he can coerce China into giving the US favorable terms.
But all this shows is that the US is an unreliable partner that is willing to back on its word at any moment. Nations can renegotiate trade deals. That isn’t some unprecedented violation of international norms. But it’s common sense to do these things slowly, giving both nations time to adapt their economies to the new conditions. You can’t just cut this level of trade off cold turkey without causing a global depression.