
Trump is increasingly hostile to China. He’s playing with fire
CNN
Despite widespread concerns that the trade war is dragging down America’s economy, President Donald Trump has notched quite a few wins on his economic belt in recent weeks.
Despite widespread concerns that the trade war is dragging down America’s economy, President Donald Trump has notched quite a few wins on his economic belt in recent weeks. Inflation keeps falling. Jobs remain plentiful. And there’s growing evidence the economy could be booming this quarter. That’s why Trump’s increasingly hostile rhetoric about China over the past week was particularly concerning ahead of his call Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Trump’s economy is cookin’ – for now. But the economic Jenga tower the Trump administration has constructed is precariously balanced on a host of economic caveats and unproven theories. Renewed trade tensions with the world’s second-largest economy threatens to knock the tower to the ground. May 12 represented a major turning point for the global trade war. Delegates from China and the United States announced they would significantly roll back their historically high tariffs on one another. Markets were elated. Wall Street banks curtailed their recession forecasts. And moribund consumer confidence rebounded significantly. That’s a significant change from April, when tensions ran so high that trade between the United States and China came to an effective halt. The 145% tariffs on most Chinese imported goods made the math impossible for American businesses to buy virtually anything from China, America’s second-largest trading partner. No one wants to return to that. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, America’s chief negotiator in the détente with China, said previous tariff levels were “unsustainable.” That’s why he said the countries put in place mechanisms to prevent a re-escalation.













