Posted on 04/13/2017 8:07:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Are we sure that Trump’s going to end up having to fire Steve Bannon? Between this and the Syria bombing, the nationalists in the White House may just up and quit.
If you think these broken promises are big news, wait until Trump comes out in favor of TPP.
Mr. Trump said the reason he has changed his mind on one of his signature campaign promises is that China hasn’t been manipulating its currency for months and because taking the step now could jeopardize his talks with Beijing on confronting the threat of North Korea.
“They’re not currency manipulators,” Mr. Trump said…
Mr. Trump also made a full reversal from the campaign by stating his support for the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The president said he planned to fill two vacancies on the bank’s board, which has been effectively paralyzed with three open seats on its five-member board…
“Instinctively, you would say, ‘Isn’t that a ridiculous thing,’ ” Mr. Trump said of the Ex-Im Bank. “But actually, it’s a very good thing. And it actually makes money, it could make a lot of money.”
He also said, contra his previous inclinations, that he might not replace Janet Yellen as head of the Fed. Then he said that Angela Merkel has become his favorite world leader (“great chemistry”) and mentioned that he’s looking forward to attending Davos next year with Jared and Ivanka. Then, when asked about health care, he said that a public option is “on the table.”
Only one of those things is true, actually, but they all seem sort of plausible at this point given his rate of ideological change. I’ll let you read the interview to find out which is the real Trump talking point. Suffice it to say, the shift on China is the policy equivalent of Jared Kushner and the “Democrats” inside the White House dunking in Steve Bannon’s face. Pity poor Peter Navarro, a longtime China-hater who was brought in to lead Trump’s National Trade Council and ostensibly to help direct a future trade war, now finding himself stuck with presidential comments like today’s. Why, it was just four months ago that Trump was tweeting things like this:
Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
And, er, it was just 10 days ago that he was calling China the “world champions” of currency manipulation in an interview with the Financial Times. Now he’s defending them. What gives? Two things. One: Er, he’s right. China isn’t manipulating its currency. It used to drive down the value of the yuan to make Chinese goods cheaper for U.S. consumers but in recent years it’s been propping the yuan up. He has the facts on his side now. And even if he did want to brand China a currency manipulator, that’s supposed to trigger a year-long negotiation process to resolve the issue. Steve Mnuchin affirmed in February that the U.S. would follow traditional review procedures in assessing Chinese practices with its currency, not have Trump jump out there in front of a mic and pronounce them currency manipulators on day one, as he often threatened to do as a candidate. The administration’s been inching away from his campaign rhetoric for awhile.
There’s a more pressing reason why he’s backing off China, though. He needs China’s help on North Korea — and he’s getting it, somewhat. After the Financial Times interview, he huddled with Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago; a week later, China decided to reject shipments of coal from North Korea and to place orders with the United States instead. Today Trump repaid the kindness by dropping his “currency manipulator” rhetoric. He needs Chinese cooperation to pressure the NorKs so he’s pursuing Chinese cooperation. This is why, in fact, I thought his early phone call with the president of Taiwan was an odd bit of tone-setting antagonism. Yeah, granted, he wanted to send a message that he’d be tougher on China than Obama was, but North Korea was already America’s most pressing national security problem on election day. Obama warned Trump about it explicitly in their Oval Office meeting in the days afterward. China is one of the few non-military levers of power over the Kim regime, so why would he risk giving up that lever with an early Taiwan gambit? And sure enough, Trump eventually retreated and agreed to recognize Beijing’s “One China” policy towards Taiwan. Now he’s gone a step further and retreated from a trade war. It’s sensible, but must be deeply confusing to his populist blue-collar supporters.
Oh well. At least you’ve still got the wall, and a national deportation force. Maybe.
Deductions about Trump should never be etched in stone. People should know that by now. People who do that nearly always end up getting burned because they didn’t have enough information to make a solid deduction.
Example; “Trump broke a campaign promise to label China a currency manipulator”.
Unforseen developments since Trump made the “promise”;
1) Trump met with China’s president and by all accounts they got alone great.
2) China is turning away NK coal deliveries and buying US coal.
3) China stated they would unilaterally attack NK’s nuclear facilities if they didn’t behave.
4) 1,2,3 indicate optimism about the US relations with China
5) The dollar is building strength.
6) The stock market is up by a trillion dollars.
7) Consumer and business confidence is up to record levels.
8) The economy added an unpredicted amount of jobs with business pledging to add many more.
So why should Trump still label China a currency manipulator?? Why should Trump still go after Yellen??
Trump has adapted to the changing reality. That is what a strategic thinker does.
for later
This video clearly illustrates the difference between strategic thinking vs non-strategic thinking.
Syria debate between Bill Mitchell and Paul Joseph Watson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1zQQzZmuZk
Lots of people here should watch, think, and learn from it. So many are like Watson, glom on to little bits of information but never really put them together into a coherent big picture view so they can understand in a global sense what is actually going on. People who do that will never understand how strategic thinker like Trump operates. These shallow thinkers who flit from one tiny viewpoint to another are those who take Trump literally, but not seriously, just like the MSM does.
Trump should label China a currency manipulator because China IS a currency manipulator and he said he would.
Also, in January, Trump said the dollar was “too strong.”
Why should it get stronger?
We would never, ever give that much slack to someone of the other party or even a Bush, McCain or Romney.
Well stated. It is also a part of his leadership style; he is comfortable accepting risk and making decisions quickly in an environment of uncertainty, and changing course if new information warrants. Others are more deliberative and take much longer to make decisions, or are indecisive, but are less adaptable when new information warrants changing their preferred course of action. My leadership style is much like Trump, so I would offer that you need to communicate WHY you changed your mind if you want to shoot down your critics charges that you change your mind on a whim.
Whether a Never Trumper or not, it matters not. Only the truth within his information should matter. If false, then dismiss it. If factual, embrace and deal with it.
RE: AllahPundit is a #NeverTrumper encased in a cement suit.
Which one of what AllahPundit observes do you disagree with and why?
Some of us here pointed out in 2016 that China was not manipulating its currency the way Trump and a lot of his supporters claimed it was. If anything, China manipulates its currency by propping it up, not by devaluing it.
Hmmm....and the Ex-Im Bank?
Face it. President Trump has been all over the board in the past, and he’s likely to be the same as President.
That said, he’s tended to hire good people who are implementing his campaign promises generally.
The Freedom Caucus might want to take note that this wandering away from his campaign promises has been happening since they failed to get behind his healthcare effort. Coincidence? Or has he given up on them and is he now looking for partners elsewhere?
More recently Trump said China wouldn’t be labeled a currency manipulator because the dollar was stronger.
Trump uses his pawns when playing chess.
“I told him, I said, ‘You know we’re not going to let that [current trade deficit] go ahead,’ ” Mr. Trump said of his meeting last week with Mr. Xi. He added he told Mr. Xi: “ ‘But you want to make a great deal? Solve the problem in North Korea.’ That’s worth having deficits. And that’s worth having not as good a trade deal as I would normally be able to make.”
Oh BS Donald.....
We hired you to take on the corrupt Chinese and their one side rapacious trade with the USA and not a tin horn joke dictator.
Trump is NOT a Bush, McCain or Romney. Surely you understand that by now. Trump’s got more strategic thinking ability in his little toe than all three of those put together.
Do you think any of those three would have got China to agree to help with NK?
And Janet Yellen is an excellent Fed dove now that I like Fed doves.
Broken promises? LOL
Neither of those two things were “promises”. And few care about these specific issues.
AllahPundit is a nevertrumper idiot. He’s got nothing and is clearly reaching.
So the stronger dollar is a good thing?
Trump does not think so.
Are you saying that China no longer manipulates their currency?
Do you have a cite for Trump’s “more recent” statement?
Thanks
Stronger compared to when?
GOP opposition to the EX-Im bank was always stupid.
Trump probably shouldn’t label China a currency manipulator any more than he should single out individual companies. Instead he needs to put an across the board import tariff in place. Or rather restore the import tariffs we used to have.
Yelsin seems to be doing the right thing according to the law that set up the Federal Reserve System. Her priorities according to that law is 1) full employment, 2) stable prices and 3) moderate interest rates, in that order.
Trump needs to dig into the unemployment rate, because I think it’s been manipulated until it’s non-sensical. They may need to switch to using a combination of portion of working age employed, AND real wages to gauge employment.
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