I wonder if he caved or just used the negotiating tactic of asking for vastly more than you hope to get so you have room to bargain. Too often the US and the Republican Party start negotiations by proposing the absolute minimum that might be acceptable if everything goes right and then gives away from there. If the President said that we wanted to double Chinese postal rates, we would probably get a 10% increase with advertisements complaining about that.
That’s certainly possible. We will find out soon.