Trump appeared on Fox News last night where he claimed that he secured a trade deal with China but Chinese officials walked away at the last minute, but Chinese officials say they have no idea what Trump is talking about.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang seems to be implying that the only deal that exists is the deal in Trump's head.
“We don’t know what this agreement is the United States is talking about. Perhaps the United States has an agreement they all along had extravagant expectations for, but it’s certainly not a so-called agreement that China agreed to,” he told a daily news briefing.
The reason the last round of China-U.S. talks did not reach an agreement is because the United States tried “to achieve unreasonable interests through extreme pressure”, Lu said.”From the start this wouldn’t work.” [...]
“I would like to reiterate once again that China-U.S. economic and trade consultation can only follow the correct track of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit for there to be hope of success.”
If you asked me who I believe, the answer is simple: I believe the Chinese. And I find myself asking if the chicken or the egg came first.
As you know, Trump's top advisers, such as his chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow, have claimed that a trade deal was near every time they appeared on television over the last several months. And it was never clear if that was actually true or if they were simply blowing smoke up Trump's ass.
Trump is incapable of making deals himself and, economically speaking, Trump wouldn't know a good trade deal if he saw one because he does not actually understand how trade works.
So, did Trump believe that a deal was near because his advisers told him a deal was near, or is he simply lying?
In any case, I think we should all get used to the idea of Trump imposing tariffs on virtually all Chinese imports next month.
Having a complete idiot in charge of the country is not ideal and I wouldn't recommend it to other nations.