I'm sure we've seen this movie before.
Trump spoke to reporters at the White House this morning where he said he would not sign off on a trade deal of any description until he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he likely would not sign any trade deal with China until he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the upcoming APEC Forum in Chile.
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said the partial trade deal announced last week was in the process of being formalized on paper.
Trump also told reporters that China is already buying American farm goods as part of this deal that he won't sign until the middle of November according to him. And that obviously isn't true.
In any case, this has all happened before and is clearly going to happen again.
You may recall that Trump previously said he would not sign a deal until meeting with Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan in June. That meeting ultimately resulted in a "truce" that only lasted a few weeks before Trump blew it up with more tariffs on Chinese goods.
Trump's fake "deal" as it's currently constructed strongly resembles Trump's truce from June. Trump is making promises that China has not made and most of the details remain subject to change if there are actually any details locked down at all.
Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping at the APEC summit will not take place until November 17th so we have at least another month for tariffs to burn a hole in Trump's pocket. Can he resist for that long?