WHOA: Trump concedes defeat to China - Brian Tyler Cohen

Transcript:

DJT: are you going to play hard ball with
them Are you going to mention CO I'm not
I'm not going to say No I'm not going to
mention CO I'm not going to say "Oh I'm
going to play hard ball with China." I'm
going to play hard ball with you
President Chi No no We're going to be
very nice They're going to be very nice
and we'll see what happens But
ultimately they have to make a deal
because otherwise they're not going to
be able to deal in the United States
tariff rates as high as they are now
it's effectively an embargo of trade
between United States and China You see
that That's true 145% is very high and
it won't be that high It's not going to
be that high Uh it got up to there We
were talking about fentinol where you
know various uh elements built it up to
145 No it won't be anywhere near that
high What level do you think it'll come
down to if you haven't It'll come down
substantially but it won't be uh zero
used to be zero We were just destroyed
China was taking us for a ride and just
not gonna have it's not going to happen
We're going to be very good to China
have a great relationship with President
Xi but uh they would make billions and
billions and billions of dollars a year
and they would build their military out
of the United States and what they made
So that won't happen But they're going
to do very well and I think they're
going to be happy and I think we're
going to live together very happily and
ideally work together So I think it's
going to work out very well But no it's
at 145% It will not be anywhere near
that number.

BTC: And there it is After just a
week into his big trade war face off
with China Donald Trump has caved
offering up significantly gentler
rhetoric despite his tough talk for the
last week and a half And so after
watching the Dow plummet 12% the S&P
plummet 14% and the Nasdaq plummet 19%
since Trump took office it seems that
he's finally recognizing that the only
way to get the market to go up is to
prevent his own plan from taking place.
How's that for the realization that
you've got terrible instincts on the
economy? The only time the market doesn't
crater is when your own stated goals are
put on ice. Unless you think that this is
somehow not Trump caving you cannot look
at Donald Trump the self-proclaimed
biggest and best negotiator in America
the guy who pretends to have written the
art of the deal speaking in this press
conference like a wounded child and
think this is anything but a cave I mean
we were told for weeks that Trump had
China right where he wants them that
we've isolated them on the world stage
And so tell me if we've got China right
where we want them why the sudden
softening Either I have no idea how
deals work or Trump was full of all
along Take all the time you need with
that one In fact that's a point that
Tommy Lahren tried to make to me on
Piers Morgan's show and uh didn't go
great And what you're also seeing is
this president in action He's managed to
in a couple of days time isolate China
from the rest of the world put them in
their place He's got that 90-day pause
Other countries coming to the table 70
plus lining up to make deals with this
president So I'm incredibly happy to see
this thing play out I understand the
anxiety I trust the process I trust this
president And I think that we're off to
the races Brian do you trust this
president I don't think that I trust the
president any more than most of the
country trusts the president on the
economy right now The reality is that
this is an economic calamity that he has
ushered in and he's done it unilaterally
and voluntarily If we actually do
descend into a full-blown recession
which most people uh most most
economists are predicting that we will
right now it'll be the first time that
it's done at the hands of of an American
president as an error a completely
unforced error The reality is that the
stock market is tanking All of our
indexes are are in correction territory
If a Democratic president did this Tommy
would be apoplectic at the ruin that
has been ushered in And the only time
there was some momentary reprieve in the
stock market is when Donald Trump
himself caved on his own policy And
finally Tommy you had mentioned that
we're isolating China on the world stage
There's reporting now that Japan and
South Korea are negotiating trade deals
with China to go around American tariffs
There's reporting that the EU is working
with China to eliminate uh those tariffs
for EVs So I'm I'm concerned that you're
not familiar with which country in fact
is actually being isolated on the world
stage doesn't look like a China And look
Tommy and the rest of the right-wing
media ecosystem can play make believe
that Trump is some master negotiator all
they want But the reality is that no one
who is acting in good faith no one who
takes themselves seriously at least on
the economy actually believed that the
US had managed to isolate China on a
global stage And this question sums it
up perfectly Why would any of our allies
work with us to isolate China in a trade
war if we're treating friend and foe
alike But you'll have to talk to our
allies who are reaching out to us The
phones are ringing off of the hooks
They've made it very clear they need the
United States of America They need our
markets They need our consumer base You
saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in
the Oval Office with the president um
saying that he was going to bring down
all of their monetary tariffs and their
non-monetary tariff trade barriers as
well Um we've heard from South Korea
we've heard from Japan The president has
spoken to Vietnam We have Italy coming
to the White House next week There's a
reason for that Sean and it's because
they need the United States of America
and our business uh model and our
markets to survive and the president is
using that leverage to our advantage Of
course we didn't isolate China because
isolating China would mean that the rest
of the world was in our corner And uh I
know this might come as a shock to some
people who are watching but the way to
rally the rest of the world into our
corner doesn't usually start by
threatening to annex them And if you're
wondering why our allies are no longer
standing with us and certainly aren't
sprinting to the negotiating table it is
because they hate Donald Trump and they
have good reason to hate Donald Trump
When he's not threatening to invade them
he is waging trade wars against them The
notion that this is how you get people
to the table betrays a fundamental
misunderstanding of the entire world at
the hands of a guy who thinks that he is
the emperor when in reality the emperor
has no clothes In fact that's not all
that Donald Trump caved on After
spending weeks attacking the Fed chair
Jerome Powell who I might remind you
Trump himself appointed in 2017 with
posts like this there can be a slowing
of the economy unless Mr Too late a
major loser lowers interest rates Now
Europe has already lowered seven times
Powell has always been too late except
when it came to the election period when
he lowered in order to help sleepy Joe
Biden Later Kamla get elected How did
that work out Wow Mr Too late a major
loser Pretty tough talk for Trump And
yet suddenly this was Trump's new stance
The press runs away with things Now I
have no intention of firing him Uh I
would like to see him uh be a little
more active in terms of his idea to
lower interest rates This is a perfect
time to lower interest rates Uh if he
doesn't is it the end No it's not But it
would be good timing It would be it
would could have taken place earlier but
no I have no intention to fire him And
so why the sudden softening Because when
the markets feel like Donald Trump might
fire Jerome Powell they crash Why
Because everybody knows that whoever
Trump appoints will be a graveling
sycophant who serves as a rubber stamp
for Trump and his edicts And they all
know that Trump is economically
illiterate And so they don't want Trump
and his edicts But when Trump doesn't
talk about firing Powell the markets
suddenly stabilize again When Trump
enacts his plans the markets crash When
Trump caves the markets go up If that is
not a damning indictment of your
economic policies I don't know what is
But hey Donald Trump doesn't want you to
leave thinking that it's all bad or that
he's caved on everything Here is one
point where he's trying to take a
victory lap If you remember my first
week I was standing here Paul and they
were screaming about eggs The cost of
eggs have gone through the roof They
were up like 500 Crazy Like four or five
times And we won't have eggs for Easter
They were saying be no eggs You can't
order eggs They wanted us to sort of
plastic in the shape of eggs Well
yesterday we had 48,000 people at the
Easter hunt They caught the Easter roll
at the White House And we had all eggs
And as you know the cost of eggs have
has come down like 93 94% since we took
office And uh they're pretty much
normally priced now A great job Our
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins
did a very good job But groceries have
come down
Good news everybody You might have lost
20% of your entire retirement savings
but you'll save $2 on eggs See turn
those frowns upside down You're
basically whole at this point I mean
what's next Milk is down 11 cents
Honestly to what do we owe our great
fortune Oh and this probably is a bad
time to also mention that even that
isn't true According to the AP US egg
prices increase to record high So even
his dog concession prize of cheap
eggs in exchange for a recession didn't
pan out considering even the eggs are
too expensive And look we have been here
before We go round and round and round
where Donald Trump makes threats
expecting one result which of course
never comes to pass The other side waits
him out while our markets crash and
eventually Donald Trump caves like he
always caves every single time And yet
far from going back to where we were
before I want to be crystal clear about
something here There is collateral
damage along the way Stuff that we
cannot fix Even if our tariffs revert
exactly to where they were before he
took office remember that during this
whole cluster other countries find
new trading partners And they don't
relinquish all of those trading partners
just because the tariffs revert back
When Trump was in office the first time
his trade war sent our trading partners
to countries like Brazil As you can see
from these charts here look at the ways
in which Brazil's industries skyrocketed
In other words Donald Trump's bad
policies created an opening for other
countries which of course capitalized
and we never recovered He is quite
literally creating opportunities for
other countries to steal industries away
from America because he is so bad at
what he does And the same thing is
happening again right now Already
countries are looking to Brazil for
soybeans They're looking to Australia
for beef and so much more So lest you
think that we'll just bounce back we
won't At this point the pain that Donald
Trump is inflicting will last So when
the dust settles I hope everybody is
willing to ask Trump one simple question
Was it worth it Because we will have
gained nothing but we'll have lost a
whole lot.