Trump's big "deal" exposed in humiliating blow - Brian Tyler Cohen

Transcript:

so trump is running around claiming that
he struck this historic trade deal with
china the white house is beating its
chest trump's mouthpieces are on
television doing their daily scheduled
fellatio but forgive me if i've been
burned one too many times to blindly
accept this white house's talking points
and so let me read to you what china
actually said about this deal the highle
economic and trade talks between china
and the us and geneva were candid
in-depth and constructive the vice
premier of the state council said both
sides have reached an agreement on
establishing a china us economic and
trade consultation mechanism and will
conduct further consultations on issues
of mutual concern ask yourself does that
sound like a comprehensive trade deal to
you because it doesn't to me what china
is describing is an agreement to talk
about trade they've established a
consultation mechanism which is
diplomatic speak for we're going to have
some more meetings this isn't a deal
it's an agreement to maybe someday have
a deal if they can work something out if
you will we're looking at concepts of a
deal but that hasn't stopped the trump
administration from declaring victory
he's out here proclaiming that china has
agreed to open up to us businesses and
acting like he has single-handedly fixed
global trade the white house is
literally calling this the art of the
deal in their press releases so let's
look at what actually happened here
trump imposed outrageous 145% tariffs on
chinese goods which was causing economic
chaos worldwide shipping from china to
the us had plummeted by 60% american
consumers were facing skyrocketing
prices global supply chains were
breaking down us ports are seeing a
third to a half of the activity they
usually have the us economy contracted
last quarter for the first time time
since 2022 and economists are now
warning that we are headed for a
full-blown recession trump is not blind
he can see the turmoil that his decision
has caused and so what's the amazing
deal that donald trump has supposedly
struck they've agreed to reduce tariffs
from 145% down to 30% for 90 days while
they continue talks that's it trump is
suspending his own tariffs it is a
temporary pause in a crisis entirely of
his own making the markets are now
rebounding not because trump is some
master tactician who inked the deal of
the century they are rebounding because
trump is temporarily retreating from his
own policies the dow jump more than 1100
points because traders are relieved that
donald trump isn't going to crater the
global economy for now at least this is
like a kidnapper demanding a $10 million
ransom then lowering it to 3 million and
expecting to be thanked for being
reasonable the only crisis being solved
here is the one that donald trump
himself created it's also worth noting
that china's commerce ministry is taking
a much different tone than donald trump
saying the us should completely correct
its unilateral tariff policies the
outcome of the trade talks is being
marketed here as a big win for china and
really a reversal of president trump's
approach the social media account that's
linked to state tv has said that this
proves that china's approach and firm
counter measures and stance they say has
been highly effective and a lot of this
is because china got most of president
trump's tariffs off without actually
having to do a whole lot so china of
course has to lift its own counter
tariffs but it's been quietly giving
exemptions to a whole lot of companies
and then in as part of this agreement
china has to suspend or cancel
non-tariff measures against the us so
this would include the ones like tighter
rare earths um uh tighter curbs export
curbs on rare earth uh minerals that are
important for the us industry another
point is that they both have to agree to
set up a consultation mechanism so on
the point about the non-tariff uh
measures uh they have to lift them but
there's no timing there's no method so
um you know china doesn't necessarily
have to commit to anything here and then
in terms of the consultation method uh
consultation mechanism uh one of the
long-standing complaints among many in
the international business community
here is that china often acts like
talking is action and so they make a lot
of promises and there's a lot of promise
fatigue but that they don't actually do
anything at the end of the day so this
is just playing right into china's
playbook and then the the third point i
would make is that china could present
itself as though it's the the more
responsible actor here and in fact the
in the statement for the commerce
ministry they took a jab at the trump
administration saying that the us should
completely correct they say its
unilateral tariff practices again
presenting itself as more responsible
compared to the united states yeah um
that doesn't exactly sound like a
country that just capitulated to trump's
demands does it but we've seen this
movie before back in 2020 trump
announced his phase 1 trade deal with
china with similar fanfare he claimed it
was going to be transformative china was
going to purchase an additional $200
billion in american goods guess how much
of that $200 billion china actually
ended up buying zero not one dollar of
the additional purchases that they
promised and now donald trump expects us
to believe this vague consultation
mechanism is going to yield more real
results i don't think so but this is
what trump does he creates a problem
that didn't need to exist partially
walks it back and then demands credit
for solving the crisis that he
manufactured it's like someone who
punches you in the face then stops
punching you and wants you to thank them
for their kindness you don't get a
military parade down pennsylvania avenue
for stopping your own disastrous policy
you get one for your birthday apparently
remember trump himself said this about
trade wars quote "trade wars are good
and easy to win." well four years and
two administrations later he still
hasn't won anything the truth is that
donald trump caved because his tariffs
were backfiring spectacularly shipping
companies were reporting that container
traffic from china to the us had
essentially stopped the national retail
federation was warning that imports on
the second half of 2025 would fall at
least 20% year-over-year jp morgan was
predicting a 75 to 80% drop in imports
from china and all of this was
threatening to hit americans where it
hurt most their wallets goldman sachs
analysis showed that inflation was set
to effectively double to almost 4% by
the end of the year because of trump's
trade war with elections coming up next
november trump and his party obviously
can't afford a recession and
skyrocketing prices so he backed down is
now trying to spin that as a win but
make no mistake there is no actual deal
here just a temporary pause and a
promise to keep talking what's
particularly striking is that this deal
doesn't address any of the substantive
issues in our trade relationship with
china nothing about intellectual
property theft nothing about forced
technology transfers nothing about
subsidies to chinese state-owned
enterprises nothing about china's
manipulation of its currency and even
from our perspective here in the us
wasn't this whole thing about reshoring
manufacturing jobs back to america
correct me if i'm wrong but did we do
that in the last month there is no
long-term plan for anything just daily
volatility that betrays the fact that
trump has no idea what he's doing other
than building the plane as he flies it
which if i'm not mistaken is exactly
what transportation secretary shawn
duffy has recommended but the real
victims in all of this are american
consumers american businesses and
american workers who have been dragged
through economic turmoil because donald
trump does not understand how tariffs
work he still seems to believe after all
of this that china pays the tariffs when
in reality it is americans who foot the
bill through higher prices i've said it
before and is worth repeating every
single day when trump imposes tariffs on
foreign countries like china they are
not paid for by those countries they are
a tax imposed on importing companies and
the companies don't eat those costs they
transfer them to american consumers
meaning us donald trump's tariff on
china is in actuality a tax on americans
so the next time that you hear donald
trump boasting about his historic trade
deal with china remember what actually
happened he created an economic disaster
partially backed away from it and now
wants credit for being a genius
negotiator this isn't the art of the
deal this is the art of the cave and
unfortunately american consumers and
businesses are the ones paying the price
for trump's economic
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