“It's an incredible deal. It goes down, certainly, if it happens, it goes down as one of the largest deals ever made,” Donald Trump bragged of his trade talks with China over the weekend. “What I'd be doing is holding back on tariffs. China will be opening up. China will be getting rid of tariffs.” This is, of course, a lie that Trump’s own White House doesn’t back up.
In a statement, the White House press secretary said Beijing will agree to purchase "a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial" amount of U.S. agricultural, energy, industrial and other products in order "to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries."
During the talks at the G-20 meeting, the two superpowers agreed to delay additional taxes on each other's goods for the next 90 days — during which time they will try to overcome difficult differences including "forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft."
Once again Trump is taking what’s basically an agreement to negotiate and hailing it as a HUGE deal that is definitely 100 percent settled in his favor. In addition to his usual level of bluster, he’s trying to convince a very specific audience here: farmers, a key part of Trump’s base that’s been hit hard by Trump’s trade war. He tweeted Monday morning that “Farmers will be a a very BIG and FAST beneficiary of our deal with China. They intend to start purchasing agricultural product immediately. We make the finest and cleanest product in the World, and that is what China wants. Farmers, I LOVE YOU!”
Farmers should be taking note that the amount of U.S. products the White House says China will be buying is “not yet agreed upon,” a real red flag when you’re dealing with Team Trump. Especially since, for all his insistence that “We are dealing from great strength,” it sure looks like Trump wants a deal, any deal. And as we’ve seen, Mr. The Art of the Deal is a crappy dealmaker even when he hasn’t telegraphed to the world how desperate he is.