The Trumped-up scandal is that he answered a call from the freely elected president of Taiwan
- Will Trump allow Benjamin Netanyahu and the Dalai Lama to enter the White House through the front door?!
- Xi Jin Ping and Pope Francis are not going to approve of this
- What’s up with talking tough on trade?
Note how the Dispatch – Argus print edition portrayed an AP story in its headline. The D-A directly says that “Trump calls Taiwan’s leader . . . ” We searched the D-A website, QC Online but could not find the on-line version of the story as they printed it, or even the base story. For that we used the AP link to the subject matter we found on Drudge. There you will see that the information, uncontroverted, is that the Taiwanese President called Trump . The AP story does not say what the D-A print edition articles says. So do the D-A editors actually read the AP story or are they just following phony talking points and narratives found all over the internet from liberal sources, or exposing their expectation bias?
This link is direct to the base AP offering: Trump speaks directly with Taiwan’s leader, irking China We can concede that the article’s headline is reasonably accurate as to the “hook” and content of the story. It does not say “Trump calls Taiwan’s leader”
OK now that that is out of our craw, here is an analysis by Conservative Tree House:
Leverage Maneuver – Trump Talks Openly With Taiwan’s President… (excerpt)
Ok, this one strategic maneuver has just pegged my too-much-winning needle on max overdrive. Donald Trump took a congratulatory phone call from the President of Taiwan, and now the Chinese will be apoplectic.
Those of you who have been with us for a while, will note our arguments against China’s MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status have continually fallen on deaf ears within DC. . . .
In short, we’ve been ripped off. Bigly. For decades. . . .
Rule #1 in any trade deal is to fully understand who is the customer within the equation. The U.S. market is the biggest trade customer on this entire beautiful blue planet. We hold all the leverage. Access, or denial of access, to this market is the leverage.
[…] “President-elect Trump spoke with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, who offered her congratulations,” according to a readout of the call released by Trump’s transition team.
“During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties” between Taiwan and the United States, the statement continued. “President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year.”
The call, first reported by the Financial Times, is the first time a US president has directly spoken with Taiwan’s leadership in more than 30 years. The White House was not made aware of the call until after it occurred, according to The New York Times. (link)
Immediately, the pearl-clutching media and professional political class went nuts because the U.S. is not supposed to do anything that might upset China. For over 30 years the issues between China and the breakaway free and democratic Taiwan have been tenuous.
According to diplomatic norms the U.S. is not supposed to acknowledge Taiwan out of fear we upset the Chinese under the auspices of the “one china” policy.
[…] “This could be damaging,” said Barry Pavel, director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council. “We’ll see the Chinese reaction in several hours. I don’t expect it to be pretty.”
The danger, Pavel said, is that “the Chinese are going to think it was deliberate and that this is the beginning of a hostile policy by the Trump administration, upending the basic geometry of diplomatic relations between the US and China since 1979.” (read more)
Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, later told CNN’s Anderson Cooper she wouldn’t go beyond the call readout from the transition team statement, but the President-elect was fully aware of the call’s implications. Brilliant.
This is exactly what we predicted a Trump presidency would do. Use economics instead of rockets and military to leverage a better position for America in the globe.
All this panic and hyperbole from the left, the same suspects who never had a problem when Democrat candidates talked of fair trade . Trump’s has called for better deals and throwing out cumbersome, one sided, sovereignty ending multi-lateral trade deals in favor of bi-lateral trade deals. That is a good thing. Tariff increases (which do end-up being paid by consumers) have not been advocated as such, only as a bargaining tool, “leverage”.
It is conservative doctrine that high tariffs are counterproductive and should be avoided. That that is Trump policy is derivable from another AP story appearing the same day. It is a stilted article, presumptive that what liberal talking heads say about what Trump is up to is true, but at least it provides the opportunity for a statement from Trump people. While liberal economists may agree with conservatives on the dangers of tariff wars, liberal political operatives are all in a tither about them as they have never been before.
Trump’s import tariffs could prove costly at home
From the AP story:
The Trump transition team declined to respond on the record. But his team has argued that fears of a destructive trade war are overblown. Trump advisers Ross and Peter Navarro, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, wrote in September that the “fear-mongering fails to understand the negotiating power of the U.S.”
The threat of tariffs, they wrote, is a tool to compel others to abandon unfair trade practices: “All of the countries now running major trade surpluses have far more to lose by disrupting trade.”
DLH with R Mall
