Sarah Sanders has Perfect Response to Reporter Questioning Trump's 'Trade War'
The Trump administration, as far as the media is concerned, is defined by the crisis of the moment.
If there isn’t one, the media will furnish it.
The latest example of this is the purported “trade war” with China over tariffs — both those enacted on high-tech products as well as those enacted as trade penalties for China’s allegedly underhanded trade practices, including the theft of intellectual property.
While the media is freaking out over the purported trade war, the president isn’t really sweating it — at least, not if press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ response to a reporter’s question about the “trade war” Friday was any indication.
Reporter: Does President Trump still think that trade wars are easy to win?
White House Press Secretary Sanders: "I think the president feels like if he is in charge of those negotiations, absolutely. He's the best negotiator at the table." pic.twitter.com/cSybXGvk5z
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 7, 2018
“Does the president think that trade wars are easy to win? Is that still his view?” the reporter asked, with a bit of snippiness in his tone.
“I think the president feels like he is in charge of those negotiations, absolutely,” Sanders responded.
“He’s the best negotiator at the table. And we certainly have full confidence in his ability to help move things forward. I think if you look simply at the (deals) in which the president was able to get a much better deal for the United States.
“We’ve made great progress on NAFTA, and we’re hoping to have great progress on the trade negotiations with China,” she added.
The comments came after a week where both the “trade war” with China and NAFTA were in the spotlight as the president seemed to revel in his role as a deal-maker.
After the Trump administration slapped new tariffs of 25 percent on $50 billion worth of high-tech products from China last Tuesday, Forbes reported, the Chinese countered with similar tariffs on American airplanes, soybeans and cars. Trump redoubled his efforts Thursday with proposed tariffs on another $100 billion in Chinese products.
“China is not afraid of a trade war,” China’s vice minister of finance, Zhu Guangyao, said this past week. However, as The New York Times noted, “the retaliatory tariffs Beijing has proposed already cover more than one-third of what China buys from the United States, leaving it fewer options to strike back.”
Meanwhile, in tweets last week, Trump threatened to ditch NAFTA if the Mexican government didn’t get serious on border security.
Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018
Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018
Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but the caravan mentioned in Trump’s tweets — a group of roughly 1,000 individuals who had illegally crossed into Mexico from Central America and were headed for the American border — was stalled by Mexican intervention after officials had previously refused to impede its process.
Tariffs aren’t a particularly great idea in terms of protectionism, but they do work when it comes to bringing misbehaving actors to the table. In terms of China and Mexico, both have been misbehaving, albeit for different reasons. If tariffs get them to the table — and, given the reasons above, the Trump administration has every reason to believe that they will — they will have definitely served their purpose.
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