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The 'Donald' Trumpets His Theme For A Presidential Bid: China Is The 'Enemy'
By Richard McCormack
richard @manufacturingnews.com
Donald Trump is stirring himself up over a potential run for the presidency in 2012, by aggressively attacking President Obama on his trade policies, especially those toward China. Trump says the country has become the "laughing stock" of the world and that conservatives who would vote for him "see what is happening and they hate to see what is happening. We are no longer respected."
Whether his incendiary rhetoric will resonate with Republican primary voters is something that Trump will have to test on his own. He will decide by June whether he will run, and much of that decision, he says, hinges on whether the economy is generating good jobs.
In various forums and television interviews over the past month, Trump has described a policy agenda that centers on dealing aggressively with China and OPEC. "Look at what China is doing to us. They're just ripping us left and right," he said on CNN in February. "They're taking our jobs. What is going on is insane."
Trump, who describes himself as "a very conservative Republican," would put up a "tremendous amount" of his own money to run a presidential campaign -- "hundreds of millions if I have to," he said on Fox News in February.
He contends that the United States is broke and the economic situation could get out of control if something is not done soon. "You go to China and see these cities rising out of nothing," he said. "Highways outside of New York are disgusting. They are like Third World countries. You go to LaGuardia, it's like an airport from a Third World country. You go to China and other places in the Middle East, their airports are the most incredible things you've ever seen." It is the United States that is building the Chinese cities and airports, he adds.
Trump is frustrated with Obama. He says the president does not "know what to do." Obama looks to be a "foolish man" who "is heavily lobbied" by Chinese interests and is unwilling to address huge and growing trade imbalances.
"We have the wrong people in office," says Trump. "America is missing quality leadership and foreign countries have quickly realized this. I deal with people from China, Mexico -- they cannot believe what they are getting away with."
Shortly after Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington, Trump said there was no chance he would have ever hosted a state dinner had he been president. "I wouldn't be having fancy steak dinners with the primary representative of a country that has done nothing but take advantage of the United States," Trump said. Had Trump been president, he would have invited Hu into his office to have a discussion about trade and if they didn't work out a deal "we send him to McDonald's and send him back" to China.
"I find it amazing when I listen to some of the political leaders talking about how we're making progress [with China]. They're making $300 billion a year and probably more than that each year -- let's call it profits off the United States," said Trump. China is doing this by manipulating its currency, ignoring intellectual property rights and doing "everything else" to cheat at trade, he added. "They're making stuff that you see being sold all the time on Fifth Avenue, copying various [brands like] Chanel and just selling it ad-nauseum. I mean this is a country that is ripping off the United States like nobody other than OPEC has ever done before. These are not our friends," he told CNN. "These are our enemies. They know they're the enemy. They say they're the enemy. They want to take over this country economically. They are not outcompeting. They are cheating. These are not people that understand niceness. And the only thing you can do to get their attention is to say either we're not going to trade with you any further or, in the alternative, we're going to tax your products as they come into the United States."
If he were president, Trump said he would slap a 25 percent duty on all Chinese imports.
Doesn't the United States have to be nice to its banker, given that China holds $1 trillion of American debt, CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked Trump.
"Who's done better with bankers than I have?" Trump responded. "Look, the fact is, it's very simple: The tax of 25 percent is what I estimate that in a matter of a few years would more than pay off those loans. By the way, the hundreds of billions of dollars that they've really bought, [they bought] for their own benefit. They didn't buy it for our benefit. They bought it so they think they can have some control over the country and, by the way, at the same time get a nice rate of interest."
The duties paid on imported Chinese goods would be used to reduce U.S. corporate and personal income taxes and pay interest on the debt, said Trump. "Let China and some of the other countries that are ripping us off and making hundreds of billions of dollars a year -- let them pay."
It's almost "impossible" for American companies to do well in the Chinese market, Trump continued. General Motors is building cars in China, but the Chinese "are not going to let General Motors take their cars from this country and sell them in China. They want General Motors to give up all of its intellectual rights and at the same time have Chinese workers build the cars, something which we are not doing."
If Trump were president and started such a trade war, won't it cause a depression, he was asked on CNN. "No," he responded. "It will cause a depression in China, not here. China is making all the money. We're not making the money. Look at the numbers. Look at the difference as to what we import compared to what they're importing. It's three to one. I like getting rid of that kind of partnership, and that has nothing to do with free trade or fair trade. Free trade doesn't exist between these two countries. I'm a big believer in free and fair trade, but this is unfair trade."
Later on Fox News, Trump blasted the proposed Free Trade Agreement with South Korea. Not even the South Koreans wanted to sign it, he said: "They wanted it to be better and it was only when North Korea attacked them that all of a sudden they said we will sign and [then] we sent our ships over there to protect them. Do you know what it cost to send that aircraft carrier? Why aren't they paying us for protection? We have a tremendous number of troops in South Korea. Why are we doing this? We protect South Korea, which makes a lot of money off of us. This isn't General Douglas McArthur getting off the plane looking great. This is a different time. They are a wealthy nation. We are not a wealthy nation any more. We've blown all of our money, stupidly, but why are we protecting them and why aren't they paying us for that protection? It's hard for people to answer that, even you."
When asked on Fox News who has been his favorite most recent president, he said that Clinton "did a pretty good job," and that Bush I was "a good man, a solid guy." But he was "not a fan" of George W. Bush. Why? "He did so poorly that he gave us Obama. He got us into a war we shouldn't be in, which is now the longest running war in the history of the country. The country has been drained of its assets because of it. Amazingly, Obama is now carrying forward and he has become a warmonger worse than Bush. So, look, you can always say they all have something good and they all have something bad. But let's go back to Reagan. I liked Reagan."
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