Let me ask you about adversaries,
because among Trump
supporters is a view:
Because Trump is so crude,
so obnoxious, so overbearing,
so insulting,
he must impress the Chinese
no end. That,
that kind of—
they must look at him and say:
Here is one rough, tough guy who
we better not fool around with.
And, you know,
Obama was so polite, and
George W. Bush was so affable.
We didn't,
we don't respect them, but
we can respect this guy.
And the world,
the world now
fears Donald—fears
to cross Donald Trump.
What is your assessment
of what the adversaries think?
Well, China's laughing, okay?
China is—
plays a long game.
They understand that in
a trade war
with the United States,
in many ways,
they have the upper hand. Why?
In large part
because they're not a democracy.
And they can withstand
economic pain, blame it—
blame it on the United States,
and their people will eat it.
That's not going to work here
in the United States.
And plus,
China is looking at the
damage that we are doing to
economies around Asia
and seeing an opportunity
for them to fill a vacuum
in the bilateral
trade relationship
that we've left.
Moreover,
China
played Trump's game with him,
and he said,
Trump said, you know,
we're going to tariff
you this amount,
and China said, okay,
I'll call you and raise you.
And they went back and forth
until it got to a crazy
level.
But the Chinese are
not backing down.
And the Chinese,
moreover, are saying,
beyond the trade room:
We've got a whole bunch
of non-trade things
we can do
to make your life miserable,
Donald Trump.
And that's
when they went after rare earths
and a whole bunch of of other,
important
products, commodities,
that we depend on, that
China only can provide.