In his press conference about the 90-day trade deal he reached with the Chinese, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, in less than a minute, threw in a small detail about Joe Biden’s presidency that speaks volumes. First, it reveals how utterly feckless Joe Biden was and, second, it reveals how America benefits from a manifestly strong president.
Here’s Bessant explaining that the groundwork for the deal was already laid by the agreements reached with China during Trump’s presidency, deals China unilaterally ignored because it rightly understood that Biden was too weak to matter:
???? HOLY SMOKES: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just revealed that the Chinese said during their closed-door talks that they IGNORED their trade commitments under Biden because they knew he was weak.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 12, 2025
"The Chinese delegation basically told us that once President Biden came into… pic.twitter.com/vdJDoRUr4y
Here’s the money quote (emphasis mine):
What has to happen is it has to be fair for the American people. But in January 2020, President Trump produced a template. We had an excellent trade agreement with China and the Biden administration chose not to enforce it.
The Chinese delegation basically told us that, once President Biden came into office, they just ignored their obligations.
In other words, China’s escalating trade depredations against the United States in the past four years, years that were terribly damaging to American manufacturers and workers, came about because the Chinese knew that, with Joe Biden in the White House, they could get away with trade murder.
The implications of that admission go beyond trade. They explain why, on Biden’s watch, Russia invaded Ukraine and Hamas attacked Israel. It’s a concept as old as time, which is that totalitarian nations and leaders respect strength. They’re not interested in parity and reciprocity. They’re utterly hierarchical, recognizing only more or less power vis-à-vis themselves.
During World War I, the British correctly said of the Germans, “The Hun is either at your throat or at your feet.” And after 9/11, a lot of people resurrected Osama bin Laden’s observation that “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.”
What’s important to note (and this is something leftists, being hierarchical totalitarians themselves, always miss) is that being strong is not the same as being vicious, abusive, or power hungry. Instead, it means standing up for your principles, following through on your commitments, and hitting back a bit harder when someone hits you first.
Trump did those things in his first term and is doing those things again in his second. And so it is that the Chinese are at the negotiating table and, at least for now, things are looking good.
Image: The opening panel from a 1953 Charles Atlas ad (public domain), edited only to add the flags. If you want to carry the analogy further, by electing Donald Trump, America is no longer a bag of bones and is ready to beat back the bullies.
