History’s great Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
I would paraphrase Franklin’s wise words with this update: “Nothing is certain except these people always being wrong: former Congressman Joe Walsh…MSNBC’s prince of darkness Lawrence O’Donnell…and virtually any cast member on The View.”
This week has provided all the proof one needs to know how Trump Derangement Syndrome has poisoned the brain cells of these and other Trump haters. That list also includes Erik Erickson…Jonah Goldberg…the late Jennifer Rubin—who quit the Washington Post to launch a website that likely has fewer readers than one finds in the stands at your average Pop Warner football game—onetime “conservative” Charlie Sykes, and the follically challenged George Conway. I do not wish to appear unkind, but George likely will be the inspiration for reintroducing that 1988 infomercial sensation, the FloBee Home Haircutting System.
As President Trump launched or increased tariffs on dozens of nations around the world—seeking to level the economic playing field and ratchet up the pressure on countries like China, which have been ripping America off for decades—the howls arose from coast to coast as “progressives,” and RINOs bemoaned the “madman” in The White House. One by one, they formed a nationwide conga line of querulous criticism that Donald Trump was plunging the United States into (a) chaos, (b) a recession, or (c) a depression by starting a “trade war” with China. These folks compromise a 2025 Fifth Column—aided and abetted by biased coverage from the Associated Press. No story is too large or too small to be turned into an anti-Trump smear.
Cheering for America to fail is sad and unsightly, but cooler heads generally ignore this crowd and turn instead to Asia experts like Gordon Chang.
On the Salem news program THIS WEEK ON THE HILL with Tony Perkins, Chang provided a wise perspective on the Sino-American tariff standoff and stated flatly that President Trump holds all the winning cards. “I think China’s move from 84-percent to 125-percent tariffs on American goods was largely symbolic. That’s because at the 84-percent rate—plus all of the Chinese government’s informal policies against American retailers, U.S. goods were not getting into China anyway.” He adds, “But China, of course, doesn’t have very much ammunition in this trade war because they’re the “trade surplus” company and they’re the smaller economy…President Trump is holding all the high cards.”
Chang, a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, is realistic about America's economic challenges but has an upbeat outlook on the end result. “The only thing China can do at this point is to try and intimidate President Trump…to force him to back down. The Chinese strategy is to use Wall Street, Main Street, the agricultural lobby, and others to try to pressure Trump to give in. I don’t think that our President is going to surrender, though, because he does know the U.S. market can’t be replaced.”
Bottom line: Chang predicts President Trump is going to win the Tariff Wat with China, but he cautions that things will be close and contentious because China knows they will lose their economy if they lose this tariff war.
Now, contrast that outlook with “Nobel laureate” Paul Krugman (he marinates in that title like a kid getting a Participation Medal at his middle school science fair.) “Anyone sounding the all-clear on tariffs, or Trump economic policy in general, should be kept away from sharp objects and banned from operating heavy machinery,” Krugman wrote on Substack…adding that Trump is—in his Nobel laureaty lingo “stupid, weak, and erratic.” Wow. I appreciate that Alfred Nobel is most famous for inventing dynamite and blasting caps. Still, I wonder if he ever envisioned his name being pasted on a “laureate” like Krugman, whose grasp of the economy apparently is subjugated to his penchant for snotty character assassination. (Add Krugman to the ladies from The View and Trump-obsessed former Congressman Joe Walsh and you’ve got yourself a full table of grumps for your Easter brunch.)
The Chinese would be wise to consider HBO “Real Time” star Bill Maher's recent dinner with Trump at the White House. During their sit down, Maher says he found Trump to be gracious, funny, and self-deprecating…” unlike his public persona. I challenged him at times, and he didn’t get mad or call me a left-wing lunatic. He took it in.”
Maher shared with his TV audience this weekend that people on the Left are furious with him, saying it was “wrong” for him to break bread with Donald Trump. Maher says that says more about the Left than it does about him: “I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days,” Maher added: “A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House… you can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured.”
With all this as a backdrop, I’d counsel the Internet trolls and “Hands Off” marchers to think about how silly they will look when the history of 2025 is written. And China? You, too. Since it appears you’re going to eventually lose the tariff battle anyway, it might be a good time to punch your ticket and hop on board the Trump Train. Less agita, and instead of empty posturing, you can get back to Making China Great Again.