Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) claimed Thursday on CNN’s “New Central” that President Donald Trump is engaged in an unserious “testosterone battle” with China’s President Xi Jinping.
Merkley said, “He’s not taking it on in a serious manner. In a serious manner, you say, hey, we’re going to have a long-term, stable, rising response to the very low wages and very low environmental laws in China that are undermining manufacturing because we want people to build their factories in the United States. But when you say I’m sending shock and awe in order to negotiate, no investor is going to build a factory in the United States as a result. So this is a really insanely — it’s not crafted, it’s not planned, it’s from one day to the next, where am I going to stumble to? Really, this is a testosterone battle right now between Trump and Xi, and what we need is a serious strategy that encourages investment, factories to be built in the United States of America.”
He added, “The key point you made is prices will go up. So last Wednesday, it was not Liberation Day, it was Trumpflation Day. The American consumer is going to see much higher prices. And American companies that import parts from China are now going to have more expensive products when they try to ship it around the world. And so it can really hurt in the short term American manufacturing rather than help it.”
Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN
