Thus trying to draw media focus on China away from his ‘hands off’ and ‘inept’ actions during the ongoing virus crisis that have cost him approval numbers and is worrying him and his people about the November general election….
Remember…
America STILL imports YUGE amounts of products from China…
An escalation of Trump’s trade war might make the American economy worse at a time that things need get better…
Typical Donald Trump placing himself ahead of the rest of us….
President Trump has fumed to aides and others in recent days about China, blaming the country for withholding information about the virus, and has discussed enacting dramatic measures that would probably lead to retaliation by Beijing, these people said.
In private, Trump and aides have discussed stripping China of its “sovereign immunity,” aiming to enable the U.S. government or victims to sue China for damages. George Sorial, who formerly served as a top executive at the Trump Organization and is involved in a class-action lawsuit against China, told The Washington Post he and senior White House officials have discussed limiting China’s sovereign immunity. Legal experts say an attempt to limit China’s sovereign immunity would be extremely difficult to accomplish and may require congressional legislation.
Some administration officials have also discussed having the United States cancel part of its debt obligations to China, two people with knowledge of internal conversations said. It was not known if the president has backed this idea. Two senior White House economic officials ruled out the possibility of doing so shortly after this story was published.
Administration officials strongly cautioned that the discussions are preliminary and that little formal work has begun on turning these initial ideas into reality. Other administration officials are warning Trump against the push to punish China, saying the country is sending supplies to help the American response.
“Now is just not the right time,” one senior administration official involved in the talks said. “There will be a time to do it.”
But in recent days, some believe the battle between the administration’s economic advisers’ cautious approach to China and national security team’s push to retaliate against Beijing has begun to tilt toward the national security position.
“Punishing China is definitely where the president’s head is at right now,” one senior adviser said.
Some political advisers have also encouraged Trump to take a more forceful swing at China because they think it will help him politically….