{"id":309328,"date":"2019-05-15T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T20:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=309328"},"modified":"2019-05-16T15:16:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T19:16:51","slug":"trumps-reordering-of-the-world-starts-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2019\/05\/15\/trumps-reordering-of-the-world-starts-with-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Reordering of the World Starts with China"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Here is Michael in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as we get started. Hi, Michael. How are you?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Good afternoon, Mr. Limbaugh. It\u2019s so cool to talk to you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.<\/p>\n

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CALLER: Hey, a point for me to call in is, you know, I\u2019m a stats, finances and numbers guy, and I\u2019m looking at these poll numbers. Trump has over 45% with negative 90% press, and that gets me excited, \u2019cause when we look at Obama at the same time, he had 90% positive press and his numbers are down. In addition to that, these polls still skew heavily as Democrat likely voters. So he\u2019s in great shape, and I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re gonna do to take him down.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t think they do, either. I honestly — and they\u2019re not gonna stop trying. I think they thought… Look, I\u2019m being redundant here, but I really think they thought that he\u2019d be gone now. I know these people. Do not doubt me. Everything they\u2019re doing now is territory they never thought they would have to trod. Trump was gonna be gone or so damaged by now that if he was still in office, he\u2019d be so ineffective that he wouldn\u2019t be able to get anything done — and they are so far from having pulled that off.<\/p>\n

Now Trump is reordering the entire world order on trade with the tariffs that he is applying on Chinese exports, imports to the United States. You know some of the strangest things are happening here. Now, yesterday on that score, of all people, Chuck Schumer signaled his agreement with Trump that something had to be done to fix this trade imbalance with the ChiComs. People said, “He doesn\u2019t mean that. This is a setup. It\u2019s a setup.”<\/p>\n

I had people telling me this is just Schumer trying to urge Trump on because people don\u2019t like this. This is gonna hurt the economy. It\u2019s gonna make things more expensive. The Democrats want Trump to screw up. Then today, on CNBC, Steve Bannon appeared from the Brandenburg Gate in Germany. He proceeded to pretty much explain what I explained this previous week about what Trump is doing and how it\u2019s working, what the reasons for dealing with the Chinese are and why they have to be dealt with this way.<\/p>\n

He detailed the 30-year history exactly as I have done for you this week. The one thing that he didn\u2019t do — and I think this is key. The one thing that… Everything Bannon said was right on the money about what Trump is doing, how he\u2019s doing it, what the net positive impact is gonna be. But the one thing that he didn\u2019t explain was why this arrangement has been the way it is for 30 years. Why have we had this trade imbalance?<\/p>\n

Not just with the ChiComs, but with a lot of other nations around the world. Why has the United States permitted this unfairness? And understanding that is the key to understanding the Trump presidency. Essentially what Donald Trump is saying not just to the ChiComs but to the world: “We are no longer gonna apologize for being so rich and powerful. We\u2019re not gonna apologizes for being a superpower, whether we\u2019re the only one or not. We are not gonna let our pockets be picked just to show that we\u2019re nice people or just to show that we don\u2019t intend anybody any harm.<\/p>\n

“And we\u2019re not gonna let enemies take advantage of us just so they don\u2019t drop bombs on us.” In other words, this defensive, almost guilt-laden posture that members of both parties (doesn\u2019t matter Republican, Democrat administrations) have all dealt with the ChiComs and other nations from this position of, “Gee, we\u2019re sorry that we\u2019re the loan superpower. We don\u2019t intend you any ill will. We hope you don\u2019t nuke us.”<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s totally defensive, and when I say laden with guilt, I\u2019m not really exaggerating. People feeling guilty that we have so much and some of these other nations have so little, and we don\u2019t want anybody to think we\u2019re lauding anything over them. What Trump is saying is that those days are over. We\u2019re not gonna let enemies take advantage of us. We\u2019re not gonna do things just to show that we\u2019re nice guys. We\u2019re gonna start looking out for our interests first. We\u2019re gonna take care of ourselves, but we\u2019re gonna be fair with everybody. And as we do well, so will everybody else, because we\u2019re the good guys.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s part of this that has to be understood.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: What I was starting to say is we had Chuck You Schumer line up behind Trump on the trade negotiation stance with the ChiComs. I remember a lot of people think that Schumer was trying to egg Trump on to do this because they think Trump\u2019s making a mistake, because there\u2019s going to be maybe an economic slowdown as part of it. Maybe prices on certain things will increase a bit, and Trump\u2019s really invested in the economy growing, and this may slow it down a bit. And people think that Schumer is urging Trump to do it…<\/p>\n

Folks, Trump is not going to be affected by whether Schumer supports him or not. Trump being urged to keep on by Schumer is not relevant. Now, there may be some economic ramifications, but the point is, this has to be done. This situation has to get resolved. This unfairness, this gigantic trade imbalance… Let me tell you why, in my humble opinion — and I alluded to this earlier. It used to be 30 years ago when this began, when the trade relationship with China began — which followed him a similar pattern as happened with us and the Japanese.<\/p>\n

Remember when everybody was worried that the Japanese were buying up the buildings in New York and we\u2019re all gonna be speaking Japanese? That was the panic. The Chinese situation happened shortly after the Japanese situation was resolved. And our brains, our best and brightest who set up existing trade relationships resulting in us taking the short end of the stick said, “Look, this is what we need. We need to show the Chinese that we have no ill will intended. We need to show the Chinese we can be a good trading partner.<\/p>\n

“We need to do something with the Chinese to show they don\u2019t drop bombs on us,” all this defensive stuff. They said, “After all, what are the Chinese making us and sending us? They\u2019re making cheap little wind-up toys and dolls and stuff and some of the cheapest merchandise on earth. It is coming from China, and so it\u2019s not a threat to us anyway.” They\u2019re making things that Americans won\u2019t make anymore, was essentially the argument. Cheap stuff.<\/p>\n

That may have been then, but that\u2019s not the case now. Now the Chinese are actively hacking and stealing intellectual property. Now the Chinese are very active in competing in 5G network rollouts, cell phone connectivity. The Chinese are making great advances in artificial intelligence. One of the ways they\u2019re able to do this is via this trade imbalance and espionage. They\u2019re no longer making little trinkets and worthless little toys that sell for 25\u00a2 at Walmart.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re now into very, very serious areas. In fact, they have a cell phone manufacturing company, a gigantic tech firm called Huawei. You\u2019ve probably heard of it. We do not let Huawei sell anything in this country. We don\u2019t let them in, because Huawei has a direct line to the Chinese Communist Party and it has been established that way Huawei technology has spyware in it. So if it were allowable for you to buy a Huawei-made cell phone, the odds are the good there would be spyware on that phone that links back to the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re seriously in a an economic competition with us for serious things now, not little toys and trinkets. It cannot be allowed to go on, and it certainly cannot be allowed to go on with the same thinking that got it started 30 years ago. And that thinking is directly traceable to characteristics of liberalism. Guilt, the desire to be liked, the assurance that we\u2019re not gonna hurt anybody, that we don\u2019t mean them any ill will — and the implied request that you not nuke us.<\/p>\n

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“See, we\u2019ll let you take advantage of us so that we have value to you, so you won\u2019t over…” Well, the fact of the matter is, their economy is one-third the size of ours. There isn\u2019t a nation on earth that can get by without access to our market. The ChiComs have to have access to our market, and Trump is threatening to deny them that access, and if he sticks with this and hangs it, it\u2019s gonna work, and it\u2019s gonna reorder the entire foreign policy (regarding economy) trade arrangements that we\u2019ve had with all these countries, and it\u2019s gonna make things fair again.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s important from the standpoint of the American consumer and the American manufacturer. Now, in addition to Chuck You Schumer, guess who else today signed on with Donald Trump? None other than Thomas L. “Loopy” Friedman of the New York Times! Now, this guy… This guy has hated Donald Trump from the get-go. He\u2019s as much the Never Trumper as anybody else is. And for the same reasons. Trump is a buffoon, Trump is an idiot, Trump\u2019s unprepared, he\u2019s uneducated, he\u2019s unintelligent, he can\u2019t talk, he\u2019s got weird looking hair, he\u2019s a buffoon, he\u2019s an embarrassment.<\/p>\n

And yet Thomas L. Friedman — who, by the way, over the years has expressed his admiration for the ChiCom\u2019s totalitarian government. He\u2019s jealous. He\u2019s been envious of the fact that 10 or 12 people in China can all get something done. If they want to build a bridge somewhere, they don\u2019t have to vote on it. Just have 10 or 12 Communist Party leaders dictate that it be done and it gets done. He has envisioned something like that for the United States.<\/p>\n

Get the best and the brightest — and he, of course, would be one of them. Get the 10 smartest people in America, put them in charge of infrastructure, and let them command that it be fixed and how it\u2019s gonna be done and who\u2019s gonna get the work and how much it\u2019s gonna cost. He has openly expressed his admiration for how the ChiComs are able to do that. Well, we don\u2019t have that kind of government.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have dictatorial authoritarianism or anywhere approaching that kind of tyranny. So I was surprised when Thomas “Loopy” Friedman shows up on CNBC today to essentially endorse and back and explain why his support for Trump<\/a>. Here he is being asked the question. Joe Kernen says, “We agree something needs to be done on China, and of all the things that Trump may have undertaken, this is one that you are friendly toward?”<\/p>\n

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FRIEDMAN: Yes, I am. You and I can disagree whether Donald Trump is the American president that America deserves right now. But I\u2019m absolutely certain he\u2019s the American president that China deserves right now, because it needed someone who was going to actually take on the trade relationship between the two countries that was misaligned. This is really hard. But where I really agree with the president, it took someone to call the game. The game had to be called. Things have really gotten out of whack, and somebody had to call the game, and I think Trump is the guy that did it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, what he meant by “call the game,” in my language, that means you postpone it. When I was growing up, “The game\u2019s been called because of rain.” That\u2019s not what he means. He means somebody had to stand up and point out what\u2019s goin\u2019 on. Somebody had to stand up and identify how we are taking it in the shorts every which way from Sunday on this trade deal with China. Now, my reaction is that\u2019s all true. But for Mr. Friedman, Trump\u2019s been saying this since 1995. This was a fundamental part of Trump\u2019s presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

Where were you then, thinking Trump is the president we needed for China? If he\u2019s the only guy who could “call the game,” meaning he\u2019s the only guy who could stand up and point all this out with effectiveness to get something done, to get some effective changes — if Trump\u2019s the only one… Do you realize…? Folks, I don\u2019t know how deeply it has spread throughout the Twitterverse and the Facebookverse.<\/p>\n

But “Loopy” Friedman signing on and endorsing Trump for anything may cause suicides out there on the left. I mean, this is the kind of thing that\u2019s gonna send people over the edge. They\u2019re not gonna understand it. They\u2019re gonna come up with theories to explain like they did with Schumer. “Hey, don\u2019t believe this. Friedman knows Trump\u2019s committing suicide with this. He\u2019s just trying to encourage him to keep committing suicide.” I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case at all. Here\u2019s Steve Bannon who was also on the same show. He was in Germany sitting there (well, at least it looked like he was) in front of the Brandenburg Gate.<\/p>\n

He reacts to Friedman. Friedman said, “Look, I picked up the Washington Post today and I saw an article about how Republicans are now really breaking with the president, particularly from agricultural districts. So Steve, give me your analysis of the Republican politics of this issue, whether you think the president will be able to hold firm.” What he\u2019s saying is that some people now experiencing higher prices because of the tariffs are beginning to get a little nervous and maybe drifting away from Trump because of it, and Friedman is asking Bannon if that\u2019s right and if Trump can weather whatever storm might happen.<\/p>\n

BANNON: The politics of this is that the Republicans have really put the most pressure on him. His allies on Wall Street have put the pressure on him, not understanding that this is the main thing; this is what it\u2019s about. This is gonna set the world in one direction or the other for the next 20, 30, 40, or 50 years. I think it\u2019s gonna set the framework for the 2020 election. But I gotta tell you. He\u2019s not gonna back down from this. This is the core of why he\u2019s president of the United States. This is the core of American decline. This is the turnaround of America. This is bringing manufacturing jobs back. I believe those citizens in those northern industrial states will say, “Hey, this guy finally stood up to \u2019em, started bringing the supply chain back, and I\u2019m with him.”<\/p>\n