BRETT: What never ceases to amaze me when you look at the challenges out there in the world is how right on Rush has been on the domestic policy front, but also on the policy front involving the rest of the world and how it is the United States is viewed by some of our more hostile partners, enemies, whatever you want to call these folks.
Well, in the case of China, I think it’s pretty clear where we stand with China, but it’s not so clear why we stand as a nation looking towards China. Because once upon a time you had a very robust — a very strong, muscular — approach towards the Chinese come to a stop there in Beijing. And then along came President Biden, who has repeated oftentimes that he doesn’t view China as an adversary or as an enemy.
He views them as a competitor, as a competitor. He says, “You know, China’s never gonna pass us. What are we doing?” You know, this week there’s gonna be a series of meetings. Jake Sullivan — not Jake from State Farm, but Jake Sullivan (chuckles) — is gonna be meeting with his Chinese counterpart there in Alaska, of all places. He’s gonna meet in Alaska in March.
That’s really quite something. Jake Sullivan is the national security adviser. He said on Friday going into the weekend that tariffs and export controls will not be a top issue. So trade won’t be a top issue, not gonna be a topic. He’s not gonna be doing any of this trade conversation stuff. What is it that you’re talking with him about? What is it that you want to talk about?
Well, they want to talk about climate change and China’s behavior in Hong Kong and the coronavirus pandemic. They probably want to talk about that last and probably not a lot, ’cause it’s a sore subject with the American people who have suffered from the pandemic. So here you have the federal government, the American government getting out 20 means with the Chinese counterparts there in Alaska this week.
Well, Rush absolutely had it spot-on when it came to trade and tariffs under President Trump. Listen.
RUSH: Donald Trump has been talking about how China has been ripping us off since the mid-nineties. Whenever he would go on TV, it has been a major bugaboo of his about the stupidity of trade policy that we’ve had, specifically with the ChiComs. So it’s nothing new.
It’s simply Trump following through on something that he has stated for the for the last 25 years. It’s not just the trade deals with the ChiComs. It’s with everybody else. He’s sick and tired of the United States basically allowing its pocket to be picked. You have to look at Donald Trump as a disrupter.
Trump is unafraid to use tariffs. When you talk about conservatism? Conservatives are almost required — if you’re going to be a card-carrying, good conservative — to oppose tariffs. Tariffs are taxes, and conservatives oppose taxes. Here comes Trump imposing taxes on the importation of Chinese goods.
Over here was the Soviet Union, with whom we were allied in World War II, and then that all ended when Hitler went bye-bye and then Germany was defeated. Then they became our primary enemy. They never have been a superpower. They are a Third World power with a First World military, including nukes — and that was the danger they posed.
So Washington has had this structure that everybody that has been in the Washington establishment has acknowledged and sworn by and accepted ever since World War II ended. The basic structure here has had the United States as the world superpower occupying that position almost with an attitude of guilt at being the superpower.
We have, as policy, allowed our pockets to be picked, and we have made it clear that we intend nobody any harm. We’re not gonna use our power militarily or economically. Why has this all been allowed to happen? Contrary… The president says our leaders have been dumb and stupid. They have not been dumb and stupid, and I’m talking about every Republican president, every Democrat.
Party doesn’t matter here. They’ve all been compliant. They have been in agreement. All of Washington has been operating under an agreement that no one says. It’s intrinsically understood. So we gotta demonstrate that they don’t have to resent us and they don’t have to be afraid of us. So we let them take advantage of us. We’ll take it on the chin in trade deals, and we’ll take it on the chin with NATO.
This has been the operating philosophy. Look, I’m simplifying this, but this has been the operating philosophy of the postwar order with the United States at the top of the heap as a means of maintaining peace, as a way of forging good relationships with nations around the world.
I don’t care, Republican or Democrat, that was the operating belief system that was created and maintained. The State Department today is still structured this way. So Trump comes in. He doesn’t believe any of this. He doesn’t believe in being taken advantage of, and he certainly doesn’t believe we’re to blame for all that’s wrong in the world. He believes we’re the solution.
So he’s blowing it up. He’s disrupting it, rewriting trade deals, rewriting participatory deals such as NATO and so forth. These career people in Washington to whom this has been a way of life and a belief system that is appreciated and to which they’re totally devoted, are disrupted. They’re out of their gourds over this.
BRETT: And go back to Jake Sullivan going to meet with the Chinese representatives in Alaska this week. They want to talk about climate change. You know as well as I know that climate change is a one-way deal, and the one-way deal is that we get stuck with the bad part of that deal. These “emerging economies,” these Third World countries.
China’s regarded as an emerging economy. They’re an emerging economy. They don’t have to meet the same compliance numbers that we have to meet. China gets to do what they want to do: Pollute and steal intellectual property. And oppress and repress people and minority groups in their country. And abrogate, violate, ignore, tear up deals between them and Hong Kong and the United Kingdom as part of that 1997 agreement.
Just go down the list. So we’re gonna go meet with the Chinese representatives over there. (whispering) “We’re gonna meet with them over in Alaska. We’re gonna talk to them about, uhhh… Well, we’ll talk about, uh, the climate change. Well, we’ll talk about shared challenges. We’ll talk about the coronavirus, blah, blah, blah. We’ll talk about the coronavirus — we don’t want to upset Xi Jinping — and we’re not gonna talk trade.
“Why would you want to talk about trade? Trade is… I mean, how important of an issue is trade?” It’s a hugely important issue. It should be coronavirus and trade and intellectual property — and then a little quick mention of climate change as Jake Sullivan puts his fingers to his ear and goes, “Call me.” Rush was 100% right, and he nailed it, and he understood exactly why President Trump connected with the American people.
Related Links