224. Trump Is Caving to Xi: Will Maga Turn on Him?

Republicans are starting to distance themselves from Trump and the president is seriously panicking. His attempt to ban and distract the media has failed disastrously. Why? Because all they can talk about is his terrible approval ratings. Could the Dems be heading for their biggest congressional win in 50 years? Meanwhile Donald Trump can't stop complimenting President Xi during his visit to the United States. Xi is holding all the cards here. I'm going to explain why Donald Trump will be relying on China for years to come. This episode is brought to you by Yitoro. A tariff of spending plan, a regulatory change, it can all start just as the first line of a speech. But it sets in motion things that can reach far beyond Washington and unfold for years to come. He markets move on expectations, not just events, investors are constantly weighing what a decision could mean for companies sectors and the wider economy. So Yitoro is an investing platform where you can access a wide range of markets and explore how political and economic developments can affect them. You could also learn from the global community of investors and see how people around the world are interpreting the same news. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day-convy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. But plump, dewy, hydrated skin, that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Maybe it's Mabelie. Welcome to the rest is politics, US. Antony was very nice to see you last night in Washington, DC, the nation's fair capital. I had a great time, Caddy. Thank you for coming to Politics and Pro, so we had a nice turnout and got a chance to talk to some people about my book, which I had been doing for the last 10 days, Caddy. Everyone wants to kill me, but that's fine, okay? Keep the good fight going. I know how happy you were to see all of the way that Donald Trump has beautified Washington. You hadn't been down for a while, so you'd not really seen the big pictures of him on all the buildings and the Kennedy Center and all of that. Washington looks strained to use Grading Carter's line. Trump is a short-finger, vulgarian. Just like two short-fingered, vulgarian hands have compressed the city. Washington looks strained to me. I was bummed out yesterday when I flew back. I was like, "The city doesn't look right." That has typically been a tranquil, conformist, easy city, and it is tense in that city right now, Caddy, and that's the facts. I mean, I don't feel, I'm going to say I don't feel it walking around the city. It feels where I live, and my neighborhood feels pretty normal, but I do feel it when I go downtown, because you notice all the pictures and changes. You live there, so I came in and I get hit with the impact. Listen, New York is booming. You come up to New York. Everyone's mad at me for saying positive things about Mondani, but I'm an objective person. New York is booming. You go to Washington, there's a tenseness in that city right now, and it's not great. The surrounding thing going around in the White House, I was really disappointed by all the fencing around it anyway. Do we have a blue wave coming? Well, I wanted to look at that this week, because we have now had, since Labor Day, which was September the 7th, now a couple of weeks after Labor Day, this is the traditional kickoff of the midterm election season, and we have had about two dozen major polls have come out around the midterm elections, that I am told by people who spend time in the White House are freaking people out in the White House. You texted me earlier this week, Anthony, which made me think of doing this segment on this, because the numbers are dropping out of the President's approval rating. And if you look at all of the four major issues, this is just one of the polls. This is the NPR Marist poll on gas prices, inflation, immigration, and foreign policy, which are basically, that's the war, Democrats are ahead on all of those four issues, even on immigration. Remember how far ahead the Republicans were on immigration? That's largely why Donald Trump got elected in 2024, that and prices, well, that has totally flipped. Now Democrats are ahead on all of those issues. I remember when we were talking about the election, and I was predicting that Donald Trump was going to win, it was because he was consistently ahead on the issues people cared about. Well, this time around Democrats are consistently ahead on the issues people care about. So what is a wave? A wave is a big movement. That's what political scientist tell me is a big movement, unexpected big movement in one party's favor, but you also have to compare it to the previous midterm elections. So do the Democrats do noticeably better in the last time that Donald Trump was President in the 2018 midterm elections? And that would give you some sense of whether it's a wave. What I'm speaking to is now talking about a big wave, where the Democrats take something like 20 seats in the house and where they take potentially seven or eight seats in the Senate, not just the four that they would need to win the Senate, but they take more than that take seven or eight seats. Things can change between now and midterm elections, but those gas prices and those diesel prices for people who have trucks are really hurting the Republican party. So what are you hearing, Anthony, on this? Well, I'm worried about about a couple of things. The main one is the electioneering around the polling. I'm worried about that because prior to seeing you at politics and pros last night, I did a little bit of a conicence. I met with some reporters I'm close to. I met with some Republican operatives that I'm close to. I had to lunch with a Democratic operative that used to work for both Joe Biden and President Obama. And I'm worried about Trump is going to lose so badly that they do something Deus Ex Machina on the election. Just quickly, what does so badly mean to you? What do you compare this to? What do you think the numbers are going to be? Let's gamify this. Okay. So he gets shellac the way President Obama got shellac them. I'm using that work because that was the word that President Obama used in 2010. And so he loses the house. He loses the Senate. He loses the Senate where it's like it's like $5248 or something like that in the Senate. And now he's got bicameral investigations going on on both sides. Caddy, you know this because you live in that town. But the corruption is at a control. Okay, describe to me by three or four different people that I met with yesterday, mafia style corruption. Family members going to people in the Middle East, priority inauguration and saying, hey, how are you firing a couple billion? Oh, by the way, it's totally legal because, you know, my, you know, my family member is not the president. So it's just fire in the couple billion. And mafia style like threats, mafia style like intimidation, okay? And why on God's earth did Hakeem Jeffries meet with Jared Kushner? And what on God's earth is Hakeem Jeffries plan? Should he ascend, which is the most likely thing that happens? He ascends to be the speaker of the house. Is this kid tough enough to handle these people? And is this kid evil enough? And let me just explain to you about evil, okay? If you've got evil people that you're fighting with, you have to understand evil people. You cannot be naive, you know, you know, you remember that scene in private, private Ryan or top. Tom Hanks figure lets the German guy go and then the German guy comes back in a secondary battle and kills him before the end of the movie. Okay? You cannot let that happen right now, okay? And there has to be a wave of accountability for what these people are doing. It's one thing for the court to say, hey, you got to let us see an end and political when Emma is now back into the White House. That's one thing. He'll challenge it because he's the dope that he is. But I'm talking about anger in the streets, about what these people are doing to their republic. And last but not least, and you'll laugh at this, but you can ask Holly, okay? I came on to the plane last night flying home. There were three or four people on the plane. They all looked over at me and they were like, hey, I got to tell you this or I got to tell you that. Or could you speak out more about how bad this is here in Washington? So my thing is, okay, great, you're going to get a blue wave. You've got a 22 point gap on economic approval, okay? People are going to forgive a lot of things, but when gas prices go from $4.50 to $7 by November because we're entering the winter, okay? Trump is going to get blown out in those two houses, okay? So what are you guys going to do? What's the plan? What's the plan for accountability? What's the plan for right-sizing the economy? What's the plan for shoving the administration to get out of the Iranian war? Those are the questions that I have, Kathy. - Well, let's dig a bit more into the polls, 'cause I think we've gotta get to the midterms first, and I think it is worth, there are a couple of things that people have told me this week that make me think that you're right, there could be some kind of a blue wave coming. One, a Republican strategist pointed out to me that when Trump is on the ballot, he wins, he keeps telling us that, right? He's going around telling all these voters, please pretend that I'm on the ballot. But actually, this guy had looked into the 2024 data and what he found is that when Trump is on the ballot, Trump does well, but actually other Republicans don't do well. His being on the ballot doesn't confer to other Republicans. So back in 2024, Trump carried Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but Democrats actually won the Senate race in all four of those battleground states. I think that's what Republicans are also worried about, and that's why I think you're seeing Republicans this week start to distance themselves away from Trump. It's not a massive wave of people, but you are seeing Republicans in Michigan, Republicans in Kansas, Republicans in Iowa, all three of those states now looking more favorable from Democrats than they were even two weeks ago, and they're starting to say you've got to end the war in Iran, because it's all about the gas prices, and you point out that polling he has on his economic approval ratings. He's 22 points below his September 2018 mark. That's the problem. That's where people are talking about a wave. - Tell us about the Latinos. - Yeah, you tell us about the Hispanic vote. Could you give the number one? - Yeah, so this is another of the polls that's just come out and Pew found that only 66% of Hispanics who voted for Trump in 2024, and remember it was Hispanics who helped Trump win the White House in 2024, because he did much better than he had done previously, and better than Republican candidates had done previously. But today, only 66% of those Hispanics who voted for him still approve of him. And that's why you have people like Congresswoman Salazar right in Florida, and I think Florida and Texas are the states that Republicans are worried about where they could lose big numbers in the House in these midterms. You've got Congresswoman Salazar coming out who is a Trump supporter, Republican, publicly with that video ad saying, listen, Mr. President, don't listen to your advisors, Hispanics feel betrayed by your policies. And I think that's what you, to get what you said, Anthony, I think you're quite right. That's the sentiment people feel lied to. That's why they're turning away from Trump. A woman at our event last night, whose family all live in Michigan, all Trump supporters said, please make this point. It's not just the state of the economy. It's the fact that people feel they were lied to. It's what you write about in your book. A promise was made to them that the prices would come down. Their economic situation would get better, and that promise was broken. And that's why I think you're seeing the numbers shift as much as they are, and so much anxiety in the White House about what's going to happen in the midterms. OK, I hate to do this to you, county. And I don't often do this to you. But we're role-playing. And you are the Orange Maniac, OK? And now you're sitting there in that role. I'm really giving you that role. You're a little sweaty. It's early on Thursday morning. OK, but you got to go with this guy, because I need the answer to this. I'm so perplexed, OK? So now it's not me, but it's a Marco Rubio-like figure, like the one I played on war games for Sky News. And just, you know, I played a complete asshole on that. And just letting Trip US listeners know that wasn't me, that was me channeling the legendary Weather Vane, Marco Rubio. But now I'm walking in. And for some reason, I bumped my head on the way into the West Wing. And so I'm now not in askissing mode. I'm in, tell it straight to the president mode. OK. All right, I open the door to the study. You're sitting there, you're pounding the red button for the diacokes, and you're fluming them. And I turn to you, and I say, dude, what the f? You came in, Biden had the economy fixed. Inflation was coming down. The economy was expanding, and prices were going lower. And you could have been an incredibly popular president as much as somebody like Anthony Scaramucci would despise that. You would have been a very popular president. But then you started pulling triggers on wars that we didn't need to be in. You've jacked up the prices on everything. You're stupid on and off again tariffs. You're fight with the press. You suck. You are at George W. Bush levels of approval 2006 leading into the midterm. That's the comparison that's being made right now, right? 2006, because it's an unpopular war, high prices, and a president facing a midterms in which he got a blow out. So Mr. Orange Maniac, where we are making the decisions for the United States government at the executor branch by a full body of one, that would be you. OK, go ahead. What were you thinking two years into this fiasco? Go ahead, what were you thinking? I'm going to make America great again. It's all going to come great again. We're going to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon. Gas prices are going to tumble straight after the midterm elections when we wrap this thing up. And the tariffs are going to make American manufacturing great again, and Canada is going to become the 51st state. And you're playing 19D chess. And I'm playing 19D chess and watch this shiny thing over here, this new building, this ban on the press, and no one will notice that they're playing $7 for diesel. So you may have picked this up, but I have to bring it up. OK, that was actually pretty good, by the way. And I'm going to send you-- I can't do this. I can't do this, but I did the talking. I'm going to send you the Matt Ford Donald Trump wig when he puts it on like in places. He didn't use it in Manchester when he was talking to me about all the wrong moves, thank God. But when he puts it on, I start getting scalps wet and heart rate palpitations. And I'm like, please, Mr. President, don't fire me again. I don't know if I can handle it. But that was pretty good. But there was something that happened that I want to make sure everybody knows. And that is Driscoll. And Driscoll is talking to the press. Who is Driscoll? He's Secretary of the Army. He resigned because there's a doughnut who happens to be Secretary of Defense, who's gutting the Army's intelligentsia intellectual capital of generals. And so he went to the president, to the Oval, and explained to him what Pete, number zero, Hexeth is doing to the Pentagon. And what did Trump do? Can I show you the plans of the art, the Trump? Oh, by the way, you want to come to the-- I'm going to open up the curtains in the East Room. Let me show you the ballroom that I'm building, that which seven times the size of the White House. And Driscoll left the meeting and said, Trump doesn't give a, you know what? And all he wants to do is talk about this building stuff. So the brain is addling. And we're going to get to she in the second half because I have a whole lot of stuff on she as well. But I'm just saying to you, if you're a Republican, you're scrubbing Trump. You're not talking about Trump anymore. You're trying to talk about the party. You're trying to throw the communist line at the Democrats, which doesn't work, by the way. Keep trying to do it, but it doesn't work. And again, Democrats don't spike the ball. You got five weeks to go, and that is a lifetime. Mike Johnson gave you the benefit. He doesn't want to vote on the Epstein files. You got five weeks where the Congress is closed. You better be out there knocking on doors. Think AOC burning through shoe letter out here in Queens. Start knocking on doors. Don't spike the football. They've clearly can't rest on their laurels. They've got to do all of their work. But most of the strategists that I speak to, Republican and Democrats say, after Labor Day, once you get to September, trying to move public opinion by a large amount, ex some huge big exogenous factor is very difficult. People's minds are made up pretty much by the end of summer. I mean, you think you and I both agree. There is not much chance of wrapping up this Iran war situation between now and the midterms. I think we would never have suggested that back in February. Everyone thought this was going to be much quicker. But I don't think this is going to get wrapped up. So I don't see how gas prices come down a huge amount between now and the midterm elections. And that's what's really driving this. There was a great, super interesting tweet put out by this guy, Steve Deese, who is a conservative radio host in Iowa. And he is warning Republicans on ex this week that if you are in a district that Trump won by plus 10 points, so a pretty solidly conservative pro-Trump district, you are now underwater. And that this could be worse than that midterm election of 2006, where George W. Bush lost 30 seats in the House. So Republicans lost 30 seats in the House. So I think when you have a conservative Iowa and saying that, and he's seeing what he's seeing, he's sending out an alarm bell around the country to Republicans, you have to be in a super solid magazine. And on that thing of the 3D chess, you're not talking about Trump. I think as the Wall Street Journal has done a survey of all of the top conservative podcast hosts, they went through like 70,000 hours of podcasting. God knows why there are 70,000 hours of podcasting. But anyway, poor person, who had to listen to that. - There's only one important hour, Cady Kate. - There is only one important hour, and that is right here. - I'm sorry, Alistair. I know you're listening, Alistair. This is team. important one out of the 70,000. But go ahead, what did they say? What did they say? - They basically said that they've stopped talking about Trump. The Trump is no longer the thing that they're talking about. He's not driving the base anymore. He's not driving audiences from them. I thought that was super interesting. And on the press ban, so now we're in a situation where Trump has, you know, banned the press, the judges said not so far. They have to be allowed back in again. We'll see whether my colleagues for disclosure, I work for MSNOW in the mornings. Let's see if MSNOW's reporters and CNN's reporters and political reporters are all allowed back in again. But I think you were right when you said to me, "Oh, that's a huge, big distraction factor." But there's this guy, Conor McShane, who's a host on news nation. Super Trump-y news organization who put out a tweet saying, "By the way, if this was meant to be for DHS as a distraction from the gas prices, from the war in Iran and from your terrible poll numbers, it's not working because actually what we've been speaking about is exactly that." So you've got conservatives all around the country in the media and in the Senate sending warnings to the White House that this is gonna be a terrible midterm elections for them. Look, there's been a lot of gerrymandering. This is the counter-argument. There's been a lot of gerrymandering. Democrats now have to win 10 seats to regain the House, not just four seats, which is what they would have had to win before all the gerrymandering around the country. They lost out on that gerrymandering arms race. And so maybe that mitigates things, but I think they get over that 10, don't you? I mean, if you're looking at this at the moment, and you had to weigh up the gerrymandering versus Trump's unpopularity and the price of things, I think it's the unpopularity and the price of things that ways Republicans down more than the gerrymandering helps them. - Cassie, what is the case even that the White House is trying to make? - So one of the reasons that the White House has said that it's banned these reporters, it's citing various stories. And because Trump likes the national security argument, and he thinks the national security argument works well with the courts, he's saying that there's a national security component here. And one of the stories that they refer to, 'cause they refer to specific stories as their reasons for banning these organizations was a story that Politico ran back in the summer about the chances for an Iran deal. But what's emerged overnight, Anthony, is that that story was based on a call that the White House set up with reporters. This happens often, I've been on these calls before, you get a text, you get an email saying, there's gonna be a White House briefing call, it's with an anonymous senior White House official. You can't say who the official is, but you can join the call and they'll give you their briefing. Anyway, the White House set up this call with a senior anonymous White House official, who just, as it turned out, was JD Vance. So JD Vance is on this call with reporters, they tell you, you can't say it's JD Vance, but JD Vance is now gonna tell you the briefing and you have that for background. So Politico writes the story, quoting a senior anonymous White House official tells Politico that the chances for an Iran deal, he thinks are something like 60% in the next week or two. So they run the story, everybody runs the story, and now the White House is using that story, which shows I think how flimsy their legal cases, right? I mean, you're the lawyer, Anthony, I don't know this, but if you're running a story based on a call that you set up with an official, you put forward in order to have that official quoted anonymously, and then you're saying that they had some kind of national security problem, they should never run that story. I just don't see how that holds water in a court of law. So, Katty, what if the ruling is in place, and the White House doesn't obey it? MSNOW is reporting this morning that their reporter was denied access. The decision was rendered maybe around midnight last night. Now it's a 14 day stay, okay? So let's just talk a little bit about that. It's not totally rendered yet. Trump is obviously squawking about it, whining about it, wants an appeal. If you've read the complaint, which of course being a nerd, I read the complaint, it's all about due process in the first amendment. I've never seen the press lose a case like that in the 250 years or the 237 years of the Constitution. So they're gonna win the case, okay? And but yet this morning, okay, they wouldn't let the MS now reporter through the gate to get access to the White House. So that could be a whole nother commotion. Now if I'm Donald Trump, if I'm Donald Trump, I want that distraction. Because there's still kernels of my megabase that want authoritarianism. There's still kernels of my megabase that believe in me. And in this we'll keep the Epstein file out. This will keep the poll numbers, the gas prices. If I can keep this fire burning a little while longer, it'd be good for me. - I think generally when you're speaking about process, which reporter has a White House hard pass, which reporter doesn't have a White House hard pass, that is not a terribly exciting thing for people to rally about when every single poll is telling us that what matters to the more is the gas prices. But it will be a fight because yes, I looked at that ruling too. And Judge Kelly, who is a Trump appointed judge, there it was unambiguous that they have to have their hard passes, which allow them access to the White House, return to them immediately. If Trump wants to defy that judge's order, he would have to go to a senior judge, a more senior court, and get that order overturned. He hasn't done that yet, obviously, because the order's only been out for a few hours. Actually only over immigration and those flights that were leaving for El Salvador, have we seen Trump and the White House directly defy a court order? So if he directly defies this court order, that would be only the second time. - Yeah, he probably won't do it permanently, but he'll create a little pushing and shoving here, 'cause that's him. And he's got nobody saying no to him. - He's got nobody saying no to him. And he likes a fight. He thinks he does better with a fight. - Nobody's walking to that study saying, "Hey, you're a jackass. What are you doing?" Nobody's doing that. - But I think he should be listening to Conlon McShane from News Nation, who is telling people, if you think this is the distraction that you are looking for, that is going to materially change, the Republicans' chances in the midterm elections you're wrong because actually we are still talking about your terrible poll numbers and the price of diesel. Okay, we're going to take a break and come back and talk about China. (upbeat music) - This episode is brought to you by The Financial Times. - Look at it, the Financial Times journalism provides trusted inside analysis and perspective to help you see the whole story and truly understand the issues that matter. I just want to show you something here, Katty. Every day, every day on my iPad, I pull that up. That's the digital edition of The Financial Times. I've been a financial time subscriber both digitally and I'm talking the salmon paper, Katty, 'cause I'm old since 2000. That's correct, 26 years of dedicated loyalty to The Financial Times. You get it all in the FT. It's a very objective paper and it's lots of fun to read and it makes you smarter. - For the why, Financial Times, listeners of the rest of this politics US can save over 40% on an annual digital subscription to The Financial Times by visiting ft.com/tripus. - That's ft.com/tripus. T-R-I-P-U-S subject to terms and conditions offer expires October 28th. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all-day comfy grip. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin. That still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. - Maybe it's Mavily. (upbeat music) - Hi everybody, it's Dominic Sandbrook here from The Rest is History and we are here to tell you about a thrilling new series on the blood-soaked climax of the French Revolution, The Rain of Terror. So the French Revolution is one of the most significant episodes in the whole of world history. It essentially lays the foundations for contemporary politics as we know it, but it is also unbelievably dramatic. We'll be discussing the murder of the fire-brand Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub. We will be going to the guillotine with Mary Antoinette and in our final episode. We will be telling the story of the extraordinary grotesque downfall of one of the chief architects of the terror, one of the most evil men in history, some would say, Maximilian Crabberspierre. So if you want to hear this epic series, search for The Rest is History, wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - I met President Xi at the plane airport yesterday and he looks strong, vibrant and fit. Better than ever, Madam Xi, of course, beautiful. President, DJT, Anthony just coming in hot off the press, breaking news from the president's truth social feed. - Okay. - Do I have to? - His take. - On Chinese leader. - Okay, just be honest with me, Katie. Do I have to add President Xi to the Trump man-crush list? - Along with the Mayor Mandani. - Is he going up there with Arnold Palmer and Mayor Mandani and UFC fighters? Are we putting Xi on that list? - I think so. What is it? Vibrant, strong and fit. The President of China is looking. Okay, so President Trump went to joint base Andrews, just outside Washington yesterday. I think you and I saw him flying back on his helicopter and all the traffic was snarled up when we were moving around the city last night. Xi and Melania met President Xi and President Xi's wife. There was a red carpet, there was an onigard, there was a B1 flyover. And this is the beginning of the state visit tonight. There's going to be a state dinner at the White House. I suspect that the President is busily involved in all of the decor for that. He likes the decor. He likes to know exactly what the silverware is going to be. So, and the question that I had from a Biden national security advisor official yesterday from the Biden administration, he said to me, okay, if we had done this, if we had welcomed President Xi like this just a few weeks before a midterm election with all of the pomp and circumstance for the Communist Party leader when people in America worried about prices and the red carpet welcome, would we have got away with it? No, he said we would have been killed. Oh, I mean, and we have, we have Donald Trump on tape where he's criticizing President Obama for the lavish way he treated President Xi. But I want to talk about the card table, Caddy, because you know, some people have the cards and some people don't have the cards. And of course, Zelensky had no cards, but it turns out we need Zelensky's cards. This is the irony of the way life works. But if I'm sitting at the card table right now, she arrived holding more cards at any point in the Trump era. And that's one of the reasons why Trump showed a plane side. I think it's very important. Because when Trump went to Beijing, by the way, remember guys in May, she did not come to the airport. He sent the vice president to meet him. So there is an imbalance there in the optics of the way that the president was greeted. And we're going to explain that because Mr. Scott Bassett, our Secretary of Treasury, three days of talks with Chinese representatives, they secured, and this is super important for the United States way more than the Chinese. They secured a continued impasse, meaning they're not going to have a trade war until January. They're going to continue their negotiations. Because guess what? We don't have that many cards, and we've already half ignited our economy. And if you go back to the protocol and communicate from Beijing during the ridiculous, you remember when Trump was coming down from Mount Evil with like orange moses with the tablet, if we go through that, she's response was very mature and he held his ground. And guess what? That was bluster because the Americans need the rare earth, Americans need the manufacturing capability, et cetera. But there is a meme that will represent this Trump administration. And just hear me out, Katty, there was a B1B Lancer that was time to fly over the two presidents at Andrews. And one president winced and grimaced as it was flying over. And the other one was a stone, to use a Donald Trump word, it was a stone-called killer, looking vibrant, quote, the president, and not moving. So which president was wincing and creaking his neck and what was what other president was indifferent to the flyover? Well, I'm gonna go with the vibrant and fit and strong president she for taking the noise of the B1 bomber in his stride. And Trump was trying to do that for a dramatic effect because he always hasn't overbite with his nonsense. But, you know, let's go to the facts here on the ground. Bloomberg is saying that too bad for the US, you don't have the mining, you don't have the production capability on rare earths, you're gonna be reliant on the Chinese at least until 2030. Guess what? Can't have a trade war with somebody that you need all the rare earth minerals from. The tariff escalation backfired and you now have the export machine running away, Katty, because the Chinese posted a $1.2 trillion global trade surplus last year and guess what they're doing? They're finding new markets away from the United States. You know that and I know that. - So do you expect anything to come out of this than Anthony concrete? 'Cause what I'm hearing is you're gonna get a lot of red carpets, a lot of flyovers, a lot of gold at the White House tonight with president she, a lot of long dresses and black tie. But actually, Scott Besson has already done, as you say, the hard work, he's got she what she wanted and probably what America wanted too, which is an extension to this tariff truce that was already organized. The other issue that people are talking about here is something concrete on AI. They have said that they will have some kind of mechanism for talking to each other, but I spoke to this official from the Biden administration saying, it's super difficult to pin the Chinese down on anything that limits AI at the moment. They just don't really wanna hear about it. And so the suspicion is she has just come here to play nice, talk, accept the warm welcome, but actually is not planning to give very much away on pretty much anything. And the most we can hope for is a visit with a lot of pomp and not much circumstance. - Okay, well let me, let me, let me say this, I'm glad they're meeting. - Probably better to meet than not meet. There was a period where they weren't talking. - I always think it's more, I think it's always more important to be meeting. I'm glad that the truce, the trade truce has been extended. Okay, and I'm glad for all those things. And I don't think there'll be any measurable goals that come out of this other than the relationship itself. Having said that, there was a symmetry at the start and knowing the Chinese, they will use that. Okay, she did not meet President Trump at the airport. As you pointed out, he sent his vice president and that will be all over state television and that listen, China is the rising superpower and these guys are worried about us and the orange man had a show up to greet me but I don't have to show up and greet him. That deference, that deference is gonna be exploited by the Chinese party, communist party in China. But listen, I don't think Trump has a choice, you know? I guess Katie, the question though is always on my mind is about the situation with US farmers because US farmers have been cut off. They stopped selling goods to China because Chinese said, okay, no problem. We'll stop buying the stuff. And the Chinese never lived up to the deal in Trump one. The Biden administration never held them accountable for the amount of farm goods that they were supposed to buy. Trump shot to the moon, gas, energy, fertilizer prices on the farmers, which is why you're looking at places like Iowa and saying, oh my god, Trump won the state. Now it looks like he's gonna get destroyed in the state. What do you think there is? Is there ever going to be a re-engagement of the farmers with the Chinese economy? - I don't think at the moment, there's nothing at the moment that suggests, well, and you didn't really see under Biden either. Any kind of trade rat pro Shmoin. Trump came into office both in, particularly in 2024. I think really hoping he could have some kind of big deal with the Chinese. That would be a real capstone for him, a legacy issue for him, if he could have had some kind of big trading deal with the Chinese. And you write in your book all the wrong moves about how devastating China's entry into the World Trade Organization was for American workers and how Barack Obama tried to put something on the table that would have rectified the loss of jobs that American suffered and the kind of hurt that American farmers are suffering. And that was then rejected by Donald Trump in 2016. So he would like some kind of a deal. But I don't think they have the skill in this White House. Do they, to do the kind of deal that would need to be done, both on tariffs and trade and access to farm markets? - Not to push back, but I'm going to say this, they actually do have the skill, but they're afraid of their own shadows. They actually know what to do. They worked with Lighthizer. They know Mike Froman who worked for President Obama who shaped the TPP. They know what to do, but they're frozen by the committee and decision making of one. So they're like, okay, I know what to do, but I can't do it because it's going to piss off Trump. - Right. - That's the spot that they're in. But another question, Kathy, about Taiwan. Because the strategic ambiguity right now, President Xi wants that softened. He wants Trump to say that the Americans are going to back off of the 80 year relationship of having strategic ambiguity, but also suggesting, as President Biden did, that if there wasn't a attack on Taiwan by China, we would defend Taiwan. And he wants that language softened. Now, of all the presidents that you and I have seen in our lifetime, the most likely president to soften that language would be Donald J. Trump. So, Kathy, what do you think of that? You think there'll be any wording shifts? 'Cause that would be a real concession. I actually don't think there will be a word shift. You don't think so, aren't good. I think that would be too dramatic. I think it has got through to Trump that he needs to be very careful on the wording around Taiwan. I think if you were going to have some kind of wording shift, it would have come at another time. I think when he went to China, that was the time people were most concerned about some sort of a wording shift. But I do think China coming here and buying time, buying time on the trade truce, buying time on AI negotiations is all they have a much longer term play than the Americans do. This is all buys time for Xi to decide what he wants to do on China once the Chinese army is ready if it wanted to, which Xi has told them should be by 2027, to take some kind of military action against Taiwan. All the time kind of stopping the American president from changing the language. I would be very surprised if we had a language change because that would be a dramatic issue. I'm not sure if Trump wants that kind of a dramatic issue when he's already involved in the war in Iran and the focus to be on that during the state visit. But I may be wrong. Maybe you're right, maybe that. Do you think there will be some kind of change on language? I'm worried about it. I'm hoping because when you and I were in the car last night heading to politics and pros, I was talking about the Washington. The Washington that I remember is small town, Washington, southern charming town. Northern efficiency is Jack Kennedy once said about it. And it's a fairly conformist consensus town. It wants to move slowly on things. And so I'm hoping that will overwhelm what Trump would like to do. Because Trump is a keyboard warrior and he's a keyboard bully. But he's a conflict of voter in big situations. And you know, they'll be pushing him over the next two days. But here's a big prediction from me, right? At the end of this, Trump is going to say we've got big beautiful things happening. And they're going to buy this and they're going to buy that from us. And there's going to be a surge in Chinese purchases of American goods. And Beijing is going to say nice meeting you. We're still in a pause on the trade truce. I mean, we still have a trade truce. Nice meeting you. We still have a trade truce. And there's a consensus. Ho-Hum. And they're going to fly back to Beijing. Exactly. That's what I think it is. That's what's going to happen, right? A lot of pomp. Not much circumstance. Right. Not much of anything. But President Xi will have got the optics. Like you say, he will have got the optics and he will have won himself some time. And he's got the cards, Gaddy K. He's holding the cards. And meanwhile, the American voters are going to be slightly scratching their heads thinking, why is the President having a great big state dinner with all of the pageantry and the opulence that goes around a state dinner a few weeks before a midterm election in which it is made. We have made it very clear. We are paying too much for everything. But what said, said differently, Gaddy, why is the President attacking the Communist and calling the Democrats a Communist while he's fighting the Communist? How much is he undermining those Republicans who are going around saying, well, actually my only hope at the moment is to run saying those DSA Democratic Socialists of America candidates are crazy and two left-wing and you wouldn't want to be in the same room as them, let alone elect them to office, when our President is standing on the lawn with Mayor Mamdani, a DSA candidate, I mean, it's like President Xi, is that enough crystal champagne for you? Oh my god. Give him the caviar, please. Pass, move over the caviar. I mean, it's unbelievable. Yeah. He's making it tricky for them. He's not helping, let's say. But thank you for bringing up my book, Gaddy. And thank you for the help selling my book, Gaddy. Every time you would have been a great Wall Street bond salesman. I'm just letting you know, okay, just if there's, there's a reincarnation opportunity. Come back in, come back in the 80s. We need a few bond buyers at the moment, not one salesman. Oh my god. You would have ripped the eyeballs off of all those unwitting, you would have duped all of them, Gaddy. And if you would like to hear more about the US economy, the relationship with China and the kind of damage that that has all done in America over the past few decades and how it's actually got us to where we are today with Donald Trump. You can listen to our series all the wrong moves by becoming a founding member. You can sign up at the rest is politics us.com. We'd love to have you with us. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you on Monday. Thanks, guys. See you next week. Meet new groupie setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Maybelline, New York.