Trump’s love letters to Putin

I think you're side-stepping the original point. The thread's not about TPP. You said Trump loves autocrats, yet he stared down arguably the most powerful autocrat in the world in Xi Jinping and hit them with the tariffs. And you realize China wasn't talked about widely as "an enemy or an antagonist" until Trump came along. So you seem to have adopted Trump's position on China as well, but understand that until Trump, very few in our federal government were painting China in that light.

Yet, many times Trump called Xi "his good friend" and reminded us dozens of times he "liked President Xi." So yeah, he appealed to Xi's ego when the cameras were rolling, which basically meant he was trying to keep the negotiating table open instead of it completely being shut down ala Biden and Putin with regard to Ukraine.

 

Tariffs have helped to level the playing field as China was skimming off the top and it has forced them to come to the table to hammer out a new deal. I would say China have seen some consequences for their intellectual property theft as well. I suppose we could debate the efficacy of the tariffs until we are blue in the face, but by your earlier logic, Trump would have never hit an autocrat like Xi with big, mean tariffs. Trump loves autocrats and was Xi’s lap dog, right??

 

Yes and of what tangible value was that to Putin? What would it have accomplished if Trump had stated “yes, I believe Mr. Putin ordered election interference and is a cold-blooded murderer”, as Putin stand there in Helsinki right next to him on the stage in front of the entire world? Other than throwing ice-water on US-Russo relations and destroying any back channel of diplomacy, what would that have accomplished?

We actually don’t have to look very hard to find out what that would have accomplished, because Trump’s successor did that and we got a nice war with tens of thousands of people dying, along with millions of displaced refugees. Good thing Biden called Putin a murderer. That accomplished so much good.

Trump knows Putin was behind it. But Trump also understood the Helsinki press conference in front of the world was not the time or place. Trump also knew how dangerous Putin was, so he wasn’t going to do anything to unnecessarily provoke him. It was the right approach. A lot less Ukrainians lost their lives when Trump was President. Can’t say that for Biden or Obama.

 

What does the TPP have to do with Putin or your statement that Trump adores autocrats?

 

You might be on to something there if Trump didn't turn around and slap tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods a year later. And again, if TPP was such a great idea, why didn't Biden rekindle the flame? He did with the Paris climate accords and the Iran nuclear steal, without hesitation. Biden has all but endorsed Trump's trade policies.

In any event, if you'd like to discuss the topic at hand, I'm happy to do so. 24+ hours and not a soul has been able to list anything of tangible value Trump did for Russia while in office.