Trump strikes uneasy truce with China – Washington Examiner
The article discusses President Donald Trump’s efforts to establish a tentative truce with China amid ongoing trade tensions driven by his tariff policies. After concluding a weeklong trip to Asia, Trump announced a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which includes china’s agreement to resume purchasing U.S. soybeans and to pause export controls on critical minerals. This agreement offers some relief to U.S.farmers and eases recent trade escalations, but major issues remain unresolved, such as the sale of TikTok to U.S. investors.
Domestically, the tariff strategy faces significant pushback. The U.S. Senate voted against Trump’s tariffs in several symbolic resolutions, reflecting bipartisan concern over their economic impact and legality. The Supreme Court is set to review the tariffs’ legality, which could lead to major changes depending on the ruling. While Vice President JD Vance defended the tariffs as leverage for trade deals, some Republicans worry about congressional authority and economic consequences.
The article also highlights that despite minor tariff reductions with countries like Cambodia, Malaysia, and South Korea, negotiations with key partners such as Mexico and Canada remain stalled, with threats of increased tariffs ongoing. Critics, including senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats, denounce the recent deal as insufficient. Simultaneously occurring, inflation and economic concerns loom ahead of upcoming elections, with tariffs contributing to increased costs passed on to consumers. the article portrays the delicate balance Trump is trying to maintain between diplomacy with China and domestic opposition to his tariff agenda.
Trump strikes uneasy truce with China as tariff agenda tested at home
President Donald Trump is eager to show that his tariffs can yield a diplomatic breakthrough with China, just as the Senate rebukes him over months of trade war turbulence.
The president, who finished a weeklong swing through Asia on Thursday, announced an uneasy truce with China following a meeting with its leader, President Xi Jinping, in South Korea.
The deal offers a reprieve to U.S. farmers, with Xi agreeing to resume buying soybeans after freezing purchases in May. Xi also paused export controls on critical minerals that fanned renewed tensions between Washington and Beijing this month.
Yet lawmakers remain deeply skeptical of Trump’s tariffs and the months of tit-for-tat retaliation set off by his aggressive stance toward China. The Senate has not addressed China directly, but it took three votes this week challenging Trump’s legal basis for imposing the tariffs.
Most Republicans opposed resolutions overturning his duties on Canada and Brazil, as well as a 10% baseline set for all U.S. trading partners, but enough sided with Democrats for them to pass, delivering a symbolic setback for Trump while away on foreign travel. In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has blocked them from being brought up for a vote.
Vice President JD Vance helped keep defections to a minimum, making a Tuesday trip to the Capitol in which he argued to Senate Republicans that the tariffs offered Trump “incredible leverage” that he has used to ink a series of trade deals.
The White House is nonetheless fielding complaints, made in private and public, from Republicans who believe Trump is encroaching on Congress’s power of taxation and threatening to send the United States into an economic backslide.
VANCE WARNS SENATE GOP NOT TO BUCK TRUMP WITH TARIFF VOTES: ‘BIG MISTAKE’
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, is preparing to hear oral arguments next week on the tariff’s legality, raising the possibility that Trump’s entire tariff regime will need to be reworked in the event of an unfavorable ruling.
More than 200 House and Senate Democrats, plus Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), have signed on to an amicus brief arguing that Trump is abusing his emergency powers to impose the tariffs. Murkowski was one of five Senate Republicans to support some or all of the tariff resolutions brought forward by Democrats this week.
Trump left his meeting with Xi declaring that a “lot of decisions” were made on trade and that, on a scale of one to 10, he would rate the sit-down as a 12.
“He’s a great leader, great leader of a very powerful, very strong country, China, and we, what can I say? We have — it was an outstanding group of decisions, I think that was made,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Yet the deal represents only a thawing of tensions and leaves unaddressed major sticking points, including the sale of social media platform TikTok to U.S. investors.
It also remains to be seen whether China follows through on its commitment to buy U.S. soybeans after Trump struck a similar deal in his first term, which fueled a temporary spike in purchases.
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the commitment would return purchases to regular levels for the next three years. China’s resumption of critical mineral exports also lasts one year and will need to be extended.
Republicans have given Trump a great deal of leeway with China, particularly lawmakers from agricultural states where farmers have asked for a bailout to keep their industry afloat. The administration is considering a package of $10 billion or more, but has yet to deliver such relief.
Democrats, however, were quick to call his preliminary deal with Xi a capitulation that failed to return relations with China to a “status quo.”
The agreement rolls back some of the most recent escalations in the trade fight, including U.S. restrictions on technology that prompted Chinese retaliation over the minerals. Trump said that Xi committed to cracking down on the production of fentanyl precursors as well in exchange for lowering tariffs on China.
“Americans, beware: Trump will spend the next few days trying to spin this so-called ‘agreement’ as a win for America. But that is total bull,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a Thursday floor speech.
Domestically, the president is also navigating creeping inflation that is threatening his party’s prospects in the midterm elections, with Democrats staking their return to power on fears of an affordability crisis.
Businesses have so far borne the brunt of the tariffs, passing 35% of the costs to consumers from May to July, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve. That share could increase if the duties remain static.
On his trip to Asia, Trump inked deals with Cambodia and Malaysia that lowered the tariff rates imposed by the U.S., while South Korea was granted a partial reprieve with a commitment to make $350 billion in new investments in the U.S.
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But Trump has yet to reach deals with some of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners. Mexico’s trade deadline will be extended for a “few more weeks,” the country’s president said after a conversation with Trump. Trade talks with Canada, meanwhile, halted altogether after the Ontario government aired an anti-tariff commercial during the World Series games in the U.S.
In response, Trump vowed to impose 10% tariffs on Canada, in addition to the 35% duties already imposed on certain goods, but has yet to follow through on that threat.
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