🌄

I mean, the Chinese walked out at some point during the negotiations.

🙄 pic.twitter.com/GsGy2avRGt

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) May 10, 2025

Reuters withdrew its report that the Chinese had walked out. The meeting was so private, that it occurred at all was known by circumstances, not announcements. But it did last all day.

That aside, trade deals require years, not hours; and have to be approved by the Senate. No announcement on social media or signed executive order makes them legally binding on the nation. Besides, Trump can announce an agreement on all terms, and next morning announced he’s raising tariffs on China to 200%. He’s certainly announced meetings with China which China has denied. He abandoned his own trade agreement (properly approved) with Canada and Mexico less than a month into his second term. The courts haven’t yet had the opportunity to review that declaration, or the tariffs he imposed. (My own opinion is that the President has no such legal authority, to suspend a trade agreement, or to impose tariffs; but government officials are taking a different point of view until the courts say otherwise.)  Whether he can do this or not, nations are reacting as if he can.

Trump hasn’t even made a trade deal with Britain. No terms have been agreed upon, no agreement has been approved by Congress.

Trump is really just shooting his mouth off about things he doesn’t understand and has no unilateral authority over. He’s creating cover to withdraw actions he had no power to take, but the consequences will be real anyway. And those consequences scare him witless. The container ships have stopped arriving, because orders stopped when Trump announced his fictional tariffs. Empty shelves are the inevitable result; as inevitable as sunrise.

And those are consequences I don’t relish, but that Trump can’t talk his way out of. Which may be why Congress is allowing hearings. The GOP may be trying to separate themselves from what they let Trump do.

Bonne chance.