Donald Trump on Saturday spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews en route to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he managed to attend a high-profile sporting event without getting booed too loudly.
Prior to departing for the game, he said some things about the trade talks.
“They’re moving along, they’re moving along slowly, much too slowly for me”, Trump said. “But they want to make the deal much more than I do”. “If we make the deal that we want it will be a great deal and if it’s not a great deal, I won’t make it”, he added.
Asked about multiple reports that tariffs will be rolled back once the interim agreement is signed, Trump appeared to double down on the cautious comments he delivered Friday morning.
“There was a lot of incorrect reporting, but you will see what I’m going to be doing”, the president promised.
He went on to claim that “it’s been pretty amazing what we’ve done” for America’s farmers, who Trump continues to insist are “very happy” about being put on what amounts to government welfare after getting cut off from one of their most important export markets.
“We have to make the right deal for the farmers, manufacturers, for everybody”, the president proceeded to explain.
As a reminder, the global factory malaise brought about by the trade tensions has now boomeranged back stateside. The US manufacturing sector is in a slump, with ISM having logged three consecutive contraction-territory prints. Thankfully, the services sector bounced in October (green box).
Although it’s tempting to ignore Trump, especially on the weekends, it’s important to keep apprised of his mood given the extent to which the rally in US equities to all-time highs is attributable to trade optimism.
As noted on Saturday morning, better-than-expected earnings have helped, but there’s little doubt that the push to new records on the benchmarks comes courtesy of the assumption that one way or another, tariff relief is coming as part of the much ballyhooed “Phase One” trade deal.
On Friday afternoon, responding to Trump’s suggestion that he might not approve tariff relief, Global Times editor Hu Xijin warned that if at least some of the duties aren’t rolled back, there will be no trade deal – “Phase One”, or otherwise.
Read more: China Responds: Phase One Deal Without Tariff Rollbacks Is Nonstarter
Gold will get a boost on Monday…Trump’s statements, China’s inflation, and a general WTF
Lol “they’re moving along much too slowly for me, but they want to make a deal much more I do.” What a fucking moron.
A “deal” is going to happen because trump is desperate. He spin it as a win but it will be back to before and all the pain for nothing. Typical do nothing all image orange blob.
Poor farmers. This is “winning”?