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Apple CEO Says He Has Urged Trump To Address Legal Status of Immigrants; Also Told Him That Tariffs Are Wrong Approach To China (bloomberg.com)
Apple chief executive Tim Cook told Bloomberg Television that he has criticized Donald Trump's approach to trade with China in a recent White House meeting, while also urging the president to address the legal status of immigrants known as Dreamers. From the interview: Cook said his message to Trump focused on the importance of trade and how cooperation between two countries can boost the economy more than nations acting alone. Cook met with Trump in the Oval Office in late April amid a brewing trade war between the U.S. and China. The Trump administration instituted 25 percent tariffs on at least $50 billion worth of products from China, sparking retaliation. In the interview on "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations," Cook acknowledged that previous trade policies were flawed but said Trump's move is also problematic. "It's true, undoubtedly true, that not everyone has been advantaged from that -- in either country -- and we've got to work on that," Cook said. "But I felt that tariffs were not the right approach there, and I showed him some more analytical kinds of things to demonstrate why."
Tim Cook, like so many others, does not seem to understand that Trump's not actually implementing most tariffs, he is just using them as a tool - asking fir China to reduce import fees or else he'll implement the tariffs. Because Trump is kind of crazy, the Chinese can't tell if he will or not so they actually back off.
Trump's use of tariffs as a threat is working.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
However China doesn't think that tariffs are the wrong approach to the U.S. Nor do they think intellectual property theft is a problem. In fact the tariffs Trump has levied are still tiny in comparison to the ones China has on us, they just seem bigger (an in raw, no percentages taken into account it does mean more money) due to the huge trade imbalance.
As a libertarian I'm against tariffs.
I'm also against slavery, and to one degree or another China engages in it. I would argue the income tax system is slavery to, so the U.S. engages in it, but it's a matter of degree, many non-libertarians would argue by their measuring sticks that the U.S. does not engage in slavery through income tax but China still enslaves their people by the same measure.
I don't think tariffs are the right approach, but we are playing a game where China has established the way they're playing that game. It's up to us to play with the rules they have established in mind, and our president has chosen to answer in kind, in percentages that are smaller than the ones they've presented against us. I can't fully fault Trump for his approach. My general approach to someone not playing by a rule set I agree with is to take my ball and go home, and I agree that probably isn't the right approach in this case.
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Remember -
If you want a leader who thinks you're a deplorable redneck rapist whose job is never coming back - vote Democrat!
If you want a leader who thinks you're a decent normal human being, and is working hard to bring back good jobs for the average worker - vote TRUMP.