[duxup]

First Trump administration had a very strong pattern of talk and maybe a few actions… and then they seem to forget what they were doing and the result is little to no action.

Trump loves to talk about trade but when it came to China he put up some token tariffs and announced “I didn’t say it would be easy” and then did nothing the rest of his term.

[red-iron-pine]

and they weren't token tariffs.

they were mostly ineffective tariffs, in the "tried so hard and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter" sense, but he wasn't all talk

[duxup]

If you do a thing and it doesn’t work and don’t even try to fix it… still all talk.

[m3047]

Trump killed the Trans Pacific Partnership.

(This was a surprise to me. I'm grateful that I'm not at risk of being extradited to rot in a chinese prison for reverse engineering some IoT POS.)

[tzs]

How would TPP have put you at risk for Chinese prison?

[immibis]

Because of the copyright enforcement section of the TPP?

[JumpCrisscross]

> Because of the copyright enforcement section of the TPP

The point of TPP was containing China. China wasn't invited. Trump blew it up resulting in a trade bloc designed to exclude China turning into one that excludes us [1].

Trump's voters don't like trade.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_and_Progressive_...

[SR2Z]

You are aware that the TPP excluded China BY DESIGN, right?

[duxup]

The TPP was meant to economically counterbalance China by working closely with their neighbors.

Without it their incentive was to cut deals to work closer economically with China…

Trump’s isolationist inclinations empowers America’s enemies.