Donald Trump, America’s first Jacksonian president in the modern era, launched a new broadside on China at the UN last night:
America’s policy of principled realism means that we will not be held hostage to old, discredited ideology and experts that have been proven wrong over the years. This is true, not only in matters of peace, but in matters of prosperity. We believe that trade must be fair and reciprocal. The United States will not be taken advantage of any longer. For decades, the United States opened its economy, the largest by far on Earth, with few conditions.
We allowed foreign goods from all over the world to flow freely across our borders. Yet, other countries did not grant us there and reciprocal access to their markets in return. Even worse, some countries abused their openness to manipulate their currency is and get advantage over our country. As a result, our trade deficit ballooned to $800 billion a year. We are systematically renegotiating broken and bad trade deals. Last month, we announced a groundbreaking US-Mexico trade agreement. Yesterday, I stood with president moon to announce the successful completion of the brand-new US-Korea trade deal. This is just the beginning. Many nations in this hall will agree that the world trading system is in dire need of change.
