Henry Olsen: ‘It’s Time for the American Economy to Disengage from China’

Ethics and Public Policy Center Senior Fellow Henry Olsen, a Washington Post columnist and author of the book The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism, joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Tuesday’s Breitbart News Daily to discuss the trade war with China and the vital objective of separating American interests from the Chinese economy.

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Marlow proposed that President Donald Trump was “one of only one or two people, at the most, who seemed to understand how big of a threat China was,” but now “everyone kind of gets it.”

“I think that the Chinese are seeing now that they can’t simply fob the president off with some purchases of soybeans and a temporary reduction in the trade deficit. Consequently, I don’t think the negotiations are going well,” Olsen said of the current status of the trade war.

“I think that’s a good thing, because I think it’s time for the American economy to disengage from China,” he judged. 

“We need to stop funding and building our geopolitical adversary with our minds, money, and market. Consequently, not having a quick deal, an end to the trade negotiations, is in the American interest, even if it’s not in the interest of every American business,” he said.

Olsen predicted that President Trump, conscious of the damage a slowing economy could do to his re-election prospects, will propose growth-oriented tax relief at the proper time to counter negative effects from the trade war.

“They don’t want to talk the economy down. If they are arguing in favor of stimulus now, then that’s kind of sending a signal to the markets that the president thinks the economy is going south,” he explained.

“I think what’s going to happen, this is my prediction, is that there will be a tax cut proposed in the State of the Union address in January of 2020,” he said.

“Whether the president goes with his instincts or whether the president goes with his advisers is the big question. I think he will go with his instincts,” Olsen anticipated.