Democrat says Trump-Xi in 'testosterone battle' with tariff war

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Thursday likened the U.S. tariff war with China to a “testosterone battle” between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Merkley criticized Trump’s approach to levying tariffs on China as unserious, saying companies are not going to want to build factories in the U.S. if they can’t rely on the administration to articulate a clear policy going forward.

“He’s not taking it on in a serious manner,” Merkley said in an interview on “CNN News Central,” when asked whether the senator would “applaud” Trump for “taking China on so directly" in light of critical remarks Merkley has made about China.

Merkley said if Trump were taking on China “in a serious manner,” the president would state clearly that the U.S. is pursuing “a long-term, stable, rising response to the very low wages and very low environmental laws in China that are undermining manufacturing because we want people to build their factories in the United States.”

“But when you say, ‘I'm sending shock and awe in order to negotiate,’ no investor is going to build a factory in the United States as a result,” Merkley continued. “So this is a really insanely — it’s not crafted, it's not planned, it's, from one day to the next, where am I going to stumble to?”

“Really, this is a testosterone battle right now between Trump and Xi, and what we need is a serious strategy that encourages investment, factories to be built in the United States of America,” he added.

The comments come as Beijing continues to say it won’t buckle to pressure from Washington on Trump’s tariff demands, even as the U.S. president hiked import taxes on Chinese goods to 125 percent. He did so while instituting a 90-day pause on the new tariffs announced for most other countries, though a 10 percent baseline rate still applies to most imports.

Trump, on April 2, unveiled his sweeping global tariff plan, which included a 34 percent tariff on Chinese imports, on top of the 20 percent Trump levied earlier this year. China responded with a 34 percent tariff of its own on U.S. imports.

Trump fired back, levying an additional 50 percent tax on Chinese goods, bringing the total to 104 percent. China then announced its own 50 percent reciprocal tariff on U.S. imports, bringing its total tax on American goods to 84 percent. Trump responded Wednesday, bringing tariffs on Chinese goods up to 125 percent.

China has said it would not “back down” from a tariff fight and that any tariff negotiation “should show an attitude of equality, respect and reciprocity,” according to a Reuters translation of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian’s remarks at his daily press briefing Thursday.

Trump said Wednesday he expected China to eventually reach out for trade negotiations, which he said would be mutually beneficial.

“We’ll get a phone call at some point, and it’ll be off to the races,” Trump said. “It’ll be a great thing for them. It’ll be a great thing for us. It’s going to be a great thing for the world and for humanity.”