Trump Asserts He Can Force U.S. Companies to Leave China

[crazytown]

Source: New York Times

BIARRITZ, France -- President Trump asserted on Saturday that he has the authority to make good on his threat to force all American businesses to leave China, citing a national security law that has been used mainly to target terrorists, drug traffickers and pariah states like Iran, Syria and North Korea.

As he arrived in France for the annual meeting of the Group of 7 powers, Mr. Trump posted a message on Twitter citing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, a law originally meant to enable a president to isolate criminal regimes not sever economic ties with a major trading partner over a tariff dispute.

"For all of the Fake News Reporters that don't have a clue as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking at the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977," Mr. Trump wrote. "Case closed!"

The president's threat to all but cut off one of America's most important trading relationships could disrupt a global economy already on the edge of recession amid his trade war while further unsettling giant companies in the United States that rely on China in their production and sale of everything from clothing to smart telephones.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/world/europe/trump-g7-summit.html

---

Trump claims he has 'absolute right' to order US companies out of China under 1977 law
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/24/politics/trump-china-trade-war-emergency-economic-powers-act/index.html

Presumably SCOTUS would be asked (again) to review the exercise of executive authority vested in the president by legislation. Difficult decisions for Gorsuch and Blackout Brett.

[Frustratedlady]

1. Don't forget to order Ivanka to bring her products back to the U.S.

They probably were never made in the U.S., but she now has items made in China.

[keithbvadu2]

2. Wearing a MAGA hat made in China is now treason?

Wearing a MAGA hat made in China is now treason?

[dchill]

18. It always was.

[joanbarnes]

3. what about the crap he sells to his brainwashed followers?

[Thomas Hurt]

4. Congress over the years has given more and more power to the Executive...

maybe time to change that.

[jberryhill]

8. Yep

[Grasswire2]

10. yes

treaties, pardons, many areas need review.

[IronLionZion]

5. How about Trump branded products first?

15 Trump Products That Don't Qualify For His "Made in America" Week https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/07/163731/trump-made-in-america-campaign-products

Pretty much everything in his hotels are made in China.

[notdarkyet]

6. I anticipate heads of twenty or so large companies there to greet him at the wh, going

Who the fuck do you think you are?

[elleng]

52. HOPING for that.

[Bleacher Creature]

7. Case closed!

What a buffoon.

[onecaliberal]

9. Like him and his pathetic daughter?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Trump is going cray cray

[TomCADem]

57. Trump and Bernie Sanders: Why Are We Trading With China?

Trump is not alone in trying to shut down trade with China:

It seems like Trump is putting Bernie's long standing trade views into practice.

[Farmer-Rick]

59. Not really.

Trump is all about getting even and putting on a show.

What should have happen if you wanted to stop the drop off of disappearing manufacturing jobs, was a concerted policy. So, we put tariffs on Chinese goods but still give corporations tax writeoffs for shipping jobs outside the US. And there are many more pro "free" trade laws that Still encourage corporations to move to China. Where's the Buy America Act? Where are the labor and pollution accountability penalties in the 20 or so free trade agreements the US has? Where are the changes in trade agreements that make Unions and conservation groups parties in disputes?

Tariffs alone do Not make a good substitute for planning and policy development. Yeah, Traitor Trumps sh*ts out some tariffs. But all the other infrastructure that encourages and promotes the disappearing middle class is still there. Still ruining it for the average American while promoting corporate control.

[TomCADem]

60. Bernie Sanders: 'Of course' I would use tariffs as President

Bernie has criticized Trump for not being even tougher on China. Indeed, today, Bernie confirmed that he would also use sanctions on China just like Trump, but would additional demands as you note. Plus, pollution accountability? Really? It is the U.S. that has backed out of the Paris accord, not China. We are in a poor position to make any reduction on tariffs contingent on China's efforts to reduce pollution.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/25/politics/bernie-sanders-tariffs-trade-war-sotu-cnntv/index.html

Washington (CNN)Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he would use tariffs as a negotiating tool if he wins the White House but slammed President Donald Trump's latest maneuvering in his trade war with China.

"What the President is doing is totally irrational and it is destabilizing the entire world economy," the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview that aired on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "You do not make trade policy by announcing today that you're going to raise tariffs by X percent and the next day by Y percent, by attacking the person you appointed as head of the Federal Reserve as an enemy of the American people."

When asked by CNN's Brianna Keilar if he would use tariffs to cut a deal with China during his own presidency, Sanders said that he would.

"Yeah of course, it is used in a rational way within the context of a broad, sensible trade policy. It is one tool that is available," he said. "You're looking at somebody, by the way, who helped lead the effort against permanent normal trade relations with China and (North American Free Trade Agreement)."

[Farmer-Rick]

61. Yeah, cherry picking quotes can lead to contradictions

Seems CNN, Fox and Russian trolls are good at it.

Almost all the Dem candidates have contradicted themselves according to those sources.

[TomCADem]

62. Russia Would Support Any Candidate Who Pushes an Isolationist Policy

The Mueller report showed that Russian social media trolls were helping not only Trump, but Bernie Sanders.

In the OP, Trump is doubling down on his isolationist policies by saying that he can force US companies to stop doing business with China. Bernie Sanders has long questioned why we even do business with China has never voted in support of any U.S. trade agreement whether it be NAFTA or TPP.

Russia would benefit from both Bernie and Trump's proposals to disengage economically and diplomatically from the rest of the world. This is why we can't just assume that isolationism and scapegoating immigrants and trade is purely a right wing/Trumpian phenomena.

Finally, contrary to your post, not all candidates are the same on either trade or relations with Russia. For example, there is only one Democratic candidate who has voted against both the Magnitsky Act, which was one of the subjects of the infamous Trump tower meeting, and against sanctions against Russia for election interference. Only one. That candidate also happens to be outspoken against any trade deal that the U.S. has reached.

Thus, while we criticize Trump's moves on trade, we should keep that in mind when we choose candidates not to select a candidate who would double down on Trump's isolationist moves.

[Farmer-Rick]

63. Trump is not really an isolationist, he's just stupid

Bernie is not an isolationist he just thinks free trade hurts American workers. Considering our wages have stagnated since the late 1970s, free trade with China never did much for workers anyway.

Maybe we should throw over free trade when we throw over Traitor Trump because nether of them have done anything for America's middle class.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Trump still thinks of factories like this:

... and that complex manufacturing can be shifted on a few weeks notice.

[dchill]

19. Those Republican good old days.

Days of future past?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

33. Lots more of these:

Last edited Sat Aug 24, 2019, 02:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Home » Photo galleries » Photographers
Lewis Hine
Photos taken by Lewis Wickes Hine for the National Child Labor Commission and its report to Congress.

Also, good timing:

Thursday, August 22, 2019
The photographer who helped end child labor in America



{click to listen to the podcast}

Lewis Hine posed as a Bible salesman or machinery photographer to expose the hardships of child labor.

[duforsure]

13. He will have some kind of loophole

Like declaring martial law , to bypass all of Congress and The Supreme Court to then do anything he wants , or something like that for absolute power.

[yaesu]

14. and the hole keeps getting deeper and deeper, the stock market will fall into that hole Monday. nt

[TeamPooka]

15. The stock market will drop another 800 points on Monday cause of this.

it will be seen as an assault on free market enterprise.

[riversedge]

16. Will Ivanka's products now be made in the USA? I do not know if

USA companies in China make her products or not.

[Lock him up.]

54. Her products made in China are exempt

from tariffs (of course: nepotism and all that crap)

[riversedge]

55. omg!! should have known. How is this even legal?

[Lock him up.]

56. By Executive Order, of course.

Clothing, accessories & shoes made in China exempt from tariffs...

Grifters, all the drumphs.

[Lonestarblue]

17. Does Trump have a reelection strategy that we're not seeing?

His behavior is so erratic lately that it’s hard to see any sort of strategy. Surely some of his advisers have had the courage to tell him his tariffs are likely to cause a recession and jeopardize his reelection. But instead of trying his usual tactic of giving in to China and declaring it the greatest deal any human being has ever made in all of history, he has amped up the rhetoric and added tariffs. And then, as a slap in the face both to China and US businesses, he orders US companies to get out of China and says he has all the power to do so under the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. I would hope that even Trump’s toadies in the Senate would vote against that use because the only emergency is one Trump could fix by seriously negotiating with China instead of acting like the ignorant bully he is.

But if the Senate does nothing and Trump is allowed to invoke the Emergency Powers Act, it will send the US economy into a depression, not just mild recession. Is that Trump’s goal? Trump seems to like taking outrageous ideas for a test run to see how much pushback he gets. If very little, he moves forward, as he did with the government shutdown.

Is Trump doing a test run of his ability to invoke the Emergency Powers Act to see what kind of pushback he gets from Congress? If he gets none from the Republicans in the Senate, he will go forward and we will see the economy crash. Will Trump then try to use the Emergency Powers Act either to postpone the 2020 election or to overturn the results? Trump is so evil and manipulative that I can believe anything of him.

[Turbineguy]

29. Yes.

cancel the election. Repubs will love him for it.

So will funeral directors.

[Ghost Dog]

42.

[Ghost Dog]

44. The Act doesn't say anything about who provokes the 'emergency', apparently.

It just says he needs to point to a foreign 'threat 'and declare an emergency; then he can regulate commerce, if unchallenged.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Title II of Pub.L. 95–223, 91 Stat. 1626, enacted October 28, 1977, is a United States federal law authorizing the President to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States which has a foreign source.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/95/hr7738

(Was duplicate above).

[jmowreader]

45. It seems to be...

"Vote for me or I'll start a civil war."

[Ghost Dog]

46. Then he could declare martial law

and, am I right? cancel elections.

[jmowreader]

48. That is what he seems to be leaning toward

Of course, the first thing he'd have to do if he declared martial law is confiscate everyone's guns.

[solara]

20. Just have a little question

crazytown - "Presumably SCOTUS would be asked (again) to review the exercise of executive authority vested in the president by legislation. Difficult decisions for Gorsuch and Blackout Brett."

If Gleeking Gorsuch or Blackout Brett fail to uphold the tyrant trump's assertion that he can order these things as a dictator would, can deficient donnie then order Gleeking Gorsuch and/or Blackout Brett to vacate their seats on SCOTUS for their treasonous disloyalty?


Asking for a friend

[Paladin]

21. It's almost like trump WANTS to lose in 2020.

But that would be the calculated action of someone with a sliver of sanity, so I guess not.

[treestar]

24. Like in 2016

He wants out and to say he lost because of cheating and start his Trump TV and bash at the POTUS from there. Too bad the number of Deplorables is enough to re-elect him if we don't get out the vote.

[truthisfreedom]

22. By creating mayhem here he can declare Marshall law

And thereby delay elections indefinitely.

[Vox Populi]

25. Fixed your post

By creating mayhem here he can declare Marshall law

That would be martial law

[mahatmakanejeeves]

28. Not always.

Source (what else?): Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke)

[Vox Populi]

30. Excellent point!

[orangecrush]

49. ...

[BlueIdaho]

23. So much for the invisible hand

Of capitalism and the magic of the free market. The KKKGOP has lost the last of its core economic values in its headlong rush to stick their heads up Trumpsky’s ass.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

26. See you in court. NT

[Va Lefty]

27. Actually, that is socialism

[deurbano]

31. But he didn't actually formally declare an emergency before tweeting out his "orders"...

so news of his (ongoing) megalomania still not "fake." (Not that we can reasonably hope that will make any difference to his Republican enablers in Congress and elsewhere.)

[Strelnikov_]

32. Hell yea!!!!!

Go Trump Go . . . .

MAGA all the way . . .

(MAGA being a result of the death of the GOP)

[LudwigPastorius]

34. Trump has, at his disposal, 123 laws granting him "emergency powers".

You can bet he has his legal lackeys exploring how to use them.

As outlined in this terrifying article from The Atlantic, these laws were written with the assumption that the President of the United States will act in the best interest of the nation.

We know that is not the Trump default.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/

Congress urgently needs to act to rein in these emergency powers before Trump uses them to curtail our civil rights and fulfill his dream of being "The Chosen" dictator.

[Ghost Dog]

47. I see he doesn't need to declare an emergency. Several are already in effect, officially.

The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority...

For instance, the president can, with the flick of his pen:

· activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States.
· freeze Americans’ bank accounts.
· deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest...

Thirty states of emergency are in effect today—several times more than when the act was passed. Most have been renewed for years on end. And during the 40 years the law has been in place, Congress has not met even once, let alone every six months, to vote on whether to end them.

As a result, the president has access to emergency powers contained in 123 statutory provisions, as recently calculated by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where I work. These laws address a broad range of matters, from military composition to agricultural exports to public contracts. For the most part, the president is free to use any of them; the National Emergencies Act doesn’t require that the powers invoked relate to the nature of the emergency...

... Next to war powers, economic powers might sound benign, but they are among the president’s most potent legal weapons. All but two of the emergency declarations in effect today were issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or ieepa. Passed in 1977, the law allows the president to declare a national emergency “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat”—to national security, foreign policy, or the economy—that “has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States.” The president can then order a range of economic actions to address the threat, including freezing assets and blocking financial transactions in which any foreign nation or foreign national has an interest...

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/

[at140]

35. Now there are cheaper labor countries than China!

Costs of manufacturing in China have increased, making other countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar etc competitive with China.

[Me.]

36. Do It!

[Eliot Rosewater]

38. Exactly, first he has to clear it with his boss, putin, who may or may not like this

given he has stolen ALL of the Russian people's money and some of it may rely on status quo.

[Eliot Rosewater]

37. And GOP members of the House and Senate are SILENT...

GOP is actively engaged in TERRORISM against this country and as they will NEVER do the right thing, we better do something and quick.

[Vinca]

39. That's the real kicker in all of this - their silence.

[bucolic_frolic]

40. Life is going to get very dicey when we cannot get

plumbing, auto, electrical parts from China. I mean seriously, we barely make brooms here anymore.

[roamer65]

58. Scarcity equals inflation.

Get ready for stagflation on steroids.

Glad I live near the border with Canada.

[yaesu]

41. and after G7 he will say he was just kidding. nt

[KY_EnviroGuy]

43. Ready to shop for that $5,000 iPhone yet?

Just kidding 'cause it ain't gonna happen but China can really put the hurt to companies like Apple anytime it chooses.

Trump's minders need to learn these laws were put in place primarily to protect America's security, not America's economy.

IMO, any serious attempt to put globalization in reverse gear could result in a global depression.....

[bucolic_frolic]

50. No one wins a trade war

it does damage financially. China can make our imports cost more, they can restrict quantity, they could ship only to foreign middlemen and let them extract their profits from us. They could also start shipping us rejects, making nightmares for our companies - manufacturers, importers, resellers - and our consumers, or they could cheapen their products to maintain profitability. There is every trick in the book when it comes to complex products and the cost and methods of production.

[SCVDem]

51. For the Orange ass to issue

Executive orders based on imminent or existing peril, he needs to prove it. We don't act at this level on the say so of a lunatic.

If there is no threat when he curtails our freedoms, then he is guilty of high crimes against America.

[Nitram]

53. The president does have powerful tools to achieve that end.