23rd August, 2019
In a tweetstorm, President Donald Trump escalated his war against China on Friday, accusing it of not just being an ‘enemy’ of the United States, but also stealing trillions of dollars from the US.
He suggested US companies should stop trading or having anything to do with China. He also ordered that courier companies( he called them carriers) should search for and refuse all deliveries of Fentanyl from China, a product that Trump, has put on his embargo list. Fentanyl, also spelt as fentanil, is an opioid used as a pain medication and together with other medications for anesthesia. Fentanyl is also used as a recreational drug, often mixed with heroin or cocaine. It has a rapid onset and effects generally last less than two hours. But it is also an illegal drug in China.
Trump’s tweets came after Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell did not announce an interest rate cut as Trump expected and China also announced a retaliatory tariff worth $75 billion covering some US exports, such as cars to the Asian nation.
Trump simply went unhinged with a barrage of reckless tweets, and in one of them even suggested that Powell is a comparable enemy, to US interests along with China.
“My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?”, Trump began as he unleashed salvos upon salvos against the world’s second biggest economy, that he is obsessed to humble.
“Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP.
“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!”, he said.