While most of the legacy media were hyper-ventilating over Nancy Pelosi’s press conference in which she introduced her impeachment managers, the big news of the day went nearly unnoticed – the signing of Phase I of the trade deal with China at the White House. Under the deal, China will buy an additional $200 billion in US goods over two years. The agreement protects US intellectual property, addresses forced technology transfer issues, and ends currency manipulation by the Chinese.

Larry Kudlow, the president’s chief economic adviser, summarized the implications of the trade deal just before it was signed this morning:

[This is an] historic and unprecedented agreement. [President Trump] has changed the narrative on China’s unfair trading practices. [Phase one is] going to help grow our economy faster. We reckon in 2020 and 2021, at least a half a point of additional [gross domestic product] GDP, which will probably translate into another million jobs on top of what we’ve already got.

The biggest hill was getting phase one. Which has never been done before. The president’s leadership, including the tariffs, the work of [U.S. trade representative] Bob Lighthizer, [Treasury Secretary] Steve Mnuchin, our whole trade principals team. Never done before, this is historic.

But that is not how Democrats are spinning it, as noted on Martha MacCallum’s show on Fox New Channel. She introduced an interview segment with China expert Dr. Michael Pillsbury (and former assistant for Asian affairs under Bush 41) with a short video that quote Senate Democrats commenting on the deal:

1. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): President Trump and his administration committed the United States to a weak, feckless phase one trade deal with China.
2. Ron Wyden (D-OR): This agreement is more of a Band-Aid than a solution.
3. Sherrod Brown (D-OH): This deal with China is another corporate trade deal and another betrayal of American workers, and you will hear that term betrayal time and time again because that’s what this is.

MacCallum then interviewed Dr. Pillsbury for his take on the new trade deal with China. [Note: Pillsbury is the author of “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower” and has been a regular commentator on FNC on the subject of China trade and the ChiCom’s march toward global domination.]

Pillsbury: With respect to Sherrod Brown and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, frankly, as well, they were the leaders on this issue 20 years ago. They said all the things that President Trump said today, but they couldn’t get it done. They didn’t have a strategy on how to bring the Chinese leadership around. Now, I’m afraid they’re a little bitter and even embarrassed. Their own ideas have been implemented by Donald Trump, and they can’t stand it. So they have to say that this is feckless or, you know, it’s not going to work, but actually President Trump’s concept was to work with President Xi Jinping, turn him into a friend, say he is a friend, and then work from the top down because China is a dictatorship. There is no Senate and House and Supreme Court that has any check-and-balance effect in China, so President Trump knew that if he could work with President Xi, he could get this done. Its an historic achievement.

MacCallum (paraphrasing): What happens when US financial services companies run into Chinese financial services companies going forward?

Pillsbury: Well, it’s going to be the duel of the century. They’re going to be testing whether our great companies like Goldman-Sachs and Bank of America can compete inside China … take business away (from Chinese banks) … make investments that are going to have a great return on profit … can we out-perform the Chinese inside China? Before today, there was no hope of that. Now, the world’s second-biggest economy (China) is going to become a source of our profits … jobs for our people … exports for our farmers … this is what President Trump has done. Without confronting them – notice today that there wasn’t a negative word about China at all – in fact he talks about how this is good for both countries. What he’s doing is saying to American companies is you know have a level playing field, and if there’s trouble, there’s an enormous mechanism in here to criminalize misconduct in China – to have trials, to have lawsuits, to have penalties paid, and ultimately to even put the tariffs back on. Plus – and my particular admiration for the President – he kept the tariffs on, so even as we’re being so friendly today in the White House, half of China’s exports are being tariffed right now at 25%. President Trump gets the money – $70 billion – and the pressure is on for a really good phase 2 deal.

Compare and contrast the three Democrats senators’ statements (politicians with no trade or China expertise) about the Phase One deal with those of Dr. Pillsbury (a Chinese expert). Dr. Pillsbury stated that:

• The President achieved what the Democrats wanted to do for years but have no strategy for pursuing.
• The President figured out a strategy that would work with the ChiCom dictatorship (fully understanding the importance of “saving face”).
• The deal increases US exports to China (especially farm products) and creates jobs in the US.
• The US financial services sector will be on a level playing field in China for the first time ever.
• The trade deal includes a mechanism for criminalizing Chinese misconduct.
• The tariffs are still in place as an incentive for China to rapidly proceed to Phase Two.

And the Democrats are calling this deal feckless, a Band-Aid, and a betrayal of American workers? Please. Some of us aren’t that stupid, Democrats!

We have the greatest deal-maker ever in US history in the Oval Office serving the American people. And to think that the US-Canada-Mexico Act (USMCA) will soon be passed by the Senate and signed into law, too!

The end.