by WorldTribune Staff, August 28, 2017
Globalists may not have the grip on the White House that many observers foresaw after the departure of Steve Bannon, a report said.
Details have emerged of a small Oval Office meeting in which President Donald Trump slammed senior staff as they pushed back “against his hawkish trade war position,” Axios reported.
Trump is said to have told his new Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly:
“John, you haven’t been in a trade discussion before, so I want to share with you my views. For the last six months, this same group of geniuses comes in here all the time and I tell them…’Tariffs. I want tariffs.’ And what do they do? They bring me IP (intellectual property). I can’t put a tariff on IP.”
Axios cited sources with knowledge of the meeting and said the White House has not disputed its report.
The report adds that chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, “a globalist who opposes tariffs and the protectionist trade measures pushed by the nationalist Bannonites, had his shoulders slumped and was clearly appalled by the situation.”
Trump added: “China is laughing at us,… Laughing. John, I want you to know, this is my view. I want tariffs. And I want someone to bring me some tariffs.”
Axios went on to describe how senior trade adviser Peter Navarro tried to rescue the situation, only to be rebuked by Trump…”I don’t even know what I’m looking at here.”
The meeting is reported to have concluded with Trump saying:
“John, let me tell you why they didn’t bring me any tariffs. I know there are some people in the room right now that are upset. I know there are some globalists in the room right now. And they don’t want them, John, they don’t want the tariffs. But I’m telling you, I want tariffs.”
The White House gave Axios the following non-denial response:
“The president has been very clear about his agenda as it relates to trade. Discussions pertaining to specific tariffs and trade deals are ongoing and have already resulted in many positive developments.”
Zero Hedge noted that “It seems President Trump is more prone to ignore the Goldman-sponsored Globalist status quo seekers, and is still following Bannon’s strategy to maintain hegemony.”
“We’re at economic war with China,” Bannon said earlier this month. “It’s in all their literature. They’re not shy about saying what they’re doing. One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years and it’s gonna be them if we go down this path.”
“To me,” Bannon said, “the economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, ten years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover.”
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