The Times agreed with my post yesterday that President Trump has already lost the trade negotiations with the Chinese government by making it clear he wants a positive outcome, an achievement he can tweet about, and then use to stage a summit with President Xi at Mar-A-Lago. Trump has given up whatever leverage he had partly because he did not have the attention span to focus on the details for a sustained period of time, which is the essence of the Chinese negotiating style. As the Times describes, Trump has completely undercut the position of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
