Free Trade

Trump Says He Wants To Beat China With Tariffs. He's Made the U.S. Weaker Instead.

China does present some real national security challenges. But the Trump administration's policies have made it harder to address those, all while damaging American prosperity.

Veronique de Rugy | 9.24.2026 3:45 PM

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President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping (Annabelle Gordon - Pool via CNP/CNP/Polaris/Newscom)

Chinese President Xi Jinping landed at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington on Wednesday and was met personally on the tarmac by President Donald Trump. The agenda included an elaborate Rose Garden military review and official state dinner in the White House's East Room.

Most of that chichi was just foreplay before Thursday's negotiations to extend the one-year trade war truce between the nations that's set to run out in November. It's quite the welcome for a leader of a country the administration calls America's chief adversary.

Then again, it's no easy thing to follow the details of Trump's trade policy.

His first term was different. Trump's Section 301 tariffs and most of the other tariffs starting in 2018 were aimed almost exclusively at China. They were misguided because they were mostly applied to products with no national security significance, like furniture and home appliances, but they were theoretically related to the unique challenge posed by one nation.

Trump's second term has been widely different. In 2025, he........

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