Ex-Trump Advisor: Deal with China Still a 'Coin Toss' Despite Mar-A-Lago Summit Plans
*By Chloe Aiello*
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are reportedly considering a meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Resort in March to resume trade talks. But whether or not any major developments will result is a toss-up, former State Department Senior Advisor Christian Whiton told Cheddar.
"It's still a coin toss as to whether or not there's a big deal, but Wall Street seems to take it for granted. I think it's less likely, and what's more likely, it's going to be a very long-term process of jousting," said Whiton, who served as an advisor for both Trump and former President George W. Bush.
[Axios reported](https://www.axios.com/trump-xi-china-trade-war-mar-a-lago-37bb245b-9ffa-455e-bc82-499c3c32d7e2.html) on Sunday that Trump's advisers have discussed hosting a summit at the president's Palm Beach, Fla., resort in an attempt to resolve the ongoing trade standoff between the U.S. and China. Sources informed Axios that the summit could come as soon as mid-March, although neither the date nor the location have been officially set.
A mid-March summit would come after the March 2 deadline Trump set to hike tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese goods. Whiton said the summit could potentially lead to further delays.
"My guess is that if a summit was scheduled, it would be hard for the administration to go ahead with that increase," he said. "Having said that, there is some jousting within the administration between hardliners ... who want tariffs on sooner as added pressure, and the Wall Street crowd."
Whiton also said that China has done little to address major concerns over intellectual property theft and anti-competitive behaviors.
"What I understand is China really hasn't been that forthcoming in the systemic reform that Trump really wants, and frankly that there is bipartisan consensus for," he said. "They are sort of saying, 'meet us halfway on those things.' But that is extremely hard to do."
Trump has been pushing for adjustments in trade policies with China even before he stepped into the Oval Office. The two powers have been tangled in a retaliatory trade war since Trump first leveraged tariffs in early 2018.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/white-house-reportedly-considering-mar-a-lago-for-u-s-china-trade-summit).
Cheddar Politics breaks down the seismic shift in White House rhetoric surrounding Russia's war on Ukraine. President Biden began calling the alleged war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in the Kyiv region "genocide." Foreign policy and national security analyst A. Ari Aramesh joins Cheddar News to discuss what constitutes genocide and whether the developments in Ukraine qualify.
President Joe Biden said he is considering forgiving some federal student debt, a step that would help him fulfill a campaign promise and provide relief to borrowers who took out thousands of dollars in loans to finance their higher education.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 28, 2022, with Elon Musk mocking Twitter's top legal exec Vijaya Gadde on the platform itself, a probe in George Floyd's death finding discrimination within the Minneapolis police force, the latest California drought leading to new water restrictions, and more.
Tech giant Microsoft won a military contract for the production of its IVAS (integrated visual augmentation system) combat goggles, based on its HoloLens ARG tech, worth up to $21.9 billion over 10 years. However, the Pentagon is now saying that the device "has not yet demonstrated the capability to serve as a fighting goggle," and that the Army made mistakes in the program's initial stages by not clearly describing minimum performance standards. While testing continues, concerns have grown outside of the Defense Department to Congress and even within Microsoft itself. Cheddar's Ken Buffa takes a deeper look at the possible boondoggle.
U.S. stocks fell sharply to close Tuesday's session, with the Nasdaq dropping 3.95% and hitting a new one-year low. Frances Newton Stacy, Director of Strategy for Optimal Capital, joins Cheddar News to discuss her reaction to how markets closed the session, and to break down Q3 2022 earnings from Microsoft. "Netflix was sort of the big warning, and I think Big Tech was down today in anticipation of these earnings," she says.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill that strips Disney World of its special self-governing status. This came after Disney spoke out against Florida's so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, some saying in retaliation of that. Ben Means, Professor of Law and the John T. Campbell Chair in Business and Professional Ethics at the University of South Carolina School of Law, breaks down how the new law might impact Disney’s business moving forward.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 27, 2022, with Tesla stocks absorbing an initial hit following Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, Russia pausing its natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 mission taking off, and more.
Russia and the United States have exchanged prisoners. Russia released a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow while the U.S. released a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a prison sentence in Connecticut.
