In Trump They Trust?

Meanwhile Donald Luskin of Trend Macrolytics generally sees the art of the deal:

"Just because we are seeing such things now does not mean the deal is falling apart. To be sure, it might mean that. Mistakes can happen. But more likely it signals the highly turbulent edge of chaos – the existential interface between “yes” and “no” – that all negotiations have to pass through before they end.

"...And at the end of the day, we can’t rule out that Trump never wanted a trade deal to begin with, but began his trade war to break China’s economy before it overtakes the world – indeed to break China itself, the way Ronald Reagan broke the Soviet Union... But remember the fundamental truth here. Trump wants you to worry about just that kind of possibility. He wants you to think he’s crazy. He wants to you to fear him. Because if you aren’t afraid of him, Xi Jinping won’t be either. And if Xi isn’t afraid, he has absolutely no reason to give a millimeter on trade."

If stoking alarm among the advocates of open markets is part of the plan here, Mr. Trump’s mission is accomplished.