Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo blamed the U.S. news media for emboldening the Chinese government to push back against President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war.
Bartiromo and former Utah Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz spoke Sunday morning about the market’s potential reaction to Trump’s retaliatory tariffs on Chinese imports. The two honed in on his “hereby” declaration last week that he has the power to stop private U.S. companies from trading with the second-largest world economy. Both Fox News mainstays blamed the media in different ways.
Chaffetz said the U.S. media was simply exaggerating Trump’s “hereby” declaration of trading power, while Bartiromo outright blamed “left” U.S. media coverage for undercutting Trump’s authority in the U.S.-China trade war.
“One important fact to make is that the media has been basically taking a side and they’ve taken the side of the left,” Bartiromo said on Sunday Morning Futures.
“That’s one reason that I believe China saw the media beating up on president Trump over the last two years as everybody was in this ‘collusion delusion’ for two years. Meanwhile, John Brennan is on MSNBC saying the president was treasonous — no wonder the Chinese walked away and said ‘we’re going to renege, I’m not going to put into law that it’s unlawful to steal intellectual property, why would I? We’re going to be done with this guy in about a year.’ That’s because of the media’s coverage.”
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During the Vietnam war, the media took the position against the war because they hated it. This encouraged the enemy and gave them the incentive to outlast US public opinion.
Here the even further left media is doing the same thing, only because they hate Trump. They would rather see the nation lose the trade war with China’s intellectual property theft, currency manipulation and unfair trade and tariffs than see Trump succeed. Likewise, it provides China with the incentive to try and ride public opinion and wait until Trump is gone to deal with someone weaker and more easily manipulated.