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Trump responded to China’s latest round of retaliatory tariffs by “ordering” US companies out of China, but he doesn’t have the power to order companies to do anything.

Trump tweeted:

Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

….better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

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….all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

Trump has no power or authority to tell US companies what to do. He can’t “order” companies to do anything. The US would have to impose a trade embargo on China that would require an act of Congress that will never happen in a million years. A trade embargo or any other sort of restriction making it illegal for US companies to do business in or with China would instantly cripple the economy and send the nation into a recession.

Donald Trump has painted himself into a corner and has no way out. China is in no hurry to make a deal. The Chinese know that Trump is on a deadline with the 2020 election looming. They can wait him out, and retaliatory tariffs are only turning up the pressure on the inept and incompetent Trump.