Trump hasn’t changed his position on China one bit

President Donald Trump stunned his own supporters Monday night when he told reporters he would guarantee 600,000 visa spots for Chinese college students, calling the move “very important.”

The announcement rattled some of Trump’s closest allies, many of whom distrust Beijing, the nationals it sends abroad, and its larcenous trade and technology practices. These allies had been hoping for a sharp reset in U.S.-China relations. But perhaps no one should be shocked. Has Trump’s thinking on China really shifted at all?

No one should be shocked. Trump has never hidden his priorities. We’ve known this reality for a long time.

China remains a central focus for many in Trump’s inner circle. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and trade adviser Peter Navarro have all pressed for a tougher approach. Outside figures like “Shark Tank’s” Kevin O’Leary and “War Room” host Steve Bannon argue for an even deeper break — a full decoupling of the two economies.

Observers who hoped this faction would steer Trump’s policy have grown uneasy as his dealings with Beijing continue. Even so, Monday’s promise jolted them.

"It’s a very important relationship,” Trump said of Chinese-American dealings. “As you know, we’re taking a lot of money in from China. ... We’re going to allow their students to come in; it's very important. ... It’s a different relationship that we have now with China; it’s a much better relationship economically than it was before.”

Trump cited 600,000 visas — more than double the already staggering 270,000 Chinese students estimated to be studying in the United States. Every one of those students comes with Beijing’s explicit approval and often faces pressure and demands from the regime while abroad. That reality has drawn the eye of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who promised this spring to “aggressively review” Chinese student visas.

But should anyone be surprised by what came out of the Oval Office? Trump has never claimed his priority was decoupling. His goal has always been the same: getting a better deal. From his first book, “The Art of the Deal,” to his earliest interviews with Larry King, Oprah Winfrey, and Diane Sawyer, Trump repeated the same theme: “America is being ripped off. We’re a debtor nation.”

Even as he has sought to reimagine America’s foreign policy, his consistency is striking. He once took out full-page ads in the Boston Globe, New York Times, and Washington Post blasting U.S. taxpayers for subsidizing the defenses of wealthy nations — from Japan to Saudi Arabia — while those same allies exploited American trade policies.

His open letter was titled, “There's nothing wrong with America's foreign defense policy that a little backbone can’t cure." That was on September 2, 1987 — 38 years ago next week. Sound familiar?

From Japan and Saudi Arabia to China and NATO, Trump has always framed foreign policy around getting a better deal. But China is not just another trading partner. Beijing steals American technology; spies on universities, businesses, and labs; poisons young Americans through predatory tech platforms; censors Hollywood to match its propaganda; and floods our economy with cheap plastic garbage. It parks money in U.S. stocks to distort markets, buys farmland and real estate near military bases, and underwrites it all with cooked books, pirated products, and virtual slave labor.

No “better deal” fixes those problems. If American universities have become financially dependent on this racket — as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Laura Ingraham Monday night — then the solution is to break that dependence, not deepen it by doubling student visas and further inflating tuition costs.

Americans have every reason to feel anger and disappointment over where these China talks are heading. We can still hope the worst concessions get stripped out before any deal is final. But no one should be shocked. Trump has never hidden his priorities. We’ve known this reality for a long time.

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