Scared Money

Gamblers have saying, “you can’t play with scared money.” Meaning, you won’t win, if you are too scared to lose. That saying also applies to deal making. You can’t negotiate scared. Donald Trump understands this as much as anyone. He never plays scared. That is why he never folded up and quit through both impeachments, the Russia collusion hoax, and the 94 politically motivated indictments. Many other prominent politicians would have waved the white flag and stepped out of politics long ago. Trump doubled down. He is not afraid of anything.

Trump also understands the greatness of America. When Trump says, “make America great again”, he means, start believing in the greatness of America again, and America’s greatness will shine through. America only stopped being great because our leaders failed to understand and act like America was great. Several of our previous Presidents ran their administrations like they were managing America’s slow decline into mediocrity. It is a shame that the people in our country, especially our leaders, on the left and many on the right, don’t fully comprehend the greatness of America and the strength of America, like many of the people and leaders of countries around the world do. That more than anything else is one of the reasons why Donald Trump is wielding these tariffs. He’s reminding the rest of the world and many Americans, of America’s greatness, of America’s strength, and of the world’s reliance on American prosperity.

So, when it comes to trade deals, Trump knows that we hold all the cards. He is the only President since Ronald Reagan who understands that. Every other President never understood that they were holding four aces, so they negotiated like they had a pair of Jacks. They were so scared when making deals that they became the weak sister at the negotiating table. That’s why our former Presidents over the last 35 years, have allowed these extremely asymmetrical and unfavorable tariffs to be levied against the United States with no response. They were too scared to act, and they never realized that they were in the power position. The perfect example is NAFTA. We are the most powerful and prosperous country in the Americas, and yet Canada and Mexico received a much better end of that trade deal. Too often the deals that we made were almost laughable. Both Obama and Biden sent the mullahs of Iran billions of dollars of cash to close the Iran-Nuclear deal which did not even stop Iran from enriching weapons grade uranium. How about use the strength of America’s economy to crush Iran’s economy until they come to us on their hands and knees begging for any deal they can get? You actually have to be strong and believe in America to do that.

These past Presidents failed to confront the root causes of our trade deficit because they didn’t understand how great America is, and that lack of belief makes sense because since the 1960s, we’ve been told ad nauseam how bad American is. It has been the goal of the media and academia to convince the American people that America is a flaming pile of garbage. They continually remind of everything bad in American history, and none of the good. How many times have we been told by our politicians that we must emulate what they’re doing in Europe or what they’re doing in Canada? They hold those places up like they’re the ideal, when in reality, those countries would collapse if the United States was not propping them up with the strength of our military and the prosperity of our economy. And yet, the left and the Rino’s think so little of America, that they look to the countries who rely on us for their very existence as the example.

When Donald Trump says, “make America great again”, he actually believes that America is great right now, he just wants Americans and American politicians to start believing in and start acting upon our greatness. That is why he hasn’t blinked when the stock market reacted negatively to his tariffs. Every other President – if they put in place a policy, and the stock market reacted as negatively as it has for three straight days – would have immediately reversed their policies. Why? Because they’re scared; they don’t actually believe in what they’re doing; and they don’t believe in American greatness. Trump is the exact opposite. He’s not scared, and he believes in what he’s doing because he believes in the strength of America.

Trump knew that these other countries would come calling to cut trade deals with us, and dozens already have. It’s been four days. He knew that we hold the cards in trade. He knows that our best leverage in negotiations is not our military, but our economy. Every country in the world wants to play ball with the United States on trade. It makes them stronger economically, which makes them stronger as a country. If they’re closed out of the United States’ market, their economies would implode. Trump understands that. Every other President that we’ve had in the last 35 years – Republican or Democrat alike – has not. They never fully understood the position that the United States holds in the world, and how to use that position to not only make America stronger and freer, but to make the rest of the world stronger and freer. Donald Trump does.

So, all the people who were panicking after the reciprocal tariffs were put in place, are essentially saying, we don’t believe in America anymore. We don’t believe America is an economic superpower anymore. We don’t believe that America is any different than Canada or Europe, and that is an extremely sad realization. Does anybody actually believe that the United States is going to lose a trade war with any country in the world?

But countries like China are relying on the weakness in America to overcome America’s strength. They understand that America’s prosperity which makes it such a beneficial trading partner to them, has also cultivated a weak underbelly in this country which does not have the fortitude to withstand the moments of discomfort and pain that is necessary when standing up for ourselves. That faction of the country wants everything to be easy. They are the embodiment of Obama, Biden and the Bushes, willing to fold the moment it gets a little bit uncomfortable. Countries like China will try to play the waiting game, relying on the power of America’s weakness. We cannot succumb to America’s weakness; we must lean on American strength.  

If America plays with scared money, we will lose and we will lose big time. If we have the courage to believe in America’s strength and greatness, every other country will eventually cave to us, and we will win beyond anyone’s imagination. If you always look for the easy way in life, your life becomes exceedingly hard; but if you are willing to do the hard things in life, your life will become exceedingly easy. We have that choice right now – Fear leads to mediocrity; courage leads to greatness.

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Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.