The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

by John Bolton

said I didn’t think any of the numbers being bandied about were the real issues. This wasn’t a trade dispute but a conflict of systems. The “structural issues” we raised with China weren’t trade tactics but a fundamentally different approach to organizing economic life. Negotiations should begin on these issues, so we could see whether there was any real chance China was serious about changing its ways (and I certainly didn’t believe it was). Kudlow agreed, taking a position more distant from Mnuchin than ever before, and Mnuchin didn’t react well. During the ensuing debate, I suggested we bar all Chinese goods and services from America if they were based in whole or in part on stolen intellectual property. “I like that idea,” said Trump, but of course Mnuchin didn’t. I said we would need additional legislative authority, but it was a battle worth fighting. Trump said again (several times in fact) that he liked the idea, so I thought at least some progress had been made. The briefing ended minutes later, at four forty-five.