Strategas policy analyst Daniel Clifton reportedly warns that President Donald Trump’s trade war with China could ruin his re-election chances if the economy plunges into recession.
“Trump is trading away his re-election,” CNBC cited Clifton as saying.
“Forward looking inflation indicators are suggesting a very meaningful slowdown in economic growth,” Clifton said.
“Without a better economy, it’s hard to see how he wins re-election. I’m not sure a muddle-through works. He needs better,” said Clifton.
For his part, Trump on Tuesday dismissed concerns over a protracted trade war with China despite a warning from Beijing that Washington’s decision to label it a currency manipulator would lead to chaos in financial markets.
Trump, who announced last week he would slap a 10% tariff on a further $300 billion in Chinese imports starting on Sept. 1, tweeted that “massive amounts of money from China and other parts of the world” were pouring into the U.S. economy, Reuters explained.
He also pledged to stand with American farmers in the face of Chinese retaliation. China has halted U.S. agricultural purchases and raised the specter of additional tariffs on U.S. farm products. U.S. farmers, a key political constituency for Trump, have been among the hardest hit in the trade war. Shipments of soybeans, the most valuable U.S. farm export, to top buyer China sank to a 16-year low in 2018.
Ratcheting up the pressure on China, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it had determined for the first time since 1994 that Beijing was manipulating its currency.
It acted after China decided to let the yuan fall below the key seven-per-dollar level for the first time in more than a decade, rattling financial markets and dimming hopes for an end to a trade war that has dragged into a second year.
U.S. stocks jumped more than 1 percent on Tuesday, bouncing back from a sharp sell-off the previous day as China stepped in to stabilize the yuan, easing concerns that currencies would be the next weapon in the U.S.-China trade war.
China’s central bank said on Tuesday that Washington’s currency move would “severely damage international financial order and cause chaos in financial markets,” while preventing a global economic recovery.
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