> SINGAPORE—One simple step could help make America’s economy great again, according to President Trump. It would make China great too, according to a leading adviser to the Chinese government.
> The two are talking about a significant weakening of the dollar versus China’s currency. It didn’t happen in 2025, but some forecasters, including Goldman Sachs, say it is a wild card to watch in 2026.
> Economic logic suggests a lower dollar would be an effective way to diminish the competitiveness of Chinese goods and drive down the U.S. trade deficit, as Trump has long sought.
> “You make a helluva lot more money with a weaker dollar,” the president said in July. When the dollar is strong, “you don’t do any tourism, you can’t sell tractors, you can’t sell trucks, you can’t sell anything.”
Canuck-overseas on
Trump’s lizard brain is fixated on tariffs and weakening the currency. Of course….he has no concept nor care of the untold damage a collapsing dollar will have on the rest of the world. It will be chaos, it may even spark several wars.
AdCertain5491 on
It’s always a tradeoff. Sure a weaker dollar will plausibly mean more exports and a smaller current account deficit, but the flip side is that shrinks the financial account surplus. That erodes the supply of loanable funds that finances deficit spending.
Shrinking trade deficits while blowing huge deficits is really risky in my understanding. Unless they don’t care because they are hellbent on financial repression. At some point FAFO will catch up.
DarthJDP on
Weaken the dollar. Keep minimum wage right where it is. Increase taxes for the middle class.
Sacrifice everything to ensure billionairs become trillionairs while you struggle to find a warm place to sleep and enough calories to sustain life.
SnooStories8432 on
Social media has become far too ideologized, whether on X or on Reddit. On Reddit in particular, Trump seems to have been turned into a demon, yet regardless of how Americans view him, an excessively strong U.S. dollar is in fact detrimental to manufacturing.
Looking at the currencies of countries around the world today, the renminbi should appreciate. To give a simple example: electric vehicles in China are priced far lower than the same Chinese EVs exported to Europe. Even so, Europeans still accuse China of “dumping,” which almost contradicts the basic definition of dumping. Many goods exported from China to Europe and the United States remain far cheaper than locally produced goods in Europe and the U.S., even after hefty tariffs and shipping costs are added, to the point that European and American manufacturers simply cannot compete.
Of course, once the renminbi appreciates, China’s GDP would be revalued upward. This is unfavorable for media narratives, since constructing a story of a “China on the verge of collapse” is crucial for the West—after all, the idea that “democratic systems must be superior to authoritarian systems” needs constant reinforcement.
As for whether Western societies ultimately choose economic reality or propaganda, that choice is up to the West itself.
Nessie_of_the_Loch on
When the dollar is strong, “you don’t do any tourism, you can’t sell tractors, you can’t sell trucks, you can’t sell anything.” – Trump
Yea, also, when you treat tourists like criminals, and add an up to 250$ upcharge for visits to national parks, they also don’t show up.
And almost no country in the world has infrastructure (or need) for the massive and heavy trucks sold in the US at the consumer level, much less ones that are priced at 60-80K.
And lest we forget, we had a huge amount of manufacturers declare bankruptcy precisely because of his shitty and unreliable tariff policies that actually made things manufactured in the US somehow even less competitive.
Maybe we should start with completely ending farm subsidies that cost a ton of money, make the worst kinds of processed foods the cheapest kind coating untold billions in added healthcare costs, and yet still somehow depend on selling outside the US to keep the lights on.
AdministrationSea96 on
Trump isn’t able to weaken the dollar against remnimbi as Chinese currency is not freely floating but set by the Chinese government.
Trump’efforts to weaken the dollar by attaching FED or faking statistics only undermines trust to the USD as the reserve currency and causes the flight out of it
Trump should be demanding the Chinese government to move their currency exchange rate to a more sustainable level but he is too scared to do any harm to the business interests of his billionaire friends.
NameLips on
If I understand things correctly, a strong dollar means my own personal paycheck will be able to buy more stuff, right? Its buying power is higher.
So a weaker dollar will effectively make poverty worse.
8 Comments
This is a gift link. Excerpt:
> SINGAPORE—One simple step could help make America’s economy great again, according to President Trump. It would make China great too, according to a leading adviser to the Chinese government.
> The two are talking about a significant weakening of the dollar versus China’s currency. It didn’t happen in 2025, but some forecasters, including Goldman Sachs, say it is a wild card to watch in 2026.
> Economic logic suggests a lower dollar would be an effective way to diminish the competitiveness of Chinese goods and drive down the U.S. trade deficit, as Trump has long sought.
> “You make a helluva lot more money with a weaker dollar,” the president said in July. When the dollar is strong, “you don’t do any tourism, you can’t sell tractors, you can’t sell trucks, you can’t sell anything.”
Trump’s lizard brain is fixated on tariffs and weakening the currency. Of course….he has no concept nor care of the untold damage a collapsing dollar will have on the rest of the world. It will be chaos, it may even spark several wars.
It’s always a tradeoff. Sure a weaker dollar will plausibly mean more exports and a smaller current account deficit, but the flip side is that shrinks the financial account surplus. That erodes the supply of loanable funds that finances deficit spending.
Shrinking trade deficits while blowing huge deficits is really risky in my understanding. Unless they don’t care because they are hellbent on financial repression. At some point FAFO will catch up.
Weaken the dollar. Keep minimum wage right where it is. Increase taxes for the middle class.
Sacrifice everything to ensure billionairs become trillionairs while you struggle to find a warm place to sleep and enough calories to sustain life.
Social media has become far too ideologized, whether on X or on Reddit. On Reddit in particular, Trump seems to have been turned into a demon, yet regardless of how Americans view him, an excessively strong U.S. dollar is in fact detrimental to manufacturing.
Looking at the currencies of countries around the world today, the renminbi should appreciate. To give a simple example: electric vehicles in China are priced far lower than the same Chinese EVs exported to Europe. Even so, Europeans still accuse China of “dumping,” which almost contradicts the basic definition of dumping. Many goods exported from China to Europe and the United States remain far cheaper than locally produced goods in Europe and the U.S., even after hefty tariffs and shipping costs are added, to the point that European and American manufacturers simply cannot compete.
Of course, once the renminbi appreciates, China’s GDP would be revalued upward. This is unfavorable for media narratives, since constructing a story of a “China on the verge of collapse” is crucial for the West—after all, the idea that “democratic systems must be superior to authoritarian systems” needs constant reinforcement.
As for whether Western societies ultimately choose economic reality or propaganda, that choice is up to the West itself.
When the dollar is strong, “you don’t do any tourism, you can’t sell tractors, you can’t sell trucks, you can’t sell anything.” – Trump
Yea, also, when you treat tourists like criminals, and add an up to 250$ upcharge for visits to national parks, they also don’t show up.
And almost no country in the world has infrastructure (or need) for the massive and heavy trucks sold in the US at the consumer level, much less ones that are priced at 60-80K.
And lest we forget, we had a huge amount of manufacturers declare bankruptcy precisely because of his shitty and unreliable tariff policies that actually made things manufactured in the US somehow even less competitive.
Maybe we should start with completely ending farm subsidies that cost a ton of money, make the worst kinds of processed foods the cheapest kind coating untold billions in added healthcare costs, and yet still somehow depend on selling outside the US to keep the lights on.
Trump isn’t able to weaken the dollar against remnimbi as Chinese currency is not freely floating but set by the Chinese government.
Trump’efforts to weaken the dollar by attaching FED or faking statistics only undermines trust to the USD as the reserve currency and causes the flight out of it
Trump should be demanding the Chinese government to move their currency exchange rate to a more sustainable level but he is too scared to do any harm to the business interests of his billionaire friends.
If I understand things correctly, a strong dollar means my own personal paycheck will be able to buy more stuff, right? Its buying power is higher.
So a weaker dollar will effectively make poverty worse.