Curtis Ellis: ‘China Needs Us More Than We Need Them’ on Free Trade

Curtis Ellis, executive director of the American Jobs Alliance and a senior economic adviser to Donald Trump, told SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Tuesday’s Breitbart News Daily that Trump’s positions on national security and trade are “linked, in a way.”

“There is a common underlying theme to Donald Trump’s campaign, his governing philosophy, his vision, and it’s called ‘Americanism, Not Globalism,’” Ellis explained. “We see this in the terror discussion you’ve been having. … Our first, Mr. Trump’s first, our government’s first policy and concern should be the American citizens, not the globe.”

He said:

The best example is Paul Ryan said, “Legislators have to put themselves in the shoes of that person from India who wants to come to America.” No, legislators should put themselves in the shoes of the American who’s looking for a job and doesn’t want to be out-competed or undercut, have his wages undercut, by that guy coming from India, right?

This led Ellis to discuss Trump’s position on trade:

Our trade policy must be built on the premise that we will have trade policies, and trade that benefit the American citizens, that benefit the American workers, that makes the American economy stronger, not that serves some concept called the global economy.

The global economy is nothing new. It’s been around forever. Marco Polo went to China in 1215 looking to expand trade in the global economy. Let’s not get confused by fancy words here. We must do what’s in our national interest. That’s Americanism, not globalism.

Right now, the Peterson Institute for International Economics has come out with a so-called study saying that Donald Trump’s America First trade policy of renegotiating our trade deals so that it benefits Americans, putting retaliatory tariffs on countries that are cheating and trying to destroy our industrial capacity and our jobs – just like China is doing – that this would cause a massive recession and job loss.

Now, the problem with the Peterson Institute paper is that it is based on the same flawed premises that told us opening up trade with China in the first place would lead to a huge boom in our economy. It’s based on the same assumptions that said all these trade deals, which have been absolutely devastating to the American working people, would be terrific for the American working people. So it’s based on flawed assumptions.

For example, they say if we cut off trade with China, we’re going to lose all these millions of jobs, and we’re going to live in rags in unheated homes or something. As if we’re not going to immediately open factories in America to make the things we used to import from China! And it doesn’t take into account, makes absolutely no case for the fact that China needs us more than we need them.

If we even threaten to reduce our consumption of Chinese-made goods, you’re going to see the Chinese Communist Party leaders come to us, begging, “Please don’t do that” because they know they need, absolutely need, to have economic growth in the five, six, seven percent range every year, or else there will be a popular uprising in that country. And the Communist Party leaders will not be buying condos on 57th street in New York. They will have their heads on pikes, paraded around Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing. They know that. They need us more than we need them.

We are the greatest consumers in the world of Chinese-made goods. If we say, “Hold on a second. We want this trade to be fair,” they’re gonna say, “Well, let’s see: Donald Trump might actually do something, unlike all these other presidents who have just rolled over for us. We better start playing this game straight.”

Marlow asked Ellis to comment on the hottest topic of the day – terrorism – and the specifics of how Trump would combat it. Ellis replied:

Start with the fact that immigration policy is national security policy. He will put a temporary pause on immigration from places like Syria, Afghanistan, the hot countries, Pakistan, where they’re training people to be terrorists. He will put a pause on immigration from those countries, until we can properly vet them. He calls it “extreme vetting.” Call it what you want. Really check them out, and know who’s coming in – not just out of the kindness of our hearts.

You show up at our doorstep and you don’t have any papers because you lost them on the way, we’re going to let you in anyway? No. Those days will be over. That’s a very important first step. Ninety-nine percent of the people in Afghanistan believe Sharia law should be the law of the country. Why are we letting those people in?

Ellis wondered how many of the current refugees are being “settled in the Hamptons, being settled in Janesville, Wisconsin” – the latter a dig at House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose home is located there.

“Well, I’ll tell you what: there are a lot of foreigners working in the Hamptons, as nannies, as cooks, as maids,” Ellis pointed out. “But you know what? They’re coming from Ireland. They’re not coming from Syria. They’re not coming from Afghanistan. Somehow, we are able to have immigration in this country and not have mass murder and terrorist attacks.”

“So anyway, specifically, there will be a much tighter immigration system, much tighter vetting of people coming in, control of our borders, control of people who overstay their visas like the 9/11 bombers did,” he promised. “They will make sure that we are tracking these people. Right now, we saw yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security lost 300,000 people.”

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

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