Donald Trump on Tuesday morning announced that he will nominate Robert Lighthizer to be the United States trade representative.
“Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first,” Trump said in a statement. “He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans. He will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity.”
Lighthizer supports Trump’s trade agenda and was an early supporter of the President-elect. He served as deputy U.S. trade representative under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
“He served as deputy U.S. trade representative under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.”
Trump’s the first true retro-prez… He’s resurrecting a lost and failed era, as if it was “the best of times”, even as he steers our ship of state towards the worst of times.
At least for the commonfolk.
Trump’s desperation to join the most rarified ranks of the “true-billionaire” NeoRoyal class will inevitably outweigh all other purpose,
Anyone who tries to deny that Trump’s had his wicked path cleared for him by decades of hate-speech is ignoring preponderous reality. And for those able to hear it, considering the evil influences that prevailed at every turn, from prejudice to deception to unhinged authoritarianism, to abject greed, and even treason, is there much doubt about the spiritual source of Trump’s pyrrhic victory?
Until we all reach a similar understanding of that influence, and admit there are profound powers at work that we CAN NOT control, this will all devolve into another arrogant Reaganesque failure of everything that makes us that shining city on a hill in the first place.
How old is this guy? Served under Reagan?
B.A 1969 accordin to Skadden CV, I guess that puts his year of birth around 1945 : 70 or older.
Reuters has a little more detail about his background:
An excerpt:
"Lighthizer has argued that China has failed to live up to commitments made in 2001 when it joined the World Trade Organization and that tougher tactics are needed to change the system, even if it means deviating from World Trade Organization rules.
“Years of passivity and drift among U.S. policymakers have allowed the U.S.-China trade deficit to grow to the point where it is widely recognized as a major threat to our economy,” Lighthizer wrote in 2010 congressional testimony.
“Going forward, U.S. policymakers should take these problems more seriously, and should take a much more aggressive approach in dealing with China,” he wrote.
Lighthizer is regarded as an experienced tactician with an intimate knowledge of trade tools that were widely used before the WTO was created in 1995, including “Section 301” tariffs used to stem a tide of imports of Japanese steel and vehicles in the 1980s.
During his tenure, Reagan struck the 1985 Plaza Accord currency deal with Japan, Germany and other major trading partners that brought down the dollar’s value and encouraged more foreign companies to set up U.S. manufacturing plants."
“Bob Lighthizer is very smart, very strategic and totally fearless,” said a Washington attorney who has worked with him for three decades but asked not to be named. “You can expect him to use every tool available to create leverage to get China and anyone else to stop the cheating. He is no fan of the WTO.”
Still, Lighthizer is not expected to be the Trump administration’s leading voice on trade policy. Last month, Trump’s team said that task would fall to the U.S. Commerce Secretary nominee, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross…
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has also named Peter Navarro, an economist and adviser who has urged a hard line against China, as the head of a newly formed White House National Trade Council.
In my view, Lighthizer is a good pick. We should not be afraid to say so. There’s no doubt that China has played by its own rules - often aided and abetted by big US corporations - to the disadvantage of American workers and companies. There’s nothing wrong - and there are a lot of things right - in pushing back against China.