Varney: Trump playing hardball with China like no other president

For the first time in a generation, America is pushing back on China. On all fronts, President Trump has called a halt to China's aggressive expansion.

He's blamed China for the coronavirus. He has condemned the crackdown in Hong Kong. He's sent two aircraft carriers to the Pacific.

But most important of all, the president has pushed back hard on China's technology companies. He hasn't just pushed back; he's blocked them, forced them to retreat. On technology, he's playing serious hardball.

Huawei is the biggest Chinese tech company. Its name means "Chinese achievement." The president has blocked them from the most valuable markets in the world, including America. That's a slam.

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TikTok is China's very successful social media platform, and the president has beaten them up. Sell your American operations, he says because in a couple of months, you're banned. That's hardball.

This is very new, very different from anything we've seen from any previous president. Mr. Trump is acting as commander in chief of American business. Not only is he telling a foreign company to get out, he's also demanding a piece of the sale-price action.

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It's no surprise that technology is the battlefield. At this moment, America reigns supreme, and the president wants to keep it that way. It's not classic capitalism. It's not free trade. It's not open markets. It's President Trump putting America first. That was his policy in 2016, and it's clearly his policy for the election three months from now.

President Trump, commander in chief of American business: we've never seen anything like it before.

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Adapted from Stuart Varney's "My Take" monologue on "Varney & Co." on Aug. 10, 2020.

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