A billionaire donor of President Donald Trump sent her staff a political cartoon mocking the president’s claim that he had the upper hand in negotiations with China.
Liz Uihlein, who co-founded the office supply company Uline with her husband Richard, shared the carton in April, when trade tensions were escalating between Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping, The Guardian reported.
The sketch shows Trump and Xi playing cards, with Trump saying, “I hold the cards.” Xi replies, “The cards are made in China.”
An executive assistant for Uihlein sent the cartoon with the message, “All — The usual. Liz.”
Sources told The Guardian that Uline, which is a privately held company, imports a significant amount of its merchandise from China and other countries.
Liz and Richard Uihlein donated $143 million to Republican candidates last year, making them the fourth-largest political donors during the presidential election cycle, according to data from the political campaign contribution site Opensecrets, The Guardian reported.
Liz Uihlein had previously lamented in a letter published in Uline’s catalogue after the 2020 election, “America sorely needs a coherent, largely united trade policy, if we don’t get it done, this century belongs to Chinese.”
A spokesperson for Uline told The Guardian that Liz Uihlein had no comment on the political cartoon. The Daily Beast has reached out to Uline and the White House.
In early April, Trump announced a 34 percent “reciprocal” tariff on Chinese goods as part of his “Liberation Day” announcements, along with a 10 percent duty on all imports and various sector-specific import taxes.
The duties are paid by American companies, with the costs typically passed along to consumers.
China retaliated with tariffs of its own, sparking an all-out trade war that culminated with Trump raising baseline tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 percent and Beijing slapping a 125 percent import tax on American-made goods.
The two sides agreed in mid-May to lower the temperature for 90 days while the two sides negotiate a longer-term solution. The U.S. imposed a 30 percent duty on goods from China, and Beijing reduced its tariffs on U.S.-made products to 10 percent.
Trump has repeatedly claimed to be in a better negotiating position than China, saying as recently as last month that he could “destroy China” by playing “incredible cards” if he wanted to.
But he has struggled to finalize a trade deal with China, complaining on social media in June that Xi was “VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!”
Later that month, China and the U.S. reached an initial trade framework that would open up Chinese exports of rare earth metals and ease restrictions on U.S. tech sales.
The Commerce Department has agreed to let the AI chip maker Nvidia sell its advanced H20 chip to China in exchange for a 15 percent cut on the revenue from Chinese sales.
Washington and Beijing are also negotiating a deal that would allow Trump’s allies to buy a stake in the social media giant TikTok.
On Friday, Trump announced a “very productive call” with Xi and said the two would speak in person at the APEC summit in South Korea at the end of October. He added that he had agreed to go to China early next year.
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