Suddenly it appears that the Trump-Xi dinner may not be quite the bombastic spectacle of crisis resolution that many (if not Goldman) had expected it to be.
Not only did the president announce earlier that out of respect for the Bush Family and former President George H.W. Bush, Trump would wait until after the funeral to have the press conference that he had hoped to conduct prior to leaving Argentina…
….However, out of respect for the Bush Family and former President George H.W. Bush we will wait until after the funeral to have a press conference.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2018
… but also as Bloomberg reported, the “most important Trump-Xi meeting in years” had been moved earlier, to 5:30pm in Buenos Aires, perhaps in a suggestion to pundits to “de-escalate” expectations.
Finally, it now appears that the dinner will be diluted with the presence of many lower-tier officials, including Mnuchin, Pompeo, Lighthizer and Kudlow, but – drumroll – China trade hawk Peter Navarro will also attend, in what is a clear signal that is something can go wrong with attempts to cobble together a tentative consensus, it will.
Finally, as the following list from Bloomberg of all the members of the US delegation at the Trump-Xi dinner shows, how any consensus can emerge from what appears to be a working group dinner, is anyone’s guess.
And now we await the flashing red headlines with the first leaks of what was (or wasn’t as the case may be) said, and whether Goldman’s take that there will be no deal at all, and that the odds of further escalation are 50%+, will be accurate.
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