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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
That’s right – no accidents, just intention.
This was one of the most consequential1 weeks since Donald Trump2 became president. Within just a few hours, Democrats3 announced they’re moving ahead with impeachment4 articles … and that they’d reached a deal with the Trump administration to replace NAFTA.
Strange bedfellows? Nope. Dizzying politics.
To blunt Republican charges that the Democrats are all-impeachment-all-the-time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered closure of longstanding trade disagreements with Team Trump. She wants to give her moderate members cover with constituents6 who may not support impeachment but do support an end to trade confusion and what it portends7 for the economy and jobs.
And the president gets a badly needed win to a) rally his base and b) counter stiff impeachment headwinds coming from witness testimony8 and congressional bloviating.
It’s all a political pressure game … with major implications for business and the economy. The trick is knowing how to increase it, when to release it, and who benefits.
Impeachment is a powerful tool to wield9 against any president – one that can be blunted by partisan10 advantage in the Senate (as Trump appears to have) and a strong economy likely to strengthen if the president can deliver the trade and tariff11 agreements he says he can.
Pay attention to what he’s doing. As impeachment proceedings12 careen to a vote of the full House, Trump followed his agreement on NAFTA 2.0 with a tweet that moved markets, quote: “Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China,” the president tweeted. “They want it, and so do we!” The Dow spiked13 125 points almost immediately … closed up more than 220 that day … and the S&P 500 hit a record high.
There are no coincidences in politics.
Trump’s emerging strategy … er, gut14 instinct … is to counter the political damage of looming15 impeachment by playing to his strengths. And those are economic: unemployment is at a 50-year low; stock markets are at record highs; confidence is set to rebound16 once trade tensions abate17 … and the pricing anxiety that comes with tariffs18 is likely to recede19.
The president’s betting that pocketbooks trump politics. He figures that easing lingering trade fears … with Mexico and Canada … with China and Japan … with France, Germany and the European Union will bolster20 his standing5 in the vitally important industrial heartland.
And he might be right. The CEOs of automakers and their suppliers are breathing a little easier because they get some long-overdue certainty. So are the capitals of the country’s leading trading partners. That’s because Trump’s impeachment predicament has pushed him to the point where his political interest and Big Business’s interest in trade solutions finally have converged21.
It was, what, a week ago that Trump wondered aloud whether it might not make sense to wait until after the 2020 election to do a trade deal with China. Yet amid the House Judiciary’s impeachment hearing, headlines started appearing saying the United States and China had reached what one outlet22 called an “initial trade deal.”
Nope, there are no coincidences in politics.
1 consequential | |
adj.作为结果的,间接的;重要的 | |
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2 trump | |
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭 | |
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3 democrats | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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4 impeachment | |
n.弹劾;控告;怀疑 | |
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5 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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6 constituents | |
n.选民( constituent的名词复数 );成分;构成部分;要素 | |
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7 portends | |
v.预示( portend的第三人称单数 );预兆;给…以警告;预告 | |
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8 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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9 wield | |
vt.行使,运用,支配;挥,使用(武器等) | |
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10 partisan | |
adj.党派性的;游击队的;n.游击队员;党徒 | |
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11 tariff | |
n.关税,税率;(旅馆、饭店等)价目表,收费表 | |
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12 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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13 spiked | |
adj.有穗的;成锥形的;有尖顶的 | |
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14 gut | |
n.[pl.]胆量;内脏;adj.本能的;vt.取出内脏 | |
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15 looming | |
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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16 rebound | |
v.弹回;n.弹回,跳回 | |
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17 abate | |
vi.(风势,疼痛等)减弱,减轻,减退 | |
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18 tariffs | |
关税制度; 关税( tariff的名词复数 ); 关税表; (旅馆或饭店等的)收费表; 量刑标准 | |
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19 recede | |
vi.退(去),渐渐远去;向后倾斜,缩进 | |
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20 bolster | |
n.枕垫;v.支持,鼓励 | |
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21 converged | |
v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的过去式 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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22 outlet | |
n.出口/路;销路;批发商店;通风口;发泄 | |
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