【Wen/Observer Net Liu Bai】On December 2nd local time, U.S. President Trump held the year's final cabinet meeting.

In this meeting that lasted more than two hours, the president took the opportunity to boast about his "achievements" since taking office, especially the implementation of "historic tariffs," which have brought a lot of money to the country, and accused allies of "ripping us off for years."

At this point, he solemnly said, not naming any country, and then blurted out the names of Japan and South Korea, causing laughter from those present.

Trump occasionally glanced at the documents on the table, and sometimes spoke to the camera:

"I implemented historic tariffs, and now they are bringing us so much money, something no one has ever seen before."

"There are countries that have been ripping us off (ripping us off), including allies, but they have been doing it for years..."

Trump paused.

"Hmm... I won't name them, I won't mention the name of Japan, and I also refuse to mention the name of South Korea, I won't name them."

Upon hearing this, Defense Secretary Esper laughed out loud.

Trump didn't laugh or stop.

"They've been ripping us off in ways we've never seen before, taking full advantage of our country."

"But now we're making a lot of money, a lot of money, because the tariffs are flowing in continuously," he said. "And all of this ultimately comes down to national security, a matter of national security."

Trump also emphasized that he overturned the "crazy electric vehicle mandate" of the Biden administration, saying consumers should have the right to choose between "gasoline cars, hybrid cars, or electric vehicles."

He criticized the previous administration's regulation requiring "everyone must own an electric vehicle by 2030," calling it "Biden's stupid policy."

Interestingly, he immediately implied that China's development of electric vehicles is due to a lack of American energy advantages.

"We have a lot of gasoline, you know, China doesn't have that much gasoline, but we do..."

"We also quickly reversed the worst border crisis in world history. We were facing the worst border situation in history," he added.

This is not the first time Trump has mocked his allies.

Earlier this year, he publicly threatened to impose 25% or higher tariffs on the EU, and harshly criticized the EU for "ripping us off."

On November 10th, Trump gave an interview with American Fox News. According to video footage, when the host asked about recent diplomatic tensions between China and Japan, she first hyped up the so-called "China military expansion," then led into the erroneous remarks made by the Japanese Prime Minister on Taiwan.

She described this diplomatic incident as "quite exciting," and finally clearly asked Trump with a pre-established bias: "They (China) aren't our friends, are they?"

However, Trump answered straightforwardly: "Many of our allies aren't really our friends either. Our allies have been ripping us off in trade more than China."

The conservative South Korean media, JoongAng Ilbo, believes that Trump's comments not only compare America's allies to its main strategic competitor, China, but also belittle these allies, highlighting a slight easing in Trump's stance toward China.

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Original: toutiao.com/article/7579481947706868287/

Statement: The article represents the personal views of the author.