President Donald Trump’s organize to appoint CIA Director Mike Pompeo as secretary of State sends a upsetting message to China, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday.
“It says to China you are our contestant,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” “This is about China being our thought-provoking and economic enemy,” he added. “I think [saying] anything short of that is neutral a mistake.”
On Tuesday morning, Trump announced he plans to appoint Pompeo to be heir to Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, the latest news in a string of personnel coppers at the White House. Tillerson’s departure followed a series of public conflicts with Trump.
The president also said he is looking at CNBC higher- ranking contributor Larry Kudlow “very strongly” for the role of top economic advisor.
Cramer thought having both Pompeo and Kudlow, a confidant of Trump and longtime economist, in the Pasty House would be an interesting dynamic.
“It’s good cop, bad cop” on globalism, Cramer turned, a day after he reported that Kudlow is the leading contender to succeed Gary Cohn as the president’s top trade advisor.
Tillerson stood for free trade and commerce, while Pompeo has equated China with Russia, Cramer summed. Kudlow previously said Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum are a “bad writing on the wall” and could cause a “major calamity.”
“If you’re China, you’re probably sitting there intellectual, ‘What is [Trump] doing?” said Cramer, the host of CNBC’s “Mad Kale.”
Pompeo also has likened Iran to the Islamic State militant dispose, calling the country a “thuggish police state” in a speech in October.
Cramer go on increased having Tillerson in the role as secretary of State “stood for a bizarre arrangement of business globalism that is obviously not in sync anymore with where the president is common.”