RUSH: Now, this is funny. Trump sprung the three UCLA basketball players from the ChiCom jail. They were in there for shoplifting. UCLA basketball team was in China, and these three guys got pinched for shoplifting, and Trump, as part of his diplomatic efforts there, got them released. And apparently they haven’t said thank you.

And so Trump is publicly saying, “Are these UCLA players gonna thank me for getting them out?” And people are saying, “That’s so unpresidential. He should be above it. He shouldn’t be requiring young children to have the knowledge that the — And maybe they’re not Trump supporters anyway, so why should they thank him?” The Drive-Bys are all over this as though it’s some kind of controversy that Trump is asking whether or not these three basketball players will thank him for springing them out of jail.

Now, yesterday in the first hour of the program, I purposely talked about Trump’s trip to Asia. It was my belief yesterday — it is today, too — that Trump’s trip was a profound success. And it was a resounding success on many levels. And I focused on the skill that President Trump brought to the negotiating table with the ChiComs. And I’m not gonna rehash it all.

But just to refresh your memory, I highlighted the technique necessary to successfully negotiate with ChiComs. They are not like us. Western civilization, Western culture is not theirs. This is not a criticism; it’s an acknowledgment. Whereas we, in negotiating with ourselves or with other foreign countries, we have a belief system of mutual agreement even if both sides remain unhappy when the deal’s over, and it’s often said, in fact, that a really good deal is when both sides are unhappy. Which means that both sides got something the other side wasn’t prepared to give, and that means it’s good, it’s good when you don’t get everything you want. That would be selfish and unfair.

This has been an established negotiating tactic. It’s part of our culture. I’m not putting it down. I am not praising it. I’m just pointing it out. The Chinese are totally different. They don’t have anything like that attitudinally. They don’t go into negotiations, whatever it is, negotiating human rights, civil rights abuses, foreign trade deals, if it doesn’t benefit China, they’re not gonna do it. If it’s not something that they can claim is a victory, they’re not gonna do it.

You can chalk it up to the need for self-esteem and respect. Whatever the psychological reasoning behind it, the Chinese literally do not have in their thinking vocabulary the idea that a deal is good if both sides are unhappy with it. In the Chinese world of negotiating, you don’t do it if you’re gonna be unhappy with it when it’s over. So you have to know that going in when you’re gonna start doing deals with the ChiComs.

And remember during the campaign, Trump did nothing but beat them up. So for two years the ChiComs listened to Trump beat ’em up, talk to them about how they are unfair, how they are cheaters, how they’re currency manipulators. And so two years of that, and the ChiComs think they are ready for what’s coming from Trump.

When in fact, Trump, if he thought that he was gonna be elected president, was already beginning his negotiations by starting out with the outrageous — his technique is, ask for three times what you’ll settle for. Ask for three times what you really want. It’s the only way to get what you really want. You have to be able to appear to be coming down.

You have to appear to be able to be throwing things out, things that you want, in order to get what you want. So you start three times higher. But Trump also knew that whatever it was, the Chinese when it was over, had to think they won. The Chinese had to think that, on balance, it was a good deal for them. And here is how I explained it on the program yesterday.

RUSH ARCHIVE: North Korea is the elephant in the room. Trump wants help from Xi Jinping on neutralizing Kim Jong-un. But Xi Jinping’s got no interest in doing that for the sake of humanity, for the betterment of the world. If getting rid of the North Koreans doesn’t benefit the Chinese, to hell with it. He doesn’t care about the instability of the world except as it might affect China. So that’s the key. So you have to appeal to the Chinese on the basis that, “Look, I want to make a new trade deal with you.”

Now, remember, Trump started out on the campaign trail telling us he’s gonna be tough. The ChiComs have been getting away with murder ’cause Americans are so stupid, but those days are over. The free ride of the Chinese is over. So they’ve been hearing that for two years. So they’re expecting Trump to come in and strip everything away, take away all the benefits they have, all the advantages. He didn’t do that. He gave ’em favorable trade deals but they have to help us with Kim Jong-un. So neutralizing Kim Jong-un then equals a benefit for the ChiComs.

RUSH: Right. Remember, now, the Chinese, to them the North Koreans, in doing something that might neutralize the North Koreans or mitigate them, it’s not about making the world safer, it’s not about humanity, it’s not about right and wrong. For the Chinese it’s all about when this is all over, do we benefit, do we win? And Trump realized that the Chinese are not going to make the North Koreans more important than themselves.

What Trump wanted was more favorable trade deals with them. They were afraid Trump was gonna start from scratch and be really tough. That was not Trump’s starting position. Trump gave them very favorable deals that they could claim were a win for them. But the price was weighing in on the North Koreans.

So this morning on CNN’s New Day, the cohost was Fredo Cuomo, and he’s talking to the former NSA Director, Michael Hayden. I think Hayden was also at CIA. But regardless, he’s not a Trump fan. Hayden has never been a big Trumpist. More like a Never Trumper.

So Fredo says to Michael Hayden, “China is sending a special envoy to North Korea this week. The president has repeatedly called on China to put more pressure on North Korea over its nuke program. Mr. Hayden, is this proof of progress? Should we see this development as a reflection of Trump’s effectiveness?”

HAYDEN: I think the timing suggests that’s true. So you’ve got a bit of a ray of light, maybe a breath of fresh air here, the Chinese trying to amp up their pressure on the North Koreans. I think we can rely on them to amp up the pressure a bit to have Kim, the youngest, tone down the rhetoric. Maybe stop testing for a while. This is pass/fail for Kim Jong-un. This is about his and his regime’s survival.

RUSH: Well, bingo! Did I not lay it all out for you yesterday? Not to be braggadocios, don’t misunderstand, but I spent the first hour on this, the first half hour on this, essentially, and this is why. ‘Cause this is a huge deal. And you’re not gonna see Trump credited. You’re not gonna see anything of the sort.

All you’re gonna see is Trump’s unfit. Trump has no business being president. Trump doesn’t even know who these people are. Trump has no business talking to ChiComs. Trump has no business in North Korea. All he does is insult the North Korean guy as short and fat, we can’t have that. That’s unpresidential.

When in truth Trump succeeded in getting Xi Jinping to tell the short, fat, little potbellied dictator in North Korea to dial it back. Now, we’ll see if it actually happens. But it’s in China’s benefit to do it. China is not going to allow North Korean interests to supersede its own.

Now, if Trump had gone over there and in a very bellicose manner demanded that Xi Jinping tone down that guy or else, it would have been an abysmal failure. The Chinese reaction: “You don’t come over here and tell us what to do. That’s our ally. Screw you!” in diplomatic language.

But that isn’t what Trump did. Trump gave them something that they didn’t think they were gonna get, trade-wise, that, B, constituted in their way of thinking a win, to now it’s in their best interests to dial back North Korea in order to maintain this newfound good relationship that China has with the Trump administration.

It was really, really, you have to say, well done. And as I say, I doubt you’re gonna hear this perspective. I mean, even Hayden here, in his answer, was very begrudging (imitating Hayden), “Well, I think the timing suggests, yes, that’s true. The president was effective. So you have a bit of a ray of light.” He had to admit it because it is true. So that’s that.

Now we’ll take a break here, come back with — well, we’re either gonna get back to the phones or we’re gonna return to the fertile ground of sexual perversion and harassment and abuse in the world of politics and entertainment.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. Those three UCLA players have now thanked President Trump for getting them out of jail. He wondered where the thank-you was. I know, they thanked the ChiComs too. The ChiComs probably insisted on that. “Your president told us to let you out, but we’re the ones that unlock the cells, and so when you get back you better express gratitude to us because we know where you are.” And so the three UCLA players not only thanked Trump, but they thanked the ChiComs.