THAT WAS FAST: WH Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett: More Than 50 Countries Started Trade Negotiations This Weekend.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, what do you base your – where do you base your conclusion that you’re not going to see an increase in prices? Just about every economist who’s looked at this said you are going to see an increase in prices, including Goldman Sachs, including JP Morgan, including the chairman of the Federal Reserve?

HASSETT: Well, there might be some increase in prices. But the fact is that if we’re going to be a heavy burden on the U.S. consumer, then this trade deficit that for 30 years we’ve seen really since China entered the WTO would be something that would have gone down. It would have gone down over time. It would have responded to the prices.

The bottom line is that China entered the WTO in 2000. In the 15 years that followed, real incomes declined about $1,200 cumulatively over that time.

And so, if cheap goods were the answer — if cheap goods were going to make Americans real wages, real welfare better off, then real incomes would have gone up over that time. Instead, they went down because wages went down more than prices went down.

So, we got the cheap goods at the grocery store, but then we had fewer jobs. And that’s why President Obama and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and President Trump have come out saying, we’ve got to come up with a better policy, a policy that treats our workers fairly compared to everybody else.

And now, President Trump, true to his word, just like he promised during the campaign, just like he put into his campaign platform, he’s delivering on his word.

Hang on. This ride isn’t for the squeamish.