He let them take them over the coals

Trump was being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on Fox yesterday (June 29, 2025). She asked him about the tariffs on China and he responded that Biden had a trillion dollar deficit with China, adding that “he (Biden) let them (China) take them (U.S.) over the coals.” This is a mashup of “rake them over the coals” (call to task or reprimand severely) and “take them to the cleaners” (cheat one out of one’s money or possessions). “Rake” and “take” seem to have confused the speaker here. You can hear this at the :39 mark:

https://open.substack.com/pub/davidblackmon/p/watchread-president-donald-trump?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

A shout out to Mike Kovacs for hearing this one and sending it in!