President Trump denied he’s softened his position on China to gain its help in curbing North Korea’s increasing military provocations.
“I didn’t soften my stance,” he said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” that aired on Tuesday. “Look, China came to the United States, the president, who I really developed a very good relationship with, I think he’s a terrific person, I really got to know him very well.”
During the presidential election, Trump in stump speeches railed against China, vowing to label the world’s second-largest economy a currency manipulator on day one in office and impose tariffs to force the country to negotiate a better trade deal.
But last week, he changed his tune, telling the Wall Street Journal that China is not now manipulating its currency and saying he was working with President Xi Jinping on keeping North Korea in check.
“Somebody said currency manipulation. What am I going to do? In the middle of him talking with North Korea, I’m going to hit them with currency manipulation,” Trump said in the interview. “This is the fake media that just does a number … Nobody’s ever seen such a positive response on our behalf from China, and then the fake media goes ‘Donald Trump has changed his stance on China.'”
Trump and Xi spent a couple of days earlier this month at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago talking about trade and the threat posed by North Korea.
“We have a good chemistry together. He understands it’s a big problem. He’s working on it,” Trump said. “Now, what am I going to do, start a trade war with China in the middle of him working on a bigger problem, frankly, with North Korea?”
He said he has “great respect” for Xi and hopes the country can bring its political and economic influence to bear on North Korea.
“We’ll see what he can do. Now maybe he won’t be able to help. That’s possible,” Trump said. “I think he’s trying, but maybe he won’t be able to help and that’s a whole different story. So we’ll see what happens.”