Donald Trump said he hasn’t softened his stance on China just because he is willing to cooperate with President Xi Jinping on confronting North Korea.
The president recently said China was not a currency manipulator — a country that cheapens its currency in order to make its exports more appealing — despite his promise to label them one during the campaign.
.@POTUS addresses claims he's softened his stance on China pic.twitter.com/Mn37t9wC2S
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 18, 2017
“Ainsley, I didn’t soften my stance,” Trump said during an interview on Fox and Friends Tuesday. “Look, China came to the United States, the president, who I really developed a good relationship with. I think he’s a terrific person — I really got to know him very well over a two day period. We were together hours and hours and hours by ourselves. We had a 15-minute scheduled meeting and it lasted for three hours. And the same thing happened the next day. We have a good chemistry together. He understands it’s a big problem. He’s working on it.”
“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? So, I’m dealing with China with great respect. I have great respect of him. Now, maybe he won’t be able to help. I think that’s possible. That’s a whole different story.”
“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? This is the fake media that just does a number…”
“The fake media goes, ‘Donald Trump has changed his stance on China.’ I haven’t changed my stance. China is trying to help us — I don’t know if they’re going to be able to or not. But would I want to start heavy, heavy trade or currency manipulation statements against somebody that’s out there right now trying to stop what could be a very bad situation?”
.@POTUS on tensions between U.S. and North Korea pic.twitter.com/k10z2tUxbH
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 18, 2017
Trump was asked if he’s ruled out a military strike in North Korea after Vice President Mike Pence issued a stark warning to the country by reminding the country that the United States bombed both Syria and Afghanistan this month. (RELATED: Pence Warns North Korea By Reminding Them What The US Did In Syria And Afghanistan)
“I don’t want to telegraph what I’m doing or what I’m thinking,” Trump said. “I’m not like other administrations where they say we are going to do this in four weeks.’ That doesn’t work out that way. We’ll see what happens. I hope things work out well — I hope there’s going to be peace. But, you know, they’ve been talking with this gentleman for a long time. You read [Bill] Clinton’s book and he said, ‘Oh, we made such a great peace deal.’ And it was a joke. You look at different things over the years and President Obama, everybody, has been outplayed. They’ve all been outplayed by this gentleman. We’ll see what happens but I just don’t telegraph my moves.”
When asked if we “sabotaged the North Korea strike,” Trump said, “I don’t want to comment on that.”