Trump Says China Wants Him to Lose His Bid for Re-Election
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Exclusive: Trump Says China Wants Him to Lose His Bid for Re-Election
Trump has been heaping blame on China for a global pandemic that has killed at least 60,000 people in the United States according to a Reuters tally, and thrown the U.S. economy into a deep recession, putting in jeopardy his hopes for another four-year term.
The Republican president, often accused of not acting early enough to prepare the United States for the spread of the virus, said he believed China should have been more active in letting the world know about the coronavirus much sooner.
Asked whether he was considering the use of tariffs or even debt write-offs for China, Trump would not offer specifics. "There are many things I can do," he said. "We're looking for what happened."
"China will do anything they can to have me lose this race," said Trump. He said he believes Beijing wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues.
"They're constantly using public relations to try to make it like they're innocent parties," he said of Chinese officials.
He said the trade deal that he concluded with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at reducing chronic U.S. trade deficits with China had been "upset very badly" by the economic fallout from the virus.
A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that an informal “truce” in the war of words that Trump and Xi essentially agreed to in a phone call in late March now appeared to be over.
The two leaders had promised that their governments would do everything possible to cooperate to contain the coronavirus. In recent days, Washington and Beijing have traded increasingly bitter recriminations over the origin of the virus and the response to it.
However, Trump and his top aides, while stepping up their anti-China rhetoric, have stopped short of directly criticizing Xi, who the U.S. president has repeatedly called his “friend.”
Trump also said South Korea has agreed to pay the United States more money for a defense cooperation agreement but would not be drawn out on how much.
"We can make a deal. They want to make a deal," Trump said. "They’ve agreed to pay a lot of money. They’re paying a lot more money than they did when I got here” in January 2017.
The United States stations roughly 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in an armistice, rather than a peace treaty.
Trump is leading a triage effort to try to keep the U.S. economy afloat through stimulus payments to individuals and companies while nudging state governors to carefully reopen their states as new infections decline.
Trump sounded wistful about the strong economy that he had enjoyed compared with now, when millions of people have lost their jobs and GDP is faltering.
"We were rocking before this happened. We had the greatest economy in history," he said.
He said he is happy with the way many governors are operating under the strain of the virus but said some need to improve. He would not name names.
Trump's handling of the virus has come under scrutiny. Forty-three percent of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll from April 27-28.
But there was some good coronavirus news, as Gilead Sciences Inc said its experimental antiviral drug remdesivir was showing progress in treating virus victims.
Trump has also seeking an accelerated timetable on development of a vaccine.
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Doesn't everyone?
No just the commies both home and abroad.
Surely not Putin - I thought you and your friends think Putin helped him get elected - aren't they buddies?
Is there a text version of that?
Ya, it's called the complete works of John Brennan!
There's so much positive and negative, back and forth, right and left, propaganda flying around it seems that anything goes these days.
Yes, but then you'll claim he didn't actually say it.
I know Iran does !
Maybe it's true that Xi Jinping DOES want him to lose, although I'm sure he'll not admit it, but after all he has damn good reasons to: Trade war tarrifs, military provocations, finger-pointing and blame, refusing to admit his own culpability, using language that endangers the well-being or even the life of Chinese Americans......but then even if Xi Jinping DID want him to lose, at least he's joined in that wish by about half the American voters.
I'm not a Psychiatrist, but sometimes a person's mental condition becomes so obvious even Alfred E. Neuman could see it, and from what he has said as reported in that article I think he has a serious persecution complex, and clinical paranoia. Please God, don't let him get close to that red button.
And based upon the pandemic unleashed from China, that government couldn't have done a better job of hurting the President had they planned it. The robust economy which would have smoothly ushered him into a second term is gone, the nation has been whipped into panic & despair and there is a national death count posted on every news outlet 24/7.
After finally, painfully working out a fair trade deal with China and then having all this happen, Ya, it would be natural for the President to feel as he does. I'm sure that I'm more angry than he.
of course, china wants trump gone.... he the first president to not let them rob us blind in trade.
well, it is their fault. (china and the who lied about it for months)
those are known issues.... not even debatable.
so wheres the beef?
You bet xinpinpingpong wants Trump to lose. Trump isn’t the little bitch that that obama was.
Why would anyone be surprised that Xi Jinping would want Frumpapussygrabber to lose?