China, in his words · Before politics · № 1
Told CNN that China's leaders 'are not our friends. These are our enemies'
“These are not our friends. These are our enemies. These are not people that understand niceness. And the only thing you can do, Wolf, to get their attention is to say either we're not going to trade with you any further or, in the alternative, we're going to tax your products as they come into the United States.”
- Said
- , Interview with CNN's The Situation Room (Wolf Blitzer)
- Subject
- trade with China
- Threat
- Economic threat
- Topic
- Trade & tariffs
- Era
- Before politics
What the record showed
In the same interview Trump estimated the tax at 25 percent and said a trade war 'will cause a depression in China, not here.' As president he wrote on April 8, 2017, that it was 'a great honor' to have Xi Jinping as a guest in the United States, and on April 8, 2018: 'President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade.' The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $295.2 billion in 2011 and $418.2 billion in 2018, his second year in office.