President Trump on Wednesday offered a seemingly backhanded compliment for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whom he’s had a fraught relationship with in recent years, as trade talks between the world’s largest economies continue.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!,” Trump wrote early Wednesday in a post on Truth Social.
His comment came on the heels of a White House letter sent to trading partners Tuesday urging them to strike deals while Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries are temporarily paused — though the president has teased that new rates are imminent.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that the letters were delivered “just to give them a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up.”
“They continue to be engaged in those discussions, and this letter was simply to remind these countries that the deadline is approaching and the president expects good deals, and we are on track for that, I will emphasize,” she said, without disclosing which countries received the letters.
The U.S. struck a trade agreement with China last month to lower the rate imposed on the nation’s imports from 145 percent to 30 percent, but Trump accused Beijing of violating the deal last week. Under the agreement hashed out in April, the Chinese government also lowered its duty rate on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.
“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social.
The president has displayed a rapidly seesawing approach to working with China — oscillating between measured messages and more bombastic posts online.
China, in turn, recently accused the U.S. of provoking new economic and trade frictions.