President Trump suggested Thursday that the United States could end trade with China, claiming that doing so would benefit the U.S.
“There are many things we could do,” Trump told Fox Business Thursday morning. “We could cut off the whole relationship.”
“Now, if you did, what would happen?” Trump asked. “You’d save $500 billion if you cut off the whole relationship.”
The Trump administration has been considering multiple avenues for punishing or getting compensation from China for allegedly withholding information about the coronavirus and allowing its spread.
Trump also said he has a good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but “right now, I just don’t want to speak to him.” Trump said that he’s “very disappointed” with China for its response to the pandemic. “They could have stopped it,” he said.
Trump has been reluctant, at times, to point fingers at Beijing in the past couple of months, vacillating between being soft and hard on the Chinese government.
Trump criticized China last week for failing to uphold the “phase one” trade deal signed in January and said he was “very torn” about its fate, even as his top trade advisers signaled that the agreement was on track. China was expected to purchase more than $200 billion in U.S. goods and services by the end of 2021 as part of the deal. However, exports to China will likely only total $57 billion this year due to the shock to supply and demand from the coronavirus pandemic.
