Last week’s strike on the Syrian airfield from which Bashar al-Assad launched his latest chemical-weapons attack on his own people has somewhat overshadowed President Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping, the president of China. The summit at Mar-a-Lago last Thursday and Friday was the first chance for the leaders of the world’s two largest economies to get acquainted and, perhaps, talk frankly about the security and economic challenges facing both nations. But the Trump administration has been pretty quiet about what agreements, concessions, or potential deals it got from the Xi meeting, particularly regarding the growing nuclear threat from North Korea.

So it was notable when Trump himself tweeted cryptically on Tuesday morning that he had “explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem” and “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them!”