The sustained trade war with China is “not sustainable,” President Donald Trump admitted Friday during an interview with Fox News.
Speaking with anchor Maria Bartiromo about the current status of the trade relationship, the president confirmed that he is slated to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Korea at the APEC Summit at the end of the month.
Trump responded to a question about the country’s newly announced export controls on rare earth minerals—key components in semiconductors used in a range of critical technologies—saying that the action prompted his latest escalation in tariff threats.
“I raised our tariffs to 100 percent on top of what they’re already paying, which is far worse, far worse,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens with China. I’ve always had a great relationship with [Xi], as you know, but they’re always looking for an edge. You know, they ripped off our country for years.”
Should the president move forward with his most recent tariff threat, Chinese imports to the U.S. market could see duties of up to 157 percent. “It’s not sustainable. But that’s what the number is,” Trump said.
The president said the tables are set for a sit-down with Chinese trade officials, along with a “separate meeting” for Xi and himself.
Trump and his cabinet have attempted to walk a tightrope when it comes to messaging surrounding the turbulent and mercurial dealings with Beijing.
On one hand, surrogates like Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Jamieson Greer have projected outrage over what they view as an effort to hold hostage critical elements of the global supply chain, along with assurances that the U.S. maintains supremacy within the bilateral trade relationship. China is both in the wrong and at our mercy, they seem to say.
Meanwhile, Trump doubled down on the villainization narrative by reviving concerns about China’s support of Russia, chiefly through the continued purchasing of resources like oil, which he sees as a fundamental affront to his efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
As he took a victory lap this week for his role in hammering out a plan that would put an end to the war in Gaza, Trump remained bent on sowing discord elsewhere in the world. He instructed Bessent and Greer to rally European allies around the creation of a Ukraine Victory Fund, its coffers lined with revenue from the higher tariffs on China he threatened last Friday, all while continuing to claim closeness with Xi and progress toward a trade deal.
“I mean, you know, we’re doing very well with China,” Trump said Friday on Fox, before adding, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
