‘Bad Idea!’ Trump Treasury Secretary Rips China Trying to ‘Overshadow’ Gaza Deal

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that China’s attempt to “overshadow” President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace deal with its export control announcement was “highly inappropriate” and a “miscalculation.”

On Thursday, just hours after Hamas and Israel signed on to Trump’s peace framework, Beijing announced it would tighten export controls on critical rare-earth metals and added five more elements – holmium, erbium, thulium, europium, and ytterbium – to its restricted list, bringing the total to 12 of the 17 rare-earth metals.

Trump blasted the move as in a marathon Truth Social screed on Friday accusing the country of “becoming very hostile.”

The materials, which are indispensable for technologies ranging from electric vehicles to advanced weapons systems, are a key pressure point in the U.S.-China economic power struggle and the move was read by Bessent as a cynical attempt to “get leverage” ahead of a possible meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping later amid their ongoing tariffs war.

Speaking to Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Monday, while the president was traveling the Middle East to cement his Gaza deal, the Treasury Secretary torched China’s move as a “bad idea” to “overshadow” the “incredible moment”:

I will take you back to last week and you and I were talking earlier about the Chinese exports controlled and we have approached our relationship with great respect, the Chinese are very big on symbolism and I can tell you it was highly inappropriate for them to announce these export controls on the day that the peace deal was announced and overshadow that.

The host asked whether that timing was “by design” to which Bessent doubled down that it was a “miscalculation” – whether deliberate or not. He continued:

It could’ve been for several reasons, one the Chinese economy is doing very poorly and maybe they’re trying to take focus off that. Two, China, as opposed to the United States, the United States is pushing for peace in the world, China is financing war. China purchases of Russian oil is financing the Russian war machine, they’re purchasing Iranian oil and we have been calling them out on that so maybe it was to distract from that.

And, three, maybe it was a mistake and attempt to gain leverage before the two leaders meet in Korea in October and I tell you tried to get leverage in front of a meeting with Donald Trump is a bad idea and he turned the tables with the two very good tweets on Friday talking about raising tariffs and implementing any sanctions that we need to. It was a miscalculation but we are communicating now. I am confident that we can move forward.

Watch above via Fox Business.