Amid Talk of Rumored White House Feud on China Trade, Trump Tells Everyone to ‘Be Cool’
On Sunday, back from a Mother’s Day round of golf, President Donald Trump tweeted out a message on China trade encouraging everyone to “be cool.”
“China and the United States are working well together on trade, but past negotiations have been so one sided in favor of China, for so many years, that it is hard for them to make a deal that benefits both countries,” Trump wrote. “But be cool, it will all work out!”
While Trump did not give further clarification about his tweet, Axios reported the same day that a rumored feud is raging in the White House over China trade negotiations and who exactly is in charge.
Axios‘ Jonathan Swan reported that White House officials are “bitterly divided” over a Chinese trade deal and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin even ran his own parallel meetings on China much to the chagrin of others he is left out of the loop.
“Mnuchin marginalized the team and positioned himself as the guy,” a source told Swan.
Adding to the power play, it seems Trump is the one that wants to be in charge, not Mnuchin.
“Everybody who knows what’s actually happening knows that this is the President’s decision to make,” the official told Axios. “There’s going to be no deal that the President doesn’t sign off on.”
And indeed, Trump has talked about how he is in charge of the China deal, even tweeting out earlier on Sunday that he is the one working with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a way to get “massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast.”
Trump’s tweet insisting that he is working with Xi also comes after he has repeatedly feuded with the Chinese president over trade deals, despite the fact he claims the two leaders are friends. It also comes one month after his own Commerce Department actually barred U.S. companies from selling to China’s ZTE.
[image via screengrab]
