Foreign Affairs

Trump: President Xi Is A ‘Brilliant Man’ Who Doesn’t Want To Lose ‘3 Million Jobs’

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President Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping Monday while answering questions about the United States’ trade war with China during the G7 summit.

“It’s a brilliant market,” Trump said of the Chinese market. “The world market — a lot of markets are brilliant, and frankly, I think that China — I don’t know, maybe they can, maybe they can’t. I think they are very smart, and I think president XI is a great leader who happens to be a brilliant man, and he can’t lose 3 million jobs in a very short period of time.”

Trump started by telling reporters at the summit that he wants to “make a deal very badly” with China.

“The vice chairman of China came out that he wants to see a deal made. He wants it to be made under ‘calm conditions,’ using the word ‘calm.’ I agree with him on that. … They’ve lost 3 million jobs — soon will be much more than 3 million Jobs. The chain is breaking up like nobody has seen before, and once that happens, it’s very hard to put it back together,” the president said.

Trump told reporters earlier Monday that Chinese officials called U.S. trade experts Monday to negotiate a deal amid increased tariffs implemented by both countries on billions of dollars worth of products, USA Today reported.

His comments at the Monday G7 press conference echoed a tweet he sent out Monday morning, saying, “Great respect for the fact that President Xi & His Representatives want ‘calm resolution.’ So impressed that they are willing to come out & state the facts so accurately. This is why he is a great leader & representing a great country. Talks are continuing!”

Great respect for the fact that President Xi & his Representatives want “calm resolution.” So impressed that they are willing to come out & state the facts so accurately. This is why he is a great leader & representing a great country. Talks are continuing!https://t.co/0sotrd1Mzh

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2019

“The tariffs have hit them very hard in a fairly short period of time. The United States has elected over $1 billion in tariffs,” the president continued during Monday’s conference, adding that China has “manipulated their currency … and put a lot of cash into the system. Because of that, the prices have not gone up, or if they’ve gone up, it’s been very little because they want to keep people working.”

China announced it was placing a 25% tariff on all U.S. automobiles and a 5% to 10% tariff on $75 billion of U.S. goods Aug. 23. In response, Trump said the U.S. would increase tariffs to as much as 30% on $250 billion of Chinese goods, according to CNBC.

The tariffs will be implemented Oct. 1 on top of an additional 15% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods set to go into effect Sept. 1 that was originally set at 10%.