US President Donald Trump continued his hardline stance on China with strongly worded comments. He told reporters in the White House that “Somebody had to take China on… This is something that had to be done. The only difference is I am doing it.”
Trump repeated that “China has been ripping this country off for 25 years”. He added that whether his trade policy is “good or bad short term is irrelevant”, as “I am doing this whether this is good or bad.” Instead, “long term, it’s imperative somebody does this.”
There were growing concerns that trade war with China could trigger a possible US recessions. But Trump emphasized “we’re very far from a recession”. Though, he admitted that “we really need a Fed rate cut” as there cannot be a large “disparity” between rates in the US and elsewhere in the developed world. “We have to at least keep up to an extent.”