White House reverses Trump on China ‘second thoughts’

BIARRITZ (AP) :

UNITED STATES (US) President Donald Trump on Sunday acknowledged having second thoughts about escalating a trade war with China, but the White House later reversed, saying that the president was misinterpreted and that his only regret in hiking tariffs was that he didn’t raise them higher.

Trump faced a tense reception from his counterparts as they gathered in a French beach resort for the Group of Seven (G7) summit.

He suggested during a breakfast meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that he harboured qualms about the spiralling conflict. “Yeah. For sure,” he told reporters when asked if he had any second thoughts about ramping up tariffs on China after Beijing imposed new tariffs to retaliate against earlier tariff moves by the US.

Then hours later, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement saying that the news media had “greatly misinterpreted” Trump’s response. Grisham said the president only responded “in the affirmative – because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher”.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow offered a different explanation when interviewed Sunday by CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’, saying Trump “didn’t quite hear the question”. Reporters asked Trump about regret three times in succession.

Trump’s admission appeared at first to mark a rare moment of self-reflection by the famously hard-nosed leader, and the later reversal fit a pattern of Trump recoiling from statements that he believes suggest weakness.

Asked if he had any second thoughts about escalating the US trade war with China, Trump replied: “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

When the reporter sought clarification by asking, “Second thoughts?” Trump said: “Might as well, might as well.”

Trump then said: “I have second thoughts about everything” when another reporter repeated the original question.

Trump had been trying to use the summit to rally the other leaders to do more to stimulate their economies as fears rise of a potential slowdown in the US before he stands for re-election in November 2020.

His summit counterparts are trying to convince him to back off the trade conflicts with China and other countries, seeing the disputes as contributing to the overall economic weakening.

The meetings come days after Trump responded to China’s announcement Friday that it would slap new tariffs on US$75 billion in American goods with more tariffs of his own. Trump also issued an extraordinary threat to declare a national emergency in an attempt to force US businesses to cut ties with China.

Trump said he had “no plans right now” to follow through on his emergency declaration threat but insisted that he would be within his rights to use a 1977 law designed to target rogue regimes, terrorists, and drug traffickers as the newest weapon in the clash between the world’s two largest economies

“If I want, I could declare a national emergency,” Trump said. He cited China’s theft of intellectual property and the large US trade deficit with China, saying that “in many ways, that’s an emergency”.

The meeting of the G7 nations – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US – in the beach resort town of Biarritz comes at one of the most unpredictable moments in Trump’s presidency, when his public comments and decision-making have increasingly seemed erratic and acerbic of late.

Only hours before his arrival in Biarritz Saturday, Trump reissued his threat to place tariffs on French wine imports to the US in a spat over France’s digital services tax; the European Union promised to retaliate. That was the backdrop for an impromptu two-hour lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron outside the opulent Hotel du Palais.

Trump on Sunday disputed reports of friction with other G7 leaders, saying he had been “treated beautifully” since he arrived.

But cracks emerged moments later after the French government said that the leaders had agreed at Saturday’s dinner that Macron would deliver a message to Iran on behalf of the group.

Trump disputed that he had signed off on any such message.

“No, I haven’t discussed that,” he told reporters during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “No, I haven’t.”