President Trump railed against Xi Jinping in a late-night social media post days ahead of their planned call, complaining that the Chinese leader is “extremely hard to make a deal with” as trade talks stall.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at 2:17 a.m. Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s attack on Xi was in response to any recent interaction with China or from general frustration with Beijing’s approach to trade.
Trump’s dig at Xi comes amid accusations by Washington that China has reneged on the framework agreement reached in Geneva last month — allegations that Beijing denies.
The deal outline amounted to a 90-day truce and called for the US to lower its tariff rate of up to 145% to 30% on most Chinese goods, while China would lower its rate from 125% to 10%.
But the Trump administration believes that China has been making “slow moves” to relax rare earth exports. China has accused the US of undercutting the spirit of the deal by tightening export restrictions on key chemicals, ratcheting up restrictions on the sale of semiconductor design software to China, putting new warnings on Huawei chips, and revoking visas for its students.
“The fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement — maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it’s intentional,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“We’ll see after the president speaks with party chairman.”
The president had raged against China over those concerns May 30, declaring that Beijing was in “grave economic danger,” while adding, “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY.”
Trump and Xi are expected to talk on Friday, and the president has spoken fondly of his Beijing counterpart in the past.
“He [Xi] controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I mean, he’s a brilliant guy, whether you like it or not,” Trump told podcast titan Joe Rogan last year, musing that reporters “go crazy” when he says that.
Trump has been hustling to dramatically overhaul US trade relations. Since taking office, he has imposed 25% tariffs on automobiles, aluminum, steel and imports from Canada and Mexico that don’t comply with the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.
The Trump administration has also imposed a 10% baseline tariff on all imports.
On April 2, Trump rolled out “Liberation Day” tariffs featuring customized rates against virtually every country on the planet. Days later, he paused those and allowed time for his team to cut lightning deals with countries by July 8.
The White House has given other nations a deadline of Wednesday to give their best offer on trade talks as deliberations continue to unfold.
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