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President Donald Trump says China wants him to lose his re-election bid, and suggested the economic truce following a trade deal earlier this year has been “upset very badly” by China’s inability to contain the coronavirus.
In an Oval Office interview with Reuters published Wednesday, Trump said he believes China wants his likely opponent, Joe Biden, to win in November to relieve pressure brought by his administration’s tough trade policies, including tariffs against billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese-made goods.
“ “China will do anything they can to have me lose this race.” ”
Trump suggested he could take action against China for not acting fast enough to contain COVID-19 and for not alerting the world sooner.
“There are many things I can do,” Trump told Reuters, without offering details.
Trump said the trade deal signed in January had been “upset very badly” by the economic fallout caused by coronavirus-related shutdowns, which has thrown the U.S. economy into its worst crisis since the Great Depression. White House officials also told Reuters that the unofficial truce in a war of words between Trump and China is now apparently over.
While Trump praised China’s response to COVID-19 months ago, in recent weeks he has lashed out, accusing the Chinese government of covering up the true extent of the outbreak.
In the same interview, Trump said he does not believe polls that show him losing in a matchup against Biden.
“I don’t believe the polls,” Trump told Reuters. “I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent.”
