Donald Trump on Friday morning tweets attacked “foolish” and “incompetent” past U.S. leaders for having already lost “a trade war with China”.
Trump retweeted a tweet from April 4 that claimed: “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!”
Trump also tweeted: “Despite the Aluminum Tariffs, Aluminum prices are DOWN 4%. People are surprised, I'm not! Lots of money coming into U.S. coffers and Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!”
Trump threatened more tariffs on China on Thursday night, the NYT reports:
President Trump said Thursday that the United States would consider slapping tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods, escalating a potentially damaging trade dispute with Beijing. Mr. Trump said in a statement that he was responding to “unfair retaliation” by China, which published a list on Wednesday of $50 billion in American products that would be hit by tariffs, including soybeans and pork. That move was a direct reaction to the tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods that the White House detailed on Tuesday.
The Dow closed down 229 points at open on Friday.
