Trump accuses China of 'totally' violating preliminary trade deal
President Donald Trump accused China of violating a tariff agreement with the United States in a social media post on May 30, after his Treasury Secretary said negotiations had "stalled."
"Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!" he said in the post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Two weeks ago, the United States and China agreed to dial back triple-digit tariffs for 90 days while they negotiated an agreement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Thursday that talks “are a bit stalled” but they continue.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer declined to respond to reporters' questions at the White House about the progress of trade negotiations with China or whether tariffs would return to 145%.
Temporary truce
The temporary truce was reached after Trump slapped sky-high tariffs on imports from China into the U.S., and China retaliated in kind.
In the post, Trump inaccurately claimed that he saved China from "grave economic danger" caused by his tariffs by agreeing to trade discussions.
"We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, “civil unrest,” Trump claimed in the Truth Social post.
Reporter Bart Jansen contributed