Trump bucks Treasury as he calls China, Russia currency meddlers

President Donald Trump accused China and Russia of devaluing their currencies, breaking from his own Treasury chief ’s view that no major trading partners are currency manipulators.

“Russia and China are playing the Currency Devaluation game as the U.S. keeps raising interest rates. Not acceptable!” Trump wrote on Twitter early Monday.

His comments on China contradicted a Treasury Department semiannual report Friday that refrained from naming any country a currency manipulator based on specific criteria. Russia isn’t among the 12 largest trading partners evaluated in the report.

Trump didn’t provide any evidence to substantiate his claim.

The attack added fuel to the trade dispute between the U.S. and China and drew criticism from Russia, which the White House sanctioned and clashed with over Syria. The Bloomberg Dollar Index fell to its lowest level since March 26 after Trump’s tweet, while Treasurys fluctuated.

A Treasury spokeswoman referred questions to White House officials, who offered little clarification on the apparent currency contradiction.

Treasury has China on its watch-list, and the administration is “constantly monitoring” the issue, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is among the Cabinet secretaries who traveled with the president Friday to a Florida tax-policy event.

Trump’s comments are “another implicit signal of the administration’s desire for a weaker U.S. dollar — especially against major trading partners,” said Viraj Patel, a London-based currency strategist at ING Groep.