Trump has ‘second thoughts’ on China
White House aides scramble to explain what he meant
BIARRITZ, France — A summit of world leaders devolved into a confusing spectacle Sunday when President Donald Trump signaled regret for his trade war with China only to have the White House reverse his position hours later.
It was one of numerous surprises on a day when some officials had hoped for clarity or consensus. Leaders continued squabbling about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend a future meeting, and French officials surprised others by inviting Iran’s foreign minister to this seaside town, an unusual move of diplomatic jujitsu in the tightly scripted world of international summits.
Leaders who were hoping that global tensions over trade, North Korea and China might be eased on the second day of the Group of Seven summit were disappointed during a whiplash day of mixed signals.
Some European officials said they were beginning to fear that nearly any substantive coordinated work with the United States might be impossible in the Trump era.
Trump has so far done little to publicly inflame tensions with other leaders as he has during past summits, where he has lobbed insults or threatened to withdraw from international organizations.
But on this trip he has also done little to assuage concerns that the United States would continue to act unilaterally, particularly related to tariffs, regardless of the economic impact.
“From the moment we got here, we’ve been treated beautifully,” Trump said during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before going on to compliment the job being done by French President Emmanuel Macron as host of the summit.
“And I want to congratulate — and I have to say ‘thus far,’ because we’re probably halfway through. But thus far, this has been really a great G-7, and I want to congratulate France and your president because they have really done a great job.”
On Sunday morning, during a breakfast with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a reporter asked Trump whether he had “second thoughts” about the recent escalation of his trade war with China. Trump has tried to cut a trade deal with China for more than a year, but those efforts unraveled recently, and both sides ratcheted up attacks last week.
Trump, for the first time, appeared to acknowledge regrets about the direction things had gone.
“Yeah, sure. Why not,” he
said. “Might as well. I have second thoughts about everything.”
His comments drew international headlines. Several hours later, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tried to recast Trump’s comments, saying they had been taken out of context.
“The president was asked if he had ‘any second thought on escalating the trade war with China.’ His answer has been greatly misinterpreted. President Trump responded in the affirmative — because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher,” she said in a statement.
Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, offered a different characterization later, telling reporters that Trump had difficulty hearing the question.
It was the latest in a swing of reversals from the White House in the past week, over issues such as tax policy, attempting to purchase Greenland, and China.
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, said the White House’s conflicting statements were the latest in a string of mixed messages that had made it impossible for people to understand its agenda.
“Deeply misguided policy and strategy has been joined for some time by dubious negotiating tactics, with promises not kept and threats not carried out on a regular basis,” Summers said in an interview. “We are at a new stage now with very erratic presidential behavior and frequent denials of obvious reality.”
In the run-up to the summit, European officials signaled that they planned to tiptoe around Trump and avoid confrontation.
At the Sunday breakfast, Johnson, seen as a key White House ally, was the first leader at the meeting to publicly question Trump’s approach to the trade war with China, which some believe is affecting the global economy.
“Just to register the faint, sheeplike note of our view on the trade war,” the British prime minister said, “we’re in favor of trade peace on the whole . ... We think that, on the whole, the U.K. has profited massively in the last 200 years from free trade.”
Even the positive news Trump tried to roll out had some confusing elements.
Trump told reporters that he had reached a trade deal with Japan that would be signed as soon as next month, but Abe said more work remained.
Still, the announcement drew cheers from U.S. farm groups, who believed Trump had opened up access to a big Asian market.
The summit is set to conclude Monday afternoon.
Trump will host next year’s G-7, and he is leaving whether he will invite Putin as a cliffhanger.
“It’s certainly possible,” he said. “We’ll see.”