President Trump has directly stated that the United States is in a trade war with China, marking a notable shift in his public language regarding the ongoing economic tensions.

Donald Trump has signed an order to impose tariffs imports into the U.S. from countries including China, Mexico and Canada.

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President Trump has directly stated that the United States is in a trade war with China, marking a notable shift in his public language regarding the ongoing economic tensions. This acknowledgment was made during a press availability at the White House, where Trump responded to questions about the future of U.S.-China trade relations.

The statement comes amid heightened disputes, including mutual restrictions on goods such as rare earths and semiconductors, and ongoing tariff threats. Chinese officials have defended their negotiators following criticism from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, highlighting the continued strain in negotiations. The president's remark was seen as an attempt to avoid specifying how long the current tensions might persist.

Trump says U.S. is in a trade war with China now

Get to Washington now for the latest on that subject. President Trump, by the way, now saying we are in a trade war with Beijing. How does that differ from previous language? Well, let's ask him and Jabbers, who joins us now. Good morning, Eamon. Yeah. Good morning to you, David. This comment by the president yesterday at a press availability at the White House getting a lot of attention because the president did say that we're in a trade war with China. And I've gone back and done a search for the course of this year. I don't think he has said this as directly as he said it yesterday before in the second term. He actually referred to a trade war with China in the first term. I can't find any specific reference to the president acknowledging that we're in a trade war here in the second term. But I want to play you this question and answer that he got, because the nuance here, I think, is important. Here's how that Q&A exchange went down yesterday. You're meeting with President Xi in a few weeks. If you can't come to an agreement or a deal at that meeting, are we in for a sustained trade war with China? Well, you're in one now. So you heard the president there saying, well, we're in a trade war now, but it was really in a response to a question of how long are the current tensions going to go on? I think what's happening there is sort of the president, you know, acknowledging the obvious, of course, which is that the trade war exists, but also that trying to deflect really a question of how long should we expect this period of heightened tension to last? So I think, you know, we're putting a lot of focus on this answer from the president, but it might not be as significant. I think he was trying to move past that question by not giving sort of an estimate of time in months or weeks of how long this heightened tension is going to last between the two countries. Also, guys, last night we saw this response from the Chinese side. Remember, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, in a response to a question from me yesterday at his press conference, really tore into a low level or lower level Chinese negotiator, saying that that particular individual had been irresponsible, was being disruptive and was causing problems in the trade negotiations. The Chinese side overnight defending their man, saying that this vice minister of commerce, Li Chenggong, it was doing his job and was behaving appropriately, despite the really tough criticism and unusual criticism from Besant yesterday going after an individual negotiator. So both sides sort of, you know, backing each other's up, backing each other up in terms of defending their guy. And we'll see where that goes, guys. I just grokked. What is a trade war? A trade war is an economic conflict where countries impose tariffs, quotas or other trade barriers on each other's goods and services to protect domestic industries, retaliate perceived against perceived unfair trade practices or gain economic leverage. I feel like he was just defining it. I mean, that seems like by definition, right? When it comes to the restrictions that China is making on rare earths that we've made on semiconductors, the tariff threats, the leverage. I mean, it's just I'm not sure. I think that's right. I mean, anything more than that. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's the that's the point that I'm making. He's just acknowledging the obvious there. But what he was doing was trying to avoid answering a question of how long this might go on in the future. And so I think he was just trying to move past the question and get to the next question. Eamon, thanks for that image average this morning in D.C.

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Trump says U.S. is in a trade war with China now

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