US President Donald Trump has said that he has no wish to engage in discussions with his Chinese counterpart, even though he insisted that they had “a very good relationship.”
Interviewed on Fox Business Network, Trump said, “right now, I don’t want to speak to him. I don’t want to speak to him.”
This was followed by an unprompted statement that America “could cut off the whole relationship. If we did, what would happen? You’d save $500 billion.” However, Trump failed to detail any concrete steps his administration might take against China in general or specific Chinese companies, noting that if the US did take steps, “what are they going to do? They’re going to move their listing to London or someplace else.”
Interestingly, Trump seemed to be backtracking somewhat on previous belligerent statements accusing China of deliberately spreading the coronavirus around the world, instead speculating that “I think more likely it got out of control.”