Politico | Trump rails against China during dinner with executives
The president also noted, without naming the country, that 'almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy.'
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Annie Karni on politico.com on August 8, 2018
Over a dinner of beef tenderloin and lobster tail at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., President Donald Trump on Tuesday night unleashed a rant about China as corporate executives listened on.
The president entertained a group of 13 CEOs and senior White House staff at a dinner in the middle of his annual working vacation on Tuesday night. The dinner was billed as “an opportunity for the president to hear how the economy is doing...and what their priorities and thoughts are for the year ahead.”
But Trump spent a good portion of the dinner sharing his own thoughts, specifically about China.
Trump told the executives that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt One Road Initiative,” China’s economic plan that has the potential to disrupt trade worldwide, was “insulting” and that he didn’t want it, according to a person in the room. Trump said he had told Xi as much to his face.
Trump, who headed into vacation frustrated that China was retaliating against his tariffs, said it was going to be his priority to stop the rival world superpower from getting unfair trade advantages.
China has reacted to American tariffs on Chinese goods in kind, imposing new duties on $50 billion worth of American products. That retaliatory action has angered and surprised Trump, according to people familiar with his thinking.