BIARRITZ, France -- President Donald Trump on Sunday signaled second thoughts about the escalating trade war with China, but within hours White House officials said the president's only regret was not raising tariffs higher.
The comments at the Group of Seven meeting in France came on a day when U.S. officials argued that Trump has the authority to force companies to leave China, and when Trump announced that Japan would boost its purchases of U.S. commodities to make up for a slump in Chinese purchases.
But questions about the trade war took much of the attention. Trump on Friday had announced plans to increase tariffs on $550 billion in Chinese goods by Oct. 1. During a Sunday breakfast with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a reporter asked Trump whether he had "any second thoughts on escalating the trade war with China."
"Yeah, sure. Why not," Trump said. "Might as well. I have second thoughts about everything."
Several hours later, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump's comments had been "greatly misinterpreted."
"President Trump responded in the affirmative -- because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher," she said in a statement.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow was in the room when Trump spoke. In a later interview on CBS' Face the Nation, Kudlow said Trump "didn't quite hear the question this morning."
"His thought was, if he had any second thoughts, and he said sometimes he does, he would have actually raised the tariff, not lower it," Kudlow said.
At the Sunday breakfast, Johnson, seen as a key White House ally, praised Trump's handling of the economy. But he was also the first leader at the Group of Seven meeting to publicly question Trump's approach to the trade war with China, which some believe is affecting the global economy.
"I just want to say I congratulate the president on everything that the American economy is achieving. It's fantastic to see that," the British prime minister said at the meeting. "But just to register the faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war, we're in favor of trade peace on the whole. ... The U.K. has profited massively in the last 200 years from free trade, and that's what we want to see. And so we're keen to see -- we don't like tariffs on the whole."
CNN's State of the Union played Johnson's statement to Kudlow, who argued that "we don't like tariffs" had been taken out of context.
"I'm not sure what you just played is something from that meeting," Kudlow told host Brianna Keilar. "It sounds to me like it came after the meeting, which is why I wanted to raise the right context. [World leaders] are wholly behind President Trump. Now -- I was in that meeting, and I can tell you, the atmosphere in that meeting was constructive and supportive of President Trump."
EMERGENCY AUTHORITY
Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin both argued Sunday that Trump has the authority to force American companies to leave China if he chooses.
Mnuchin, speaking on Fox News Sunday from France, said Trump would have the ability under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act if he declared an emergency.
Mnuchin and Kudlow fielded questions after Trump on Friday "hereby ordered" American companies to seek alternatives to business in China, including moving operations "home and making your products in the USA." Trump's tweets were in response to an earlier announcement Friday that China was planning to impose tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports.
"What he was saying is, he's ordering companies to start looking, because he wants to make sure to the extent we are in an extended trade war that companies don't have these issues and move out of China," Mnuchin said.
Kudlow agreed on CNN, but he said "there's nothing right now in the cards" to declare an emergency.
"Ultimately, we do have such authority, but it is not going to be exercised presently," Kudlow said. "What he is suggesting to American businesses -- and it's something he has said to many companies, in many different forms, on many different occasions ... you ought to think about moving your operations and your supply chains away from China."
Trump on Sunday affirmed he had no plan to invoke the act, though he said the trade war "in many ways" is an emergency, claiming "a total loss of almost a trillion dollars a year" involving intellectual property theft and the trade deficit.
"Actually we're getting along very well with China right now," Trump said. "We're talking. I think they want to make a deal much more than I do. We're getting a lot of money in tariffs. It's coming in by the billions. ... So we'll see what happens."
TALKING TO JAPAN
Even Sunday's positive news had some conflicting elements. Trump told reporters that he had reached a trade deal with Japan that would be signed as soon as next month, but Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said more work remained.
Still, the announcement drew cheers from U.S. farm groups, which believed Trump had opened up access to a large Asian market.
Abe and Trump were also split on North Korea's recent testing of short-range ballistic missiles. Abe considers them a critical security threat, while Trump said the launches were of "much more standard" missiles, adding, "We're in the world of missiles, folks, whether you like it or not."
Abe was neutral on Trump's proposal that Russia be readmitted to the Group of Seven before next year's meeting of the world leaders, according to officials briefed on the discussions who agreed to describe them on the condition of anonymity. Russian President Vladimir Putin was expelled from the group in 2015 after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The topic was broached at a Saturday night dinner among the leaders, the officials said.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that there had not been a consensus about what he should do regarding Putin next year, when the U.S. hosts the summit, and he said some unnamed world leaders wanted Putin to attend.
"It's certainly possible," Trump said. "We'll see."
He did not offer names, but a European official said later that in addition to Japan's neutrality, Italy offered little objection.
Along with the U.S. president, the summit includes the heads of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy, as well as a representative of the 28-country EU.
Information for this article was contributed by Damian Paletta, Josh Dawsey, Toluse Olorunnipa and Michael Birnbaum of The Washington Post; by Reade Pickert, Shawn Donnan, Mark Niquette and Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News; and by Darlene Superville, Zeke Miller and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/26/2019