Trump Casts Doubt on China, Russia Talks

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00:00And another potential negative, I guess, bell, is comments from President Trump. He is casting

00:06doubt on whether his anticipated meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping will happen later

00:12this month. Trump also says that without a deal, Chinese imports will face a tariff of about 155%

00:19as of November 1st. Right now, as of November 1st, China will have about 155% tariff put on it.

00:30And I don't think it's sustainable for them. So I want to be nice to China. But China's been

00:36very rough with us over the years. Let's bring in Bloomberg Senior Editor Derek Wolbang. So Derek,

00:43maybe this is typical Trump. He does reiterate, though, that he has a good relationship with

00:49the Chinese President. But why do you think he's couching things in this manner about a potential

00:54meeting? Well, April, I think, look, I agree with you. I read into this on a top line level that

01:01Donald Trump is still positive about the idea of a meeting. He's still positive about the idea of a

01:06potential outcome. He said, quote, I have a great relationship with President Xi. I expect to be

01:12able to make a good deal with him. And that is really important language from the President. That

01:16having been said, we have talked so many times in the last couple of weeks about how this relationship

01:23keeps getting added layer and layer and layer and layer of things that both countries now need to

01:30unwind if they're going to have a positive deal. Right. Even if we're going to get a deal that just

01:37takes us back a couple of weeks to where we are or to where we were. And layered over all of this

01:45is that threat of an additional 100 percentage point tariff for Chinese imports or exports into

01:52the United States. And so that's a really big sort of thing there. It is a really consequential

01:56meeting. So far, I would say, you know, if we're looking at vibes, we're in happy talk right now.

02:03But there's an awful lot of uncertainty here. I do think, you know, specific to your question

02:09that you're seeing a president who does not want to lock himself up into the idea of having to make

02:16a deal, the idea that no deal is bad and that any deal is better than no deal. I think Trump very

02:22much is saying, I think we can make a deal. I'd like to make a, you know, the right deal. But he's

02:28giving himself space to walk away if none is presented, in which case a whole manner of

02:34things that the markets are currently not pricing in may come to pass.

02:39What about what we're expecting around President Trump meeting with with Russia's

02:44President Vladimir Putin? Because this again has seemed to be quite a sharp shift away from

02:49what we were hearing just a few days ago. Well, I think the volatility in this relationship

02:54is exceptional, right? You know, we have gone from the two meeting in Alaska to Trump being

03:01really disappointed at Russia's follow through there and talking about sending, you know, advanced

03:07U.S. weaponry to Ukraine, then coming back a little bit to saying with Zelensky that the

03:16two sides just need to quit now and freeze around where the where the battle lines are right now

03:22to Russia again saying that that's probably not what they're what they're looking to do. And so I

03:27think that, you know, you're seeing this sort of whip cycle of Trump thinking that a deal is close,

03:34thinking that a deal is at hand or maybe projecting that. And then Russia saying that it doesn't want

03:41to do insert that thing here. And and there is a bit of a whiplash effect. But look, you know, Trump,

03:47I think was signaling to Russia that that he does not want, as he put it, a quote, wasted meeting

03:55with Vladimir Putin, perhaps signaling some frustration over the Alaska summit that did not

04:01pan into a peace deal he once promised was going to be easy.