President Trump is confident he can negotiate an agreement with China to prevent an invasion of Taiwan and cut a deal with Iran that would stop it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Trump, 78, described China as a “very ambitious country,” and the communist nation’s leader, Xi Jinping, as “very ambitious man,” during the second part of an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Thursday, before arguing that the US is in a good position to keep the CCP from expanding its territory.
“I can do that because we have something that they want,” the president said. “We have a pot of gold.”
Trump suggested that tariffs would be key to his dealmaking process with China.
“You know how much money we lost to China last year? $1 trillion,” he told Hannity, slamming the Biden administration’s “stupidity with their trade policies.”
“We have one very big power over China and that’s tariffs,” Trump continued. “And they don’t want them, and I’d rather not have to use it, but it’s a tremendous power over China.”
“China gets a lot of its money from the United States. They use that money to build a military,” he explained.
Trump further revealed that his phone call with Xi last week was “friendly,” describing it as a “very good conversation.”
“We’ve had other communication before that,” he acknowledged, noting that he had a “very good relationship” Xi in his first term.
“Iran is a different story,” Trump said of the other main US adversary. “Iran, is a whole different thing. That’s a religious deal. That is very dangerous.”
Trump refused to telegraph whether he would support pre-emptive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities but was adamant the Islamic Republic “can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
The president, however, claimed that he was “within one week” of striking a deal with Iran by the end of his first term and still believes a treaty can be signed that would make it “absolutely certain” the country doesn’t obtain nuclear weapons.
“There are ways that you can make it absolutely certain if you make a deal … you have to verify times ten,” Trump said, before reiterating that he would never allow Iran to get ahold of a nuke.
“If they get one you’re going to have everyone else getting them and then the whole thing is going to be a disaster,” he argued.
At the end of his sitdown with Hannity – Trump’s first television interview as the 47th president – the commander in chief indicated that “it feels good” to be back in the Oval Office “because I want to solve some problems that really have developed” since the end of his first term.
