In Major Reversal, Trump Says China ‘Not Currency Manipulators’ - NBC News

POLITICS APR 12 2017, 5:51 PM ET

In Major Reversal, Trump Says China ‘Not Currency Manipulators’

by ANDREW RAFFERTY

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he no longer believes China manipulates its currency, a complete shift from the position he repeatedly took during his 2016 campaign.

"They're not currency manipulators," Trump told the the Wall Street Journal during an Oval Office interview.

The reason he changed his mind, the president said, was because China has stopped manipulating its currency in recent months and the accusations could jeopardize U.S. negotiations with China to deal with the nuclear threat from North Korea.

Donald J. Trump

✔

@realDonaldTrump

Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into..

9:23 AM - 5 Dec 2016

• 20,472 20,472 Retweets
  67,082 67,082 likes

Donald J. Trump

✔

@realDonaldTrump

their country (the U.S. doesn't tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don't think so!

9:30 AM - 5 Dec 2016

• 14,383 14,383 Retweets
  51,633 51,633 likes

Trump's flip flop comes just days after the president hosted his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at Mar-a-Lago in southern Florida.

Throughout the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would instruct his Treasury Secretary to label China "a currency manipulator." And as recently as 10 days ago, he told the Financial Times that China was the "world champion" of currency manipulators.

The official label would need to be included in a semiannual Treasury report expected this month.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a longtime critic of how the Chinese government values its currency, released a statement saying Trump is giving China "a green light to steal our jobs and wealth time and time again." 

"The best way to get China to cooperate with North Korea, is to be tough on them with trade, which is the number one thing China's government cares about," Schumer said. 

RELATED: Are Chinese troops massing on the North Korean border?

Trump also signaled in the interview with the Journal that he may be willing to change his position on re-nominating Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen next year. 

Trump had accused Yellen of keeping interest rates low for political reasons under President Barack Obama. But on Wednesday he said he likes a low-interest rate policy. 

"I think our dollar is getting too strong, and partially that's my fault because people have confidence in me. But that's hurting — that will hurt, ultimately," Trump said. 

He said Yellen was "not toast" and he would consider renominating her next year. 

Russia challenges US to prove chemical attack in Syria - Independent

Russia challenges US to prove chemical attack in Syria

'If our colleagues at the UN try to avoid this investigation, this will signify that they are reluctant to find out the truth'

• Christopher Hooton 
• @christophhooton 
• Thursday 13 April 2017 08:45 BST

More differences of opinion than areas of common ground were established during Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's chilly joint press conference in Moscow on Wednesday, where the counterparts doubled down on their countries' positions on Syria and interpretation of the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.

Following talks that also involved Vladimir Putin, Tillerson announced that "There is a low level of trust between our two countries," and things only got more tense from there.

"With respect to Russia's complicity or knowledge of the chemical-weapons attack, we have no firm information to indicate that there was any involvement by Russian forces into this attack," Tillerson said. 

"What we do know, and we have very firm and high confidence in our conclusions, that the attack was planned and carried out by the regime forces at the direction of Bashar al-Assad."

Not only did Lavrov categorically dispute this interpretation of events, saying Russia was "not convinced" by the US' evidence that sarin gas was deliberately used, but called for an "honest investigation" into the attack that he suggested would reveal the US and UN were bluffing if it did not come to pass.

"There were no signs that would support the statement, the allegation that chemical agents were used there at all," Lavrov said. "We are 100% sure that if our colleagues at the UN, as well as The Hague, try to avoid this investigation, this will signify that they are reluctant to find out the truth, but we will insist that the truth will be found."

While the US has put responsibility for the attack that killed more than 80 people squarely with Assad, Russia believes it was the work of terrorists, with Putin claiming more chemical attacks are on the way in Syria designed to frame the Assad regime.