Trump says he “knows Xi Jinping very well,” an “intense” person. He threatens to increase trade tariffs with China if there is an invasion of Taiwan. Tycoon also says he “gets along very well” with Putin.
“Xi Jinping respects me because he knows I’m crazy.” The words are from the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in an interview given to the editors of the North American newspaper Wall Street Journal, in which the former president highlighted his relationship not only with the Chinese president, but also with Vladimir Putin.
Asked what he would do to persuade Xi Jinping not to order a blockade of Taiwan, Donald Trump said it would be “very easy,” stressing that he has a “very strong relationship” with the Chinese president. “He’s a really good friend, I wouldn’t say, but I get along with him well. He already stayed with me at Mar-a-Lago, so we know each other well. “He is a very intense person.”
In this hypothetical situation, the Republican stated that he would tell Xi Jinping that, if he decided to invade Taiwan, would increase trade tariffs with China between “150 and 200%.”
The Republican recalled the episode, which occurred in April 2017, in which Xi Jinping visited the United States and stayed at Donald Trump’s mansion in Mar-a-Lago. The former president said that, during dessert at a dinner, he revealed to his Chinese counterpart that Washington had bombed Syria, where Beijing had a military presence. “I told him, ‘President, we fired 58 missiles at Syria. Your people are not at risk.’”
“I had to repeat it and he understood. He’s a good poker player. At first he seemed furious. And then I repeated it again. [Ele respondeu] ‘Oh, okay.’ It was quite calm. But it is intense,” reported Donald Trump.
Regarding Vladimir Putin, the magnate did not hide that he has a closer relationship than with Xi Jinping: “We have a great relationship. I got along very well with him. He has a different personality. “I knew him very well.” Donald Trump also recalled that he warned the Russian president not to invade Ukraine. “I’m going to hit you so intensely that you won’t believe it. “I told him that we were friends and that I didn’t want to do it, but that I had no other option.”
Source: Observadora
