President Trump has had a busy Monday morning on the tariffs front, defending the new deal with Mexico on both Twitter and CNBC, lashing out at the deal's critics, and threatening China anew. Trump began Monday with a tweet condemning a New York Times story suggesting that Mexico hadn't agreed to much new. Trump called the story a "FRAUD" and a "hit job" on him, adding that Mexico had agreed to a "very important" concession that will be revealed soon. (It appears to be some kind of "regional asylum pact," reports Politico, one that would theoretically result in fewer migrants moving through Mexico to the US border.) Later, Trump called into the Squawk Box program on CNBC after Chamber of Commerce official Myron Brilliant accused the president of misusing tariffs as a tool to punish other nations.
“Tariffs are a beautiful thing when you are the piggy bank,” Trump said, per the Washington Post. Trump also criticized Brilliant himself. “He’s not protecting our country, he’s doing a very big disservice,” the president said. “He’s protecting all of those companies that are members that like it just the way they are. And they have companies in Mexico, and they have companies in China.” Also in the CNBC interview, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports if leader Xi Jinping doesn't meet with him at the G20 summit in Japan later this month. “China is going to make a deal because they are going to have to make a deal,” Trump said. Responded a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "We do not want a trade war, but we are not afraid of fighting one." (More President Trump stories.)
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