Turnaround in the trade dispute: Trump announces a friendly approach toward China and calls for swift negotiations.

Instead of fighting hard in the trade dispute with China, as he has done so far, Trump wants to significantly soften his tone toward Beijing. “No, we’re going to be very nice. They’re going to be very nice, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said Tuesday (local time) at the swearing-in ceremony for new Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins. This was reported by the Bild newspaper.

De-escalation instead of escalation

However, Trump made it clear that China still had to accept a deal. “And if they don’t make a deal, we will make the deal, because we are the ones who make the deal,” Trump continued, according to Bild. The goal: “It will be a fair deal for everyone, and I think it’s a process that will move pretty quickly.”

According to media reports, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also held out the prospect of an early de-escalation with China. Bessent told investors at a closed-door meeting that the tariffs were not sustainable at their current level, according to the US broadcaster CNBC, citing participants. It is not the president’s goal to isolate himself from China.

More relaxed tone toward the US Federal Reserve

At the same time, Trump is also striking a more conciliatory tone toward Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. According to Bild, the president emphasized: “I have no intention of firing him. I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea of lowering interest rates.” For Trump, now is “the perfect time” for interest rate cuts.

On Monday, Trump had called Powell a “loser” on his online network Truth Social and even threatened to fire him if key interest rates were not lowered. The statements caused stock markets to plummet briefly.

Image:
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons