President Donald Trump called former Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks downplaying the threat China poses to the U.S. as “naive” and “very dumb,” during a Thursday evening interview with Fox News’ Catherine Herridge.
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“He is very naive about China. Right now we lose $500 billion. After I sign the deal, it won’t be anything like that. China, during the Obama years in particular, just took advantage of our country so badly. Very, very big competition, China. I’ve stopped it. And I am stopping it,” Trump stated, after Herridge asked about a comment Biden made.
“During the course of two-and-a-half years, we’ve gone up $17 trillion in value. China has gone down $17 trillion. China as you know, has taken a very, very big hit because of the tariffs and everything else I’ve imposed. We’ll see whether or not we have a deal, we have a very good chance at a great deal. For somebody to be so naive and say China is not a problem, if Biden actually said that, that is a very dumb statement.”
Herridge’s question comes in response to comments Biden made about China during a campaign event in Iowa City.
“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,” Biden stated at the event, adding that “they’re not competition for us.” (RELATED: China’s Economy Hits A Low Not Seen Since 1990 Amid Tariff Fight With Trump)
“They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the east, I mean in the west,” Biden continued. “They can’t figure out how they are going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not competition for us.”
Biden’s comments come as a stark contrast to Trump, who has spent a large portion of his presidency attempting to negotiate a trade deal with the global superpower that more greatly benefits U.S. workers, all while threatening China with heftier tariffs.