United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he believes China has deliberately mishandled the novel coronavirus to make him lose in the re-election bid in November, Reuters reported.
In an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office, Trump came heavily on China and said he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for Beijing over the virus. “I can do a lot,” he said.
Trump has been widely criticized for not imposing restrictions on time in the US which has led to an unprecedented rise in the number of cases of the coronavirus. However, the Republican President heaped blame on China for not informing about the novel virus much sooner.
In the interview, Trump was asked whether he was considering the use of tariffs or even debt write-offs for China, however, he did not offer specifics. “There are many things I can do,” he said. “We’re looking for what happened.”
“China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” said Trump. He said he believes Beijing wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues.
“They’re constantly using public relations to try to make it like they are innocent parties,” he said of Chinese officials.
He said the trade deal that he concluded with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at reducing chronic US trade deficits with China had been “upset very badly” by the economic fallout from the virus.
According to a senior official at Trump’s administration cited in the Reuters report, the informal “truce” in the war of words that Trump and Xi essentially agreed to in a phone call in late March now appeared to be over.
Recently, Trump had slammed China for failing to contain the novel coronavirus at its origin, indicating that the US may seek damages if the situation worsens according to media reports.
"It is in 184 countries, as you hear me say often. It's hard to believe. It's inconceivable," Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Tuesday.