Trump spoke to the United Nations Security Council this morning where he pointed a finger at China and claimed they're interfering in the 2018 midterm elections.
Don't be confused; Trump was not claiming they're conducting cyber attacks or a misinformation campaign.
Trump says they're interfering in the election by retaliating for his tariffs.
“Regrettably, we’ve found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November, against my administration,” Trump told the Security Council on Wednesday at a meeting he hosted. “They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade and we are winning on trade, we are winning at every level. We don’t want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election.”
Trump started the trade war by imposing tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels. He escalated the trade war by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum. He further escalated his trade war by imposing tariffs on a wide range of industrial machinery and more recently by imposing tariffs on $200 billion in consumer goods. He has also threatened to impose tariffs on another $267 billion in goods and his latest round of tariffs is set to automatically increase to 25 percent on January 1st.
Trump believes China should have just accepted these measures and not retaliated. He seemingly believes that the United States is the only nation entitled to defending themselves.
If you read between the lines, this is an admission that his trade war could have severe political consequences. It's an admission that this whole trade war may have been a mistake.
Trump tries to project confidence by claiming he's "winning at every level," but there's a direct line from his accusations against China to his bailout for farmers. Trump is bailing out farmers for political reasons, not economic. He doesn't understand or care about the economics.
If he understood the economics, there would be no trade war and no bailout.