Repeating his read-out of his call with President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump reiterated "we have a deal" with China on trade, albeit with the caveat the deal is an agreement in principle and there remains some t's to cross.
"I think we're in very good shape with China and the trade deal: We have a deal with China, as you know, but we were straightening out some of the points having to do mostly with rare-earth magnets and some other things," Trump said in an Oval Office press gaggle Thursday after releasing his Truth Social readout.
"So it's reduced trade tariff rates. They remain in effect. We have the deal."
Trump acknowledged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China's top officials will meet soon to iron out the finer details.
"I mean, we've had a deal," Trump continued. "We announced the deal. And we'll be, I guess you could say, I wouldn't even say finalizing it up, Scott, I would say we have a deal and we're going to just make sure that everybody understands what the deal is."
Trump expounded on his call with Xi and his invite to China and the White House.
"We had a really good conversation, by the way," Trump said. "He invited me to China and I invited him here. We both accepted. So I'll be going there with the first lady at a certain point, and he'll be coming here hopefully with the first lady of China."
Also, notably, Trump said there is no issue with Chinese foreign student visas outside of the measures to vet them more thoroughly than ever before.
"Chinese students are coming," Trump said. "No problem, no problem. OK?
"It's our honor to have them. Frankly, look, we want to have we want to have foreign students, but we want them to be checked."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.