One of Donald Trump’s most infamous statements on the campaign trail for the 2016 election was the outrageous claim that he was going to make Mexico pay for the multi-billion dollar wall that he promised to build along the border.
Of course, the wall is still not built, and Mexico has no intention of paying for it. In fact, just this month it was reported that portions of the existing wall are being stolen and sold for scrap metal.
Now, in a recent interview with Fox Business, Trump has suggested that he will somehow force China to cover the costs of the next COVID relief package in the United States, and that he would make the price tag even higher.
“I would [go higher] because this was not caused by our workers and our people, this was caused by China and China will pay us back in one form or another,” he said.
“The Republicans are willing to do it. I’d like to see more money, because it comes back. It’s going to come back anyway. We’re gonna take it from China. I tell you now, it’s coming out of China. They’re the ones that caused this problem,” he added.
When Trump was asked about how he would make it happen, he replied, “There’s a lot of ways and I’ll figure every one of them out. I already have them figured out. You know we’ve taken billions and billions of dollars for China over the last couple years.”
He also said that he has not talked with China’s President Xi Jinping in “a while” and said, “I don’t want to speak to him.”
Earlier this month, the president created a panic when he announced that he would not continue to negotiate with Democrats on the stimulus package until after the election. However, Trump reconsidered his decision after the harsh reaction that he received from the news, but talks have still been stalled by politicians on both sides hoping to add personal or partisan projects to the bill. The White House also reportedly opposed one draft of the bill because they did not want to expand COVID testing to asymptomatic people, which further complicated negotiations.