U.S. President Donald Trump praised his country’s tariffs on China on Sunday as he prepared to return to Washington from New Jersey. “Do you know what China’s paying in tariffs right now? A lot,” Trump told reporters in Morristown. That remark came as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent prepared to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid, his office said.
The talks are expected to cover trade, national security, and the ownership of the social media platform TikTok. During his comments to the media, Trump also had harsh words for Venezuela as tensions built between that country and the U.S. Venezuela’s foreign minister said a U.S. warship illegally boarded a Venezuelan fishing boat in Venezuelan waters.
The U.S. had previously deployed warships in the Caribbean, citing a fight against drug cartels. Venezuela accuses the U.S. of seeking to provoke a military escalation. The Venezuelan government also claims the U.S. committed extrajudicial killings in a separate incident involving a drug-laden vessel. “A lot of drugs are coming out of Venezuela,” Trump said.
“They’re sending Tren de Aragua. That’s the gang. And we don’t like what Venezuela’s sending us, whether it’s their drugs or whether it’s gang members. We don’t like it. We don’t like it one bit.” Trump also told journalists that European allies must strengthen sanctions against Russia to keep up with pressure from the U.S. over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
He said one of the difficulties with the Russia-Ukraine negotiations is the hatred between presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “The hatred between Zelenskyy and Putin is unfathomable,” he said. Speaking about domestic affairs, Trump called U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell “incompetent.”
He claimed that prices are down in many areas and added that the Fed is holding back the housing market by not cutting interest rates. Last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that Fed officials are increasingly concerned about weaker hiring, setting the stage for a rate cut next week.
Most economists expect the Fed to cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point to about 4.1%. When the Fed reduces its key rate, it often, over time, lowers borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and business loans. Some of those rates have already fallen in anticipation of cuts from the Fed.