Trump Contradicts Own Treasury Department With China Currency Tweet
President Trump says China and Russia are playing games with their currencies. His own Treasury Department doesn’t think so.
Trump said on Twitter on Monday that the two countries are “playing the Currency Devaluation game as the US keeps raising interest rates. Not acceptable!”
Just last Friday, the Treasury Department published a report saying that no US trading partner is manipulating its exchange rate.
The rebuke from Trump added a layer to an escalating trade dispute between the United States and China.
It also heightened tensions with Russia, after recently imposed sanctions by the United States and clashes over Syria.
It’s not the first time Trump has accused countries of keeping their currencies artificially low to gain unfair advantage in trading with the United States.
Before the presidential election, Trump vowed to label China a currency manipulator on Day 1 of his administration. But he’s repeatedly backed away from that promise. In May 2017, in fact, he said China had stopped manipulating its currency, and he personally took the credit.
