Trump news: Trade war with China escalates as president banishes journalists from White House

Donald Trump says tariffs are 'paid for mostly by China, by the way. Not by us'

The US and China remain locked in trade negotiations after Donald Trump increased tariffs on more than 6,000 Chinese consumer goods by 25 percent to $200bn (£154bn), prompting Beijing to threaten retaliation.

Mr Trump, Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and chief US trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer dined with vice-premier Liu He on Thursday night and will continue discussions on Friday in the hope of finding a last-minute resolution after the president accused the rival superpower of “breaking the deal” and insisted: “They’ll be paying”.

“Over the course of the past two days, the United States and China have held candid and constructive conversations on the status of the trade relationship between both countries,” Mr Trump tweeted Friday.

“The relationship between President Xi and myself remains a very strong one, and conversations into the future will continue,” he added. “In the meantime, the United States has imposed Tariffs on China, which may or may not be removed depending on what happens with respect to future negotiations!”

The White House has meanwhile carried out a “mass purge” of journalists by revoking press passes and nominated acting secretary of defence Patrick Shanahan to the post full-time.

Mr Shanahan has been leading the Pentagon as acting secretary since 1 January, a highly unusual arrangement for arguably the most sensitive Cabinet position. He took over after Jim Mattis resigned.

“Acting Secretary Shanahan has proven over the last several months that he is beyond qualified to lead the Department of Defense, and he will continue to do an excellent job,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Moments later, Mr Shanahan spoke to reporters outside the Pentagon, saying he was very excited about the nomination and looking forward to a job he said requires him to “spin a lot of plates.”

“The biggest challenge is balancing it all. For me it’s about practicing selectful neglect, so that we can stay focused on the future,” he said, adding with a grin, “I called my mom. She was super happy.”

Indeed, in Mr Shanahan’s tenure at the department he’s had to deal with a wide array of international hotspots, ranging from missile launches by North Korea to the sudden shift of military ships and aircraft to the Middle East to deal with potential threats from Iran.

The announcement comes close on the heels of an investigation by the Defence Department’s inspector general over accusations that Mr Shanahan had shown favoritism toward Boeing during his time as deputy defense secretary, while disparaging Boeing competitors. The probe appeared to stall his nomination, but the IG wrapped up the investigation rapidly and cleared Mr Shanahan of any wrongdoing.

Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

Key Points

• US-China locked in trade talks over huge tariff increase
• White House carries out press pass 'purge'
• Patrick Shanahan nominated secretary of defence

[10 May 2019 11:55 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's Sean O'Grady on why Trump's trade war with China is bad news for us all.

[10 May 2019 12:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

David Cornstein, the US ambassador to Hungary, says Trump would love to have an "illiberal democracy" at his disposal like Viktor Orban enjoys in Budapest.

Trump and Orban meet in Washington on Monday.

[10 May 2019 12:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Ludicrously wealthy Amazon owner Jeff Bezos yesterday pitched his company Blue Origin to help the Trump administration realise its dream of putting a man on the moon for the first time since 1972 and veep Mike Pence pressured Nasa to get there by 2024 "by any means necessary".

[10 May 2019 12:41 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump is up and tweeting about China.

He's also trailing Mike Pence's upcoming appearance on Fox and Friends. "Enjoy!"

[10 May 2019 12:46 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump actually had a great deal more to say about China than that, however.

He wrote five previous tweets and then mysteriously deleted them all, apparently having thought better of it.

Here's what they said.

"Talks with China continue in a very congenial manner - there is absolutely no need to rush - as Tariffs are NOW being paid to the United States by China of 25% on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods & products. These massive payments go directly to the Treasury of the U.S.......

"....The process has begun to place additional Tariffs at 25% on the remaining 325 Billion Dollars. The U.S. only sells China approximately 100 Billion Dollars of goods & products, a very big imbalance. With the over 100 Billion Dollars in Tariffs that we take in, we will buy.....

"....agricultural products from our Great Farmers, in larger amounts than China ever did, and ship it to poor & starving countries in the form of humanitarian assistance. In the meantime we will continue to negotiate with China in the hopes that they do not again try to redo deal!

"....If we bought 15 Billion Dollars of Agriculture from our Farmers, far more than China buys now, we would have more than 85 Billion Dollars left over for new Infrastructure, Healthcare, or anything else. China would greatly slow down, and we would automatically speed up!

"Tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind. Also, much easier & quicker to do. Our Farmers will do better, faster, and starving nations can now be helped. Waivers on some products will be granted, or go to new source!"

[10 May 2019 12:52 · Joe Sommerlad]

He's now re-upped them! I think he's finally worked out how to destroy us.

Well played sir.

Finally, he added this.

Obama and the entirely hypothetical future Joe Biden administration of 2020 have let China "get away with 'murder'!".

Those quotation marks around "murder" are presumably there to reassure us he did not mean it literally.

[10 May 2019 13:05 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's what Pence has to say about China on Fox.

[10 May 2019 13:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Donald Trump has offered Canada his full support in the government’s attempts to secure the release of two of its citizens facing the death penalty in China - despite telling Beijing he "appreciated" their tough sentences for drug crimes a week earlier.

The Canadian citizens, detained in apparent retaliation after the arrest of a Chinese executive at the request of the US, have been held separately for five months on charges of producing, smuggling and selling drugs.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, spoke with the US president by phone late on Thursday and urged Trump to press for their release, which comes as he is sitting down with vice-premier Liu He to try and agree more equitable trading terms.

Here's Tom Batchelor with more.

[10 May 2019 13:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Here's James Moore on why Trump has nothing to lose politically in playing hardball with Beijing over trade.

[10 May 2019 14:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Eric Lewis here compares Trump to fellow property magnate Leona Helmsley, known as "the Queen of Mean", who famously said: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."