Trump Blames Predecessors, Not China, for Trade Imbalance

President Donald Trump blames his predecessors and not China for the trade imbalance between the United States and China.

Trump blasted the presidents who came before him in response to a question from Breitbart News during an executive order signing in the Oval Office Wednesday.

“[China is] very capable, and I don’t blame China for what happened. I blame the people sitting … right behind this desk or another desk — you get your choice of seven,” Trump said, referring to past presidents. “I happened to pick the Resolute. But I blame the people sitting behind … this desk for being stupid, incompetent, or not having courage. This should have been done years ago. This should have been done before Obama, in all fairness, not only Biden, Obama.”

Trump said the trade imbalance with China traces back to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“This started with the World Trade Organization, which was owned by China. It was owned and paid for by China. They didn’t even have to do things. They consider them a nation that was undeveloped,” he said. “They said they were a developing nation. Well, we’re a developing nation too, if you think about it, look at our inner cities. Look at what’s happened. I think we’re starting from ground zero there, right? So we’re a developing nation too.”

“I know … a lot of people would take heat for saying it, but I blame the people sitting at this desk more than I blame China … They were stupid people, maybe corrupt, I don’t know,” he added. “I don’t know how you could be that stupid. How do you get to be president and you’re stupid? But they certainly weren’t courageous, and they allowed this to happen,” he added.

Emphasizing that it is not merely China that has benefited from unbalanced trade with America, Trump stated that, during his first term, he would read trade agreements that his predecessors had entered into and wonder how one could have agreed to them.

“And with Japan and with many other countries that took advantage of us,” he said. “We had deficits with almost every country. I used to read these things–first term–I’d read them. I’d actually read the agreements. I’d say, ‘How could anybody agree to this stuff?’ So, certainly, they were rough and they were tough and they were smart, and you can blame them, but I really blame the people that allowed them to do it because, you know, if you could read first grade and you could read these agreements, you’d say, ‘These are terrible deals.'”