Remember the surprise when Donald Trump dropped this bomb in Biarritz? The President said he’d had phone calls with top Chinese leaders who were eager to return to the bargaining table.
“China called last night our top trade people and said, ‘Let’s get back to the table.’ So we will be getting back to the table and I think they want to do something,” Trump told reporters. But the Chinese seemed flummoxed.
Vanity Fair writes: “At the time, China’s Foreign Ministry claimed to have no idea what Trump was talking about—the implication being that he’d fabricated the call to calm a panicked market.“
In the ensuing days, it’s become apparent that’s exactly what happened. CNN reports:
“Though Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin insisted there had been “communication,” aides privately conceded the phone calls Trump described didn’t happen they way he said they did.
“Instead, two officials said Trump was eager to project optimism that might boost markets, and conflated comments from China’s vice premier with direct communication from the Chinese.“
George Conway, conservative lawyer and husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, says it’s market manipulation, which is a federal crime.