President Donald Trump has fantasized about getting a “big, fat, hug” from China’s leader for opening up the Strait of Hormuz.
In a bizarre Truth Social post on Wednesday morning, the president said he will “permanently open” the waterway, which connects oil tankers to markets around the world. China is Iran’s biggest oil customer.
“China is very happy,” according to Trump. He said his decision to unblock the Strait was done “for China.”
“I am doing it for them, also - And the World,” he wrote. And his actions have led Beijing to promise not to provide weapons to Tehran, he claimed. Negotiations went so well, in fact, that he will get a hug from Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, the 79-year-old claimed.
“This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran. President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks. We are working together smartly, and very well! Doesn’t that beat fighting???” he said.
He also offered a thinly veiled threat about America’s military might. “BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to - far better than anyone else!!!” he said.
Trump had, on Tuesday, gushed about his friendly relationship with Xi.
“He’s somebody I get along with very well, just wrote me a beautiful letter,” Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview, released on Wednesday morning, before Trump’s gushing post.
“He had responded to a letter I wrote, because I had heard China is giving weapons to… I mean, you’re seeing it all over the place, to Iran, that China is giving weapons… and I wrote him a letter, asking him not to do that, and he wrote me a letter saying, essentially, he’s not doing that,” the president said.
Trump has threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on goods from countries arming Tehran. Beijing, however, has denied reports that it was planning to provide weapons and military technology to the regime.
Trump suggested that Xi was rankled by his blockade of the Strait, but seemed confident the matter wouldn’t affect talks in Beijing scheduled for mid-May.
“I don’t think it does. I mean, he’s somebody that needs oil. We don’t,” Trump said.
The talks were originally slated for March 31 to April 2, but were postponed due to the war.
Trump’s cozy Truth Social post comes after Xi made his first public statement about the war in Iran, telling Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that “the international order is crumbling into disarray.”
