‘So much for being nice guy’: Donald Trump says ‘bad news’ is China ‘totally violated’ trade agreement with US

US President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of ‘totally’ violating the trade deal with America that was struck in order to ease tariffs, ratcheting up tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump revealed the ‘bad news’.

“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” he said.

The US President however did not specify exactly how China violated the trade deal, or which rules it did not abide by.

Trump said that China was in ‘grave economic danger’ due to the ‘very high tariffs’ that he set.

“Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them.”

Trump further claimed that many factories in China closed, and resulted in a ‘mild’ ‘civil unrest’, adding that he saw it and made a ‘fast deal’ to come to a solution.

The two countries had earlier this month come to an agreement over the tit-for-tat tariffs. At the time, both US and China said they would scale back their levies and continue with the trade talks.

“Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, “civil unrest.” I saw what was happening and didn’t like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen,” Trump said.

He further claimed that everything in China ‘quickly stabilised’ due to the deal made by the US.

“Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!!,” Trump said, before accusing China of violating the deal.

US stock futures drop

As per a report by Bloomberg, US stock futures dropped after Trump’s accusation, with S&P 500 contracts falling 0.3 per cent.

The comments spelled fresh turmoil for Donald Trump's trade agenda, which was shaken earlier this week by a federal court ruling that halted the bulk of his tariffs. An appeals court temporarily paused the decision to hear arguments, though it could ultimately back the initial decision and block Trump’s duties.