--- title: President Trump Defends Flip on China Currency Manipulation description: President Trump again pulled back from declaring China a currency manipulator canonical: https://time.com/4744134/president-trump-china-north-korea/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-18T11:58:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:27:51.004Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Defends Flip on China Currency Manipulation og:description: "I haven't changed my stance" og:url: https://time.com/4744134/president-trump-china-north-korea/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte42b9011185236c5/6988c352fb4eac3f9a891925/donald-trump-fox-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Trump Participates In Roundtable With Women Small Business Owners og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Defends Flip on China Currency Manipulation twitter:description: "I haven't changed my stance" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte42b9011185236c5/6988c352fb4eac3f9a891925/donald-trump-fox-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Defends Flip on China Currency Manipulation > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Apr 18, 2017 11:58 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump listens while meeting with women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March 27, 2017 in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Donald Trump listens while meeting with women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March 27, 2017 in Washington, D.C.Pool—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Apr 18, 2017 11:58 AM UTC President Trump again pulled back from declaring China a currency manipulator, saying he is more focused on the country’s relationship with North Korea. “Now, what am I going to do? Start a trade war with China in the middle of him working on a bigger problem, frankly, with North Korea?” Trump said during an [interview with _Fox & Friends_](https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/854290183390248960), referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders met earlier this month at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump last week declined to label China a [currency manipulator](http://time.com/4741209/donald-trump-china-currency-manipulator/), despite the President’s campaign pledge to do so when he took office. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/853583417916755968) Trump blamed the “fake media” for noting he had changed his stance on China. “I haven’t changed my stance,” he said. “China’s trying to help us. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to or not.” Asked by _Fox & Friends_ whether he had ruled out a military strike against North Korea, Trump said: “I don’t want to telegraph what I’m doing or what I’m thinking.” The President last week stoked fears of an attack on North Korea’s nuclear facilities after he [dispatched a strike fleet](http://time.com/4739812/north-korea-donald-trump-preemptive-strike/) near the Korean peninsula. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4744134/president-trump-china-north-korea/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4744134/president-trump-china-north-korea/"},"headline":"President Trump Defends Flip on China Currency Manipulation","datePublished":"2017-04-18T11:58:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:27:51.004Z","description":"\"I haven't changed my stance\"","url":"https://time.com/4744134/president-trump-china-north-korea/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte42b9011185236c5/6988c352fb4eac3f9a891925/donald-trump-fox-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte42b9011185236c5/6988c352fb4eac3f9a891925/donald-trump-fox-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Participates In Roundtable With Women Small Business Owners","caption":"President Trump Participates In Roundtable With Women Small Business Owners","creditText":"Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4744134/president-trump-china-north-korea/","name":"President Trump Defends Flip on China Currency Manipulation"}}]}] ```