Trump: China Will Back Down, Do the 'Right Thing'

China will take down its trade barriers "because it is the right thing to do," President Trump tweeted early Sunday, adding that "Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!" Further, "President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade." The AP notes that Trump "doesn't explain why he's optimistic," though Politico notes that American farmers are anything but reassured. "When we become a supplier that’s not reliable, countries look elsewhere," said the president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. "This will embolden South America—Argentina and Brazil—to expand their acres and just make them even more of a competitor."

Trump's tough stance with Beijing is putting Republicans in tricky territory with their farming constituency ahead of midterm elections, notes the New York Times. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota representative running for the Senate, at first urged Trump to take "a more measured approach" last week, then tweeted that "Farmers must know the Admin has their back & I urge them to act swiftly." Others, like Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, are holding the line. "I laid out a graph that showed every time he talked about tearing NAFTA up what it did to our hog markets and that he got and he was like, whoa," she tells Politico. "So he understands that."