President Donald Trump is questioning whether his relationship with China’s paramount leader is as strong as he thought after Beijing allegedly tried to smuggle a “gift” to Iran.
The president, speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday, said the United States “caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn’t very nice — a gift from China perhaps.”
Without clarifying what the “gift” was, Trump said he was “sort of surprised” because he thought he could trust Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I have a very good relationship, and I thought I had an understanding with President Xi,” Trump said. “But that’s all right. That’s the way war goes, right?”
It was not immediately clear what naval interception Trump was referring to in his remarks to CNBC.
U.S forces seized an Iranian-flagged vessel on Sunday in the Gulf of Oman as it tried to evade the blockade. Trump previously said Marines “gave [the ship] fair warning to stop” before “blowing a hole in the engine room” and taking custody of the vessel.
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who serves as the Walter P. Stern chair at the Hudson Institute, stoked speculation the following day by claiming that the seized vessel’s cargo was intended for military purposes.
She claimed on Monday via social media that the “ship the U.S. seized in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend was headed from China to Iran and is linked to chemical shipments for missiles.”
“It refused repeated orders to stop,” she added. “Another reminder that China is helping prop up Iran’s regime—a reality that can’t be ignored.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Hudson Institution for clarification on the basis for Haley’s claim but did not receive a response.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun was questioned on Haley’s assertion during a Tuesday press conference.
“As far as I know, the vessel seized by the U.S. is a foreign container ship,” Guo said. “China rejects any false association and speculation.”
The U.S. intercepted another vessel on Tuesday when American forces boarded the M/T Tifani in the Bay of Bengal, which was carrying sanctioned Iranian oil, a U.S. defense official told the Washington Examiner.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, previewed the interdiction last week, saying U.S. forces would be conducting “similar maritime interdiction and actions and activities” in the Pacific, like they had been near Iran.
The U.S. defense official noted that there could be additional interdictions and boardings in the Pacific.
Trump added during his CNBC interview on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz blockade will continue until the Iranian government strikes a deal with the U.S.
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“We’re not dealing with the nicest group of people, but we’re dealing with them very successfully, and the blockade has been a tremendous success,” Trump said. “They said that two days ago, ‘We will open the strait.’ And I said, ‘No, we’re not going to open the strait until we have a final deal.’”
“We totally control the strait, just so you understand, for all the fake news out there,” he added.