President Donald Trump recently attended the G7 Summit with the leaders of the seven richest democracies: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Trump's multiple trade wars were a topic of conversation, especially the trade war Trump began with China.
But the President had good news to share with the press at the G7. He told reporters:
"China called last night our top trade people and said, 'Let's get back to the table.' So we will be getting back to the table and I think they want to do something."
"They have been hurt very badly but they understand this is the right thing to do and I have great respect for it. This is a very positive development for the world. I think we are going to have a deal."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had gone into freefall in the last weeks over the tariffs tit-for-tat Trump started. So the news that China contacted the United States to ask to return to the table and resume trade talks was welcomed.
It even sparked a bounceback on Wall Street. But the stock market may not retain those gains.
It turns out Trump's announcement was less than factual. After the President made his public statement, Geng Shuang of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said:
"Regarding the phone call in the weekend, I am not aware of that. I can tell you clearly that I haven’t heard of such a thing."
When asked to comment on the Chinese rebuttal, Trump said:
"We have had calls at the highest level, but I don’t want to talk about that."
Then this week CNN reported that Trump aides verified the President's claims about Chinese phone calls asking Trump to negotiate with them were lies.
While the Trump administration officials couched their statement by saying the President wanted to "project optimism" by conflating public statements made by China's vice premier with actual direct communication, others simply labeled it more Trump lies.
Given the unprecedented level of presidential obfuscation since Trump took office, no one was overly surprised when the lies were exposed by China and acknowledged by the Trump administration.
However this time the lies affected the stock market and people are crying foul.
Trump had been trying to blame his failing economy on the press, Democrats in general, Representative Seth Moulton specifically and the federal reserve.
None of those stories caught on with the public or managed to cause a market upswing like the lies about phone calls from China.
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