Haley hits Trump’s nod to Xi: ‘Praising dictators is not normal’

Nikki Haley on Monday criticized former President Donald Trump’s praise for Chinese President Xi Jinping as unusual.

“It’s not normal to praise dictators. Get America back to normal again,” said Haley, Trump’s last rival for the Republican presidential nomination. I wrote to Xthe platform formerly known as Twitter.

Haley was responding to President Trump’s comments over the weekend in which she described the Chinese leader as a “very good friend” while threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese imports.

“Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo asked the former president if he intended to impose a 60% tariff on all imports from China. Some recent reports I’ve suggested it.

“I would say, no, it’s probably going to be more than that, because we… Look, I want China to do great things, I think so,” Trump responded. “And I like President Xi very much. He was a very good friend during my term.”

“I got very good friends with him. I don’t know if he likes what I’m doing,” Trump added, adding that Xi doesn’t want him back in the Oval Office. I said I think so.

Foreign policy has been central to Haley’s presidential campaign, and the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has repeatedly criticized President Trump for his apparent friendliness to foreign dictators.

former president Last year I talked about Mr. Xi. “He’s smart, he’s smart, he’s perfect in everything,” he said, adding that he runs China “first with iron.”

President Trump has said the same about Russian President Vladimir Putin. claimed last year He was “the apple of” [Putin’s] He served as the “eyes” during his term as president.

In a subsequent interview on “Sunday Morning Futures,” President Trump sought to make clear that he intended to start a new trade war with China.

“It’s not a trade war. I’ve had success with everything with China. China was coming in and trying to destroy our steel industry, so I imposed tariffs, significant tariffs,” Trump said. the president said. “And they stopped it. I have people of steel and every time they see me they start crying and hug me. They’re like, ‘You saved our industry.’ Told. But now we are letting it go. ”

In 2018, while President Trump was in office, the country imposed 25% tariffs on foreign steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum, which the World Trade Organization later ruled violated global trade rules.

During her campaign, Haley warned of the threat China poses to America’s security and prosperity.

Last year, Haley criticized Chinese communism and argued that Trump’s “pretty much exclusive focus” on U.S.-China trade relations was “too much inaction on other Chinese threats.”

Trump continues to hold a comfortable lead over Haley in the Republican primary, as the former South Carolina governor seeks to change course in her home state’s primary later this month.

Nationally, Trump has a 57.2-point lead over Haley, but the former president has a 30.8-point lead in Haley’s home state, according to national polling indices from The Hill and Decision Desk. ing.