United States President Donald Trump said he has requested to delay his trip to China by “a month or so” to focus on the Iran war.
Trump told reporters at the Oval Office that he didn’t know whether he still planned to travel to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the month as previously scheduled.
The U.S. said he thinks it's important he remains in Washington while the war is still going.
“I’d love to, but because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here, I feel. And so we’ve requested that we delay it a month or so,” Trump said.
The Chinese Embassy is yet to comment on Trump’s decision.
The Trump administration first cast doubt on Trump’s visit to China when Scott Bessent spoke on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Bessent walked back previous statements by Trump that suggested that the meeting between the U.S. and Beijing would be delayed to pressure China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“If the meetings are delayed, it wouldn’t be delayed because the president demanded that China police the Strait of Hormuz,” Bessent said.
“If the meeting, for some reason, is rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics.
“It would be a decision the president made as commander in chief to stay in the White House or to stay in the United States while this war is being prosecuted.”
