“They had a meeting this morning,” Trump told reporters, declining to say to whom he was referring. “It doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China.”
China on Thursday said it had not held trade talks with Washington despite repeated comments from the US government suggesting there had been engagement.
“China and the United States have not conducted consultations or negotiations on tariffs, let alone reached an agreement,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters at a news briefing, calling reports of such information “fake news”.
The foreign ministry spokesperson statement was early Thursday morning in a press briefing. There were at least 3 different news agencies who asked whether China was it had negotiated with the US. The FM speaks in Mandarin and the translation is open to interpretation. Whether the FM said “fake news” in Mandarin, I am not sure.
After a meeting in the afternoon between Trump and the PM of Norway, a press reporter asked Trump about his negotiations with China. This reporter says “They’re saying that it is ‘fake news’ that trade talks are happening.” I’m not sure who this press reporter is, Trump calls him “Jeff”.
As the other person pointed out, “Fake News” was a term that Trump hijacked to cover up for the fact that maga easily believe fake information. It’s in the same vein as conservatives hijacking “trust the science” to be transphobic or hijacking “my body my choice” to be against vaccinations.