Did Trump Blink in His Trade Standoff with China; Trump; Interview with Rep. Francis Rooney: U.S. to Help ZTE to Keep China from Losing Jobs; Trump Grappling with Political Risks of Kim Meeting
BLITZER: U.S. stocks are moving higher today on news that the Trump administration has a new agreement with China, which includes a promise from Beijing to buy more U.S. goods, averting a potential trade war, at least for now. President Trump has been celebrating the deal on Twitter all morning. But earlier, the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin admitted that the agreement is still short on specifics.</s>STEVE MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: It is a framework agreement. It is an agreement Secretary Ross has to go over and turn that in to a signed piece of paper with the company. As I described, this is not a government-to-government purchase order, but we have an agreement with them as to what will be executed. And Secretary Ross is going over there, I believe, next week on the --</s>BLITZER: President Trump said China had agreed to spend more on U.S. agricultural products, a sector where Beijing was preparing to slap new tariffs on U.S. products. Joining us now, Republican Congressman Francis Rooney. He's a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He's a Republican from Florida. Congressman, thank you for coming in.</s>REP. FRANCIS ROONEY, (R), FLORIDA: Thank you for having me on.</s>BLITZER: What do you think about this tentative deal with China?</s>ROONEY: If it offers a way out of all the talk that's been had about with tariffs and things, I'm all for it, because the discussion that's been launched about tariffs around the world is not a particularly good one. We've seen some real positive results from globalization and expanding of trade networks. It's good for our country and good for the rest of the world.</s>BLITZER: What about this huge trade imbalance that the U.S. has with China? The president threatened all sorts of tariffs to try to narrow that trade imbalance.</s>ROONEY: There are areas where China doesn't compete fairly, like in the I.T. area and technology area, and I think we should focus on those rather than things like steel and aluminum.</s>BLITZER: What do you think of his tweets last week about this Chinese telecom company, ZTE, which the U.S. intelligence Community is deeply concerned about, a national security threat. But the president was saying, the leader of China, President Xi, want us to help ZTE because the sanctions against ZTE are losing a lot of jobs in China.</s>ROONEY: The only thing I could think of that offers any positive result of that would be that if it's under the table helping with the North Korea situation. But it seems a little dangerous to me to help a company that our military and intel people say, we won't use those phones.</s>BLITZER: So you were a pretty surprised when you saw the president tweeting about let's help ZTE get some new jobs?</s>ROONEY: Yes, since the focus has been on our jobs.</s>BLITZER: Right. The focus is on U.S. jobs. All of a sudden, he's worried about Chinese jobs. A lot of us were pretty surprised when we saw that. But you're suggesting maybe he did that to convince the Chinese, who have a lot of influence in North Korea, to get involved in this denuclearization of the Korean peninsula? Is that what you're saying?</s>ROONEY: It's possible. He's got China in a better place than anybody else has gotten them as far as sanctions in North Korea, cutting off supplies of things exported to North Kora. So maybe this is a continuation of that.</s>BLITZER: Having said that, the president tweeted this about China this morning. Let me read his tweet: "China must continue to be strong and tight on the border of North Korea until a deal is made. The word is that recently the border has become much more porous and more has been filtering in. I want this to happen, North Korea to be successful, but only after signing." I think he's referring to signing a denuclearization deal. What is he talking about?</s>ROONEY: I think he's saying we want to keep the North Koreans pinned down as hard as we can in the hope of having more negotiating leverage when he goes to Singapore.</s>BLITZER: He doesn't want to make any concessions to North Korea, until North Korea signs an agreement completely ending its nuclear program, is that what you're hear something.</s>ROONEY: That's what Secretary Bolton and the president have said. I'm sure they, deep down inside, know this is going to be more of an evolving cut back nuclearization for other positive attributes given by us. It's not going to be all or nothing.</s>BLITZER: You're talking about the new national security advisor, John Bolton, who, in the past, as a private citizen, was talking about regime change. The president is saying if the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Un agrees to these U.S. demands, he will protect the North Koreans and there won't be regime change.</s>ROONEY: Right. Rex Tillerson said that last year, too. We are not interested in regime change, we are not interested in anything but making Korea join the community of nations and stop nuclearizing.</s>BLITZER: You think there's going to be a meeting on June 12th between President Trump and Kim Jong-Un.</s>ROONEY: So far, I do. It may be a little unfortunate that each side has staked out in positions that are so absolute at this point in the negotiations. I think they'll go ahead and do it.</s>BLITZER: You saw the reports over the weekend, the president is perhaps getting cold feet.</s>ROONEY: I did see that, but there's a lot to gain by making a -- by at least meeting with North Korea. If you can't make a deal and it's going to be another deal like President Obama, President Bush and President Clinton made, it didn't out for us, OK, leave.</s>BLITZER: But is it really realistic to assume that the North Korean regime is going to give up its nuclear program?</s>ROONEY: I don't think they're going to give it up. I don't think anybody really believes that.</s>BLITZER: That's what the president says. He's not going to ease any sanctions until they do.</s>ROONEY: I think that's probably a negotiating ploy. There was an article in the paper today that the State Department and CIA never felt he would give up his nuclear weapons. But he might, in the spirit of the Iran agreement, stop testing, stop expanding them, and allow verification of what he's got, maybe get rid of some fuel in exchange for joining the community of nations and having trade.</s>BLITZER: Congressman Rooney, thanks for coming in.</s>ROONEY: Thanks for having me on.</s>BLITZER: Francis Rooney, of Florida. Just in, we're getting word that the FBI Chief Christopher Wray and the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be heading over to the White House is in the next hour as President Trump demands that the Department of Justice investigate whether the FBI spied on his campaign. New details just ahead.