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Schumer Calls Trump a '98-Pound Weakling' on China

Chuck Schumer / Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Wednesday accused President Trump of failing to deliver on campaign promises to get tougher on America's trade relationship with China.

"One of the few hopes we had with President Trump is that he'd finally stand up to China," Schumer told reporters at a press conference, according to Politico. "But up to now, when it comes to China, he looks like a 98-pound weakling."

Schumer held the press conference alongside Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Bob Casey (Pa.), both of whom are up for reelection next year in states that Trump won in 2016–and where trade is likely to be a key election issue.

Trump "talks a good game" and "signs a couple of executive orders that mean nothing," Schumer said.

"He hasn't saved one job–one job–that China is stealing," added the Senate's top Democrat, who attacked Trump for not yet fulfilling a campaign promise to label China a currency manipulator.

Schumer said he would support Trump "if he did something good on trade." He also promised that Senate Democrats would soon present a trade package of their own, saying that "a lot of it's going to be China-related."

Schumer did not say when Democrats would deliver the promised package.

The press conference came as Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his resort in Mar-A-Lago on Thursday and Friday. Senior White House officials told CNN the meeting would "set a framework for discussion" of the U.S.-China trade relationship. Officials also said the meeting would begin the work of getting China to address policies that create "an uneven playing field for U.S. companies."

On the campaign trail, the president made a number of promises focused on toughening trade policy with China. They included imposing double-digit tariffs on Chinese imports and labeling Beijing a currency manipulator.