President Donald Trump returned from China with few concrete wins, and his refusal to owe Xi Jinping a favor in return for the Chinese president’s help reopening the Strait of Hormuz highlights his lack of a plan to ease Republicans’ gas prices concerns as Democrats hammer his 79-day-old conflict.
After a quick two days of meetings, dinners and garden tours in Beijing, the U.S. leader returned home for a weekend of golfing at his Sterling, Va., club near Washington. After departing China, he revealed to reporters on Air Force One that the subject most on the minds of American voters — how the war is impacting prices at home and how Xi could help — didn’t come up. Oil prices rose again on Monday, as of midday, as a new trading week opened with the strait still largely shuttered and no deal in sight.
“I’m not asking for any favors. Because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return and we don’t need favors,” Trump said after a reporter asked if Xi offered any firm commitment to pressure Iran to fully reopen the strait, a key global energy chokepoint.
So far, Trump has been unwilling to engage in the kind of global horse-trading that might entice third-party countries to try convincing Tehran’s current leaders to cease attacks on ships that attempt to traverse the strait.
