‘You don’t think we do that?’

President Donald Trump left Maria Bartiromo briefly speechless during an interview when he suggested that the U.S. is hacking China.

Bartiromo told Trump in the interview recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News that China “hacked into our telecom system, they’ve been stealing intellectual property, fentanyl, COVID, all of this stuff.” “How do you negotiate with obviously a bad actor and trust them on economics?” she asked.

“You don’t think we do that to them? We do. We do a lot of things,” Trump said to a silent Bartiromo.

“That’s the way the world works?” Bartiromo questioned.

“That’s the way the world works. It’s a nasty world,” said Trump.

The president emphasized the “big trade deficit with China” and said that the country would be “paying a lot of tariffs.” However, he said he has a “great relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He went on to claim that former President Joe Biden allowed the trade deficit to “get up to a trillion dollars.”

“We had a deal with China where it was 145 percent tariffs,” he added. “And I will tell you, everything stopped in China. I saw that everything stopped, and we did China a favor, but we’re getting along well with China.”

“I think getting along well with China is a very good thing, but they are paying substantial tariffs,” said Trump.

Bartiromo suggested Trump was not using the leverage against China available to him.

“If I ever had to use it, I’d use it. But when there’s no reason to use it, that’s good too,” Trump responded.

“We did just arrest three or four Chinese nationals who tried to bring a pathogen into the country that gets people sick and destroys food supply,” said Bartiromo.

“You don’t know where that came from, though,” said Trump. “I mean, did that come from the country or is that through wackos that happened to carry something?”

Bartiromo said one of the nationals “signed a paper saying that he would value Mao Zedong’s value system,” before moving on to the hacking allegations and a rare earth minerals deal between the U.S. and China.

“You think that China is going to stop bullying companies to give them information … in exchange for getting those rare earth minerals?” she asked.

“The companies shouldn’t put themselves in that position,” said Trump. “Now, I will say this, China, right now, needs those companies much more than they needed them two years ago.”

“A lot of the companies that are in China are now relocating back to the United States,” he claimed. “China is going to treat them much better as they need them. They didn’t need them under Biden because they were ripping us off left and right. They need them under Trump.”

The president’s comments suggesting the US was using the same tactics against China that Beijing is thought to be using against the United States recalled an interview in 2017, not long into his first term, when he said he respected Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the time, Trump also appeared on Fox News when an interviewer called Putin “a killer” with Trump saying that the U.S. has many of them.

“I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with him. He’s a leader of his country. I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not. And if Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all over the world – that’s a good thing,” he told then-Fox host Bill O’Reilly. “Will I get along with him? I have no idea.”

“But he’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer,” said O’Reilly.

“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?” Trump responded.