Trump contradicts his ambassador to China: ‘We never discussed arms sales’

U.S. President Donald Trump denied on Monday that he discussed selling American weapons to China during his recent meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, publicly contradicting his own ambassador in Beijing.

The U.S. ambassador to China, David Perdue, had said on Sunday, in an appearance on Fox News, that Trump had asked Xi whether he would like to buy American weapons, according to CNN. Perdue said the president “keeps saying: hey, we sell weapons to other people in the world” and at one point “asked President Xi if he would like to buy some.”

Asked about the claim on Monday, Trump appeared surprised. “About China? You mean Taiwan? I haven’t heard that. I’ll have to ask him,” the president said. “Now, maybe they’d like to buy it, because we make better equipment than they do, so maybe it’s a good idea. But we didn’t discuss that,” he added.

Trump suggested the ambassador may have misspoken: “Maybe he was talking about Taiwan. I think he was talking about Taiwan.”

The U.S. State Department had already rejected Perdue’s claim on Sunday, stating that “U.S. law prohibits the sale of weapons to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.” A U.S. official added that “the U.S. government has no plans to sell arms to China.”