Former President Donald Trump delivered a strong message against China on Saturday, blaming the country for the coronavirus pandemic.
The former president spoke about China in a speech to North Carolina Republicans, demanding that China pay “reparations” to the world for the devastation caused by the pandemic.
“We should all declare with one unified voice that China must pay. They must pay,” Trump said as the crowd cheered and applauded.
He proposed that all nations should join the United States in demanding that China pay for the effect of the virus.
“All nations should work together to present China a bill for a minimum of $10 trillion to compensate for the damage,” he said.
Trump also said nations should join together and cancel the debt they owe to China as a “down payment” for reparations to the world.
“The nations of the world should no longer owe money to China,” Trump said.
He also called for the United States to enact a “firm 100 percent tariff on all goods made in China.”
The former president noted that Biden and the Democrats were staunchly opposed to his tariffs on China, but after they won power, they did leave them in place.
He called for further tariffs on goods coming to the United States from China.
“Frankly if you raise them, they would stop building their military, companies would return to the United States,” he said.
Trump said the Chinese were “very genius, very smart” although he had a good relationship with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping before the pandemic.
“I don’t think they want to keep Biden happy. I don’t think they care too much about Biden, to be honest,” he added.
Trump pointed out that even his biggest critics were starting to acknowledge the lab-leak theory of the origin of the coronavirus.
“The media, the Democrats, and the so-called experts are now finally admitting what I first said 13 months ago: The evidence demonstrates that the virus originated in a Chinese government lab,” Trump said.
He criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci for steering away from the lab-leak theory in the early days of the pandemic.
“Not a great doctor, but a hell of a promoter,” Trump said about Fauci. “He likes television more than any other politician in this room.”