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‘I am the Chosen One’, Donald Trump declares

US President Donald Trump has declared himself “the Chosen One” in a wide-ranging defence of his administration’s actions in the ongoing trade war with China.

The President’s comment came in a media conference on the White House lawn, during which he offered a string of criticisms aimed at his predecessors, claiming they had ignored the consequences of China’s trade practices.

“This isn’t my trade war, this is a trade war that should have taken place a long time ago,” Mr Trump said.

“Somebody had to do it.”

He added, while looking to the sky: “I am the Chosen One.”

Mr Trump said he was taking on China on trade “and, you know what? We’re winning”.

“I was put here by people to do a great job,” he said. “And that’s what I’m doing.”

Mr Trump’s administration is gearing up to slap further 10 per cent tariffs on a host of Chinese-produced goods from September 1. However, last week, he said he would remove a number of unspecified products from that list “for the Christmas season”.

Wednesday’s (US time) media conference came just hours after Mr Trump quoted conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root to defend earlier comments that angered many in the Jewish community: that Jews who vote for Democrats show “a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

Mr Trump quoted Root as saying he was the best President for Israel “in the history of the world”.

“The Jewish people in Israel love him like he’s the King of Israel,” Mr Trump went on, quoting Root.

Speaking to the reporters at the White House on Wednesday, the President refused to back away from his comments about Jewish “disloyalty”..

“In my opinion, if you vote for a Democrat you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” he said.

“Only weak people would say anything other than that.”

Mr also used the media conference to slap down the Danish prime minister for her swift rebuttal of the suggestion that he might buy Greenland.

“I thought that the prime minister’s statement that it was absurd, that it was an absurd idea, was nasty,” he said.

“I thought it was an inappropriate statement. All she had to do is say no, we wouldn’t be interested.”

On Wednesday, Mr Trump postponed a planned meeting with Danish PM Mette Frederiksen because she said the idea of selling the semi-autonomous island was absurd.

Mr Trump said Ms Frederiksen should have simply told him her country was not interested in a sale.

Mr Trump’s abrupt decision to cancel his planned September visit caused shock in Denmark. Ms Frederiksen said she learned of it “with regret and surprise”, but that the US remained one of Denmark’s closest allies.

Other Danish political figures expressed condemnation, outrage and mockery.

“So (Trump) has cancelled his visit to Denmark because there was no interest in discussing selling Greenland. Is this some sort of joke? Deeply insulting to the people of Greenland and Denmark,” former premier Helle Thorning Schmidt tweeted.

Another former premier, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said “it must be an April Fool’s Day joke”.

Mr Trump, however, continued to take swipes at Denmark online.

Mr Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had recently discussed the possibility of buying the world’s largest island, though he said such a move was not an immediate priority.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said Greenland is a strategic place and has a lot of valuable minerals.

Elsewhere on Thursday, Iceland’s prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir has confirmed she would not be in Reykjavík to meet US Vice President Mike Pence when he visits on September 2.

Ms Katrin cited prior commitments – she said she had been asked “long ago” to deliver the keynote address at the Council of Nordic Trade Unions conference in Sweden a day earlier.

-with AAP

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