(Express Daily ) Donald Trump has ordered the US Treasury to withdraw fresh sanctions on Chinese companies accused of helping North Korea evade separate UN sanctions, in an extraordinary rebuke of his own national security team. The Treasury had announced on Thursday that it was imposing sanctions on two Chinese shipping companies that allegedly helped North Korea conduct ship-to-ship transfers of coal in contravention of UN sanctions. But Mr Trump on Friday tweeted that the sanctions were not necessary, and told Treasury to rescind the measures. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” the president tweeted after landing in West Palm Beach, as he prepared to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The move stunned former officials because of the suggestion that the policy co-ordinating process in the government had broken down even further than many critics had assumed. Asked about the move, Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary, said: “President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.”
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The reversal of the sanctions comes less than a month after Mr Trump failed to
reach a denuclearisation deal with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, at
their second summit, which was held in Vietnam. US officials have tried to put
a more positive spin on the outcome in Hanoi, saying Mr Trump walked away from
a bad deal. The order to rescind the sanctions imposed on Thursday — not on
Friday, as Mr Trump said — marked a major rebuke of Steven Mnuchin, the
Treasury secretary who has worked with Mr Trump since joining his 2016
campaign. So far, he has largely avoided the public attacks that Mr Trump has
aimed at several other cabinet secretaries. “Targeted sanctions of this nature
go through a rigorous inter-agency process before being announced. A presidential
reversal of this kind undermines not only the credibility of the secretary of
the Treasury but of the whole national security decision-making system,” said
Dennis Wilder, who was the top Asia adviser to George W Bush. “It will leave
nations wondering if the US national security apparatus is now dysfunctional
and in disarray.” The move by Mr Trump came at the end of a week in which he
has come under heavy criticism for launching a serious of attacks on John
McCain, the former Arizona senator and Vietnam war hero who died last year.
Some critics have speculated that Mr Trump is becoming increasingly anxious as
he prepares for the conclusion of the investigation by Robert Mueller into
possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia. Speculation
has mounted in Washington that Mr Mueller is wrapping up his two-year
investigation and preparing to provide his report to William Barr, the new
attorney-general who was recently appointed by the president. It was unclear on
Friday whether Mr Trump had ordered the reversal of the sanctions because he
was worried that the new measures make it harder to reach a denuclearisation
deal with Mr Kim, or whether he worried that putting sanctions on the Chinese
companies would jeopardise efforts to reach a deal with Beijing to end the
trade war between the two countries. Mr Mnuchin and Robert Lighthizer, the US
trade representative, are heading to Beijing next week for the latest round of
talks aimed at staving off an escalation in the dispute, which could see the US
raise tariffs further.
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The White House and National Security Council struggled to explain the
situation — as has happened in many cases when Mr Trump tweets something on
Twitter that catches his officials and press teams by surprise. The National
Security Council pointed to the statement from Ms Sanders, while the Treasury
and state department did not immediately respond to calls and emails requesting
clarification about how the decision had been made. Mr Trump prompted the
resignation of Jim Mattis, defence secretary, in December by tweeting that he
would withdraw US troops from Syria — a decision that was not taken in
consultation with his generals and security officials. The North Korea tweet on
Friday also had echoes of his criticism of Rex Tillerson in October 2017 when
the then-secretary of state was undermined while he was discussing North Korea
policy with Chinese officials during a visit to Beijing. “I told Rex Tillerson,
our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate
with Little Rocket Man,” Mr Trump tweeted at the time, in one of many
criticisms of Mr Tillerson that prompted Bob Corker, then Republican chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to quip that Mr Trump had
“castrated” his top diplomat. John Delaney, one of the 15 Democrats running for
president, said that while he had applauded Mr Trump for engaging in talks with
Mr Kim, this latest move underscored “his erratic and unstable behaviour”.
“Nuclear weapons remain the most significant short-term risk to the world and
the American people deserve a steady and disciplined hand negotiating the
denuclearisation of North Korea. President Trump is not that person.”