Michael Pillsbury, a China scholar at the Hudson Institute who sometimes advises Trump, said the president’s move on Friday reflected the fact he had grown increasingly frustrated with China’s response to his escalating tariffs in recent months.

“The president has been increasingly frustrated in the last three months’’ with China after the May breakdown of talks that he believed were about to yield a deal, said Michael Pillsbury, a China expert with the Hudson Institute in Washington with whom Trump has consulted in the past.

Michael Pillsbury, an occasional adviser to the Trump administration, insists that while Trump “has more guns” he also has a more pragmatic view of China than his aides and is still eager to cut a deal. “The key is to get the message to Xi, and not with a blunderbuss,” Pillsbury said.

In an interview with @DavidWestin, @mikepillsbury unpacks the HK protests: “It’s a matter of trust.

Michael Pillsbury, director of Chinese strategy center at the Hudson Institute, discusses President Trump’s comments

Michael Pillsbury, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, discusses the state of trade