President Donald Trump warned China could face “staggering” new tariffs if caught supplying military aid to Iran, escalating tensions as the U.S. prepares to squeeze the regime with a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.
“Maybe they [provided military aid to Iran] a little bit at the beginning, but I don’t think they would anymore, no,” Trump said in an exclusive “Sunday Morning Futures” interview.
“But if we catch them doing that, they get a 50% tariff, which is a staggering amount.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., warned that China risks serious economic consequences should it wade too far into the conflict, arguing Beijing “has an interest not to tick off” Trump.
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“I suspect if they do, he’s not going to be like Obama and draw a line in the sand that they continuously walk over. He will impose that, and it’s going to hurt,” he told “The Big Weekend Show” on Sunday.
Burchett also defended the administration’s broader pressure campaign, saying economic and military moves are necessary to counter adversaries like Iran and deter further escalation in the region.
“He uses diplomacy very well. It may be at the end of his fist, but he does, and by sending JD Vance, I think he showed the seriousness of this country,” he said, referring to attempts to broker a peace deal with the regime over the weekend.
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He added, “These people [the Iranian regime] are demonic, and you’ve got to realize that’s what they’re dealing with… the only thing they understand is total destruction, and they want Armageddon… Trump was right to go in and try to stop their nuclear abilities, because that’s exactly what they want to do. As soon as they get the ability, they will launch a missile against Israel. They will cause World War III. Trump is preventing that, and the price of gas is the cost we’re having to pay right now, unfortunately.”
The president and his broader administration made moves in the foreign policy sphere over the weekend, with the vice president and other U.S. negotiators meeting with Iranian and Pakistani delegations for marathon ceasefire talks in Islamabad on Saturday.
After those talks failed, Trump announced a sweeping “all in, all out” blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, slated to take effect early Monday.
“We’re not going to let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don’t like… It’s going to be all or none and that’s the way it is,” Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.
“You saw what we did with Venezuela. It’ll be something very similar to that but at a higher level.”
Fox News’ Greg Norman-Diamond, Michael Sinkewicz, Morgan Phillips, Preston Mizell, Robert McGreevy and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
