One employee coordinated intelligence activities. Another worked to leverage U.S. energy interests abroad. And a third was an expert on strategic competition with China. They are just some of the more than 1,

President Donald Trump has reportedly softened his stance on China compared to six months ago as he looks to secure a trade deal with the U.S.’s closest economic rival, and a meeting with his counterpart,

President Donald Trump has dialed down his confrontational tone with China in an effort to secure a summit with counterpart Xi Jinping and a trade deal with the world’s second-largest economy, people familiar with internal deliberations said.

Global views of China and its leader Xi Jinping have improved, while opinions of the U.S. and Donald Trump have declined.

The US-China deal under negotiation is likely to bear similarities to the phase one trade agreement from Donald Trump's first term, according to a former senior official in that administration - offering clues to what the highly anticipated pact may look like just weeks before a trade truce between the two rival economies is set to expire.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday lauded a new trade deal signed with Indonesia and said the United States would be fighting China "in a very friendly fashion."

As America and China swap shots in the trade battle served up by Donald Trump, Mr Huang has pinged and ponged between Washington and Beijing to reassure both sides it is in their mutual interest to let his company keep selling some of its artificial-intelligence ( AI) chips to Chinese buyers.

The report comes about six months after Trump returned to the White House and began taking drastic measures that his administration says will improve government efficiency and protect U.S. interests, triggering condemnation from Democrats that the moves could amount to ceding global influence to China.

Live updates and the latest news as former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz testifies at his Senate confirmation hearing for United Nations ambassador and Trump travels to Pittsburgh for an AI summit.