In what is obviously a threat of military action, Trump has told the Financial Times that he will “solve” the nuclear threat from North Korea unless China does so.
"If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you," he said in an interview with UK paper Financial Times.
Pressed on whether he thought he could succeed alone, he replied: "Totally."
Mr Trump was speaking ahead of a scheduled visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.
"China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don't it won't be good for anyone," Mr Trump told the FT.
Asked if he meant "one-on-one" unilateral action, Mr Trump said: "I don't have to say any more. Totally."
He did not give any further details on what action he would take.
Mr Trump's brief comments, published just days before the key meeting with Mr Xi at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, are the latest in a series of warnings over North Korea's nuclear development.
Apparently desperate to keep taxpayers’ money flowing into the Palm Beach Kremlin, he is using the excuse of hosting perhaps the most significant foreign leader he has yet to “do a deal” with. What the point of the expense is must remain a mystery as Xi does not play golf. Maybe he thinks Xi will be bringing another few container loads of Trump branded products made in China to restock the stocks in the golf house and hotel. The end of the interview with NPR points up the danger of letting Trump loose away from his minders (is Ivanka attending?)
JOHNSON: President Trump - I think it's fair to say - has shown something of a penchant for going off script every once in a while. And so that must be concerning to a group that typically likes to have everything very, very scripted.
HORSLEY: Any carefully crafted script for this week's meeting could be upended with a single presidential tweet.