Mr Trump said revamping the countries' trade relationship should have been done "a long time ago by a lot of other presidents".
He added: "Over the last five or six years China's made $500 billion dollars, ripped it out of the United States. Not only that, If you take a look, intellectual property theft... somebody had to do it."
Mr Trump then opened his arms, looked toward the sky and said "I am the chosen one. Somebody had to do it, so I'm taking on China... and you know what we're winning."
"I am the chosen one," President Trump says in defense of trade war. "Somebody had to do it, so I'm taking on China." pic.twitter.com/aAFvUe8dOc
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 21, 2019
His statement was followed by laughs from journalists.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump also thanked conservative commentator Wayne Allyn Root who described him as a "the King of Israel" and "the second coming of God".>
....like he's the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God...But American Jews don't know him or like him. They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that's OK, if he keeps doing what he's doing, he's good for.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019
The president has now been accused of having a messiah complex.
In January. former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sandars told the Christian Broadcasting Network that the president was called by God.
"I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that He wanted Donald Trump to become president," she said.
Rev Billy Graham's son, Rev Franklin Graham, also made a similar statement in May 2018.
He told the Associated Press: "I think somehow God put him in this position. Because he's not a politician, he seemed to do everything wrong as a politician: he offended many people, did the wrong things – but somehow he became president.
"And I just have to think that God, in some reason, put him there for a purpose. I don't know what that is, but we need to get behind him and support him."
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