"We're not looking to hurt China," he says, adding that China was "being hurt very badly".
"They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest, and they were very happy to be able to do something with us."
Trump goes on to say that his administration made a "great trade deal" with China, which was "a much bigger deal originally, and then they cancelled it right on the last day."
As a reminder, the US will still apply a 30% tariff on Chinese goods during the 90-day pause agreed to by the two countries. US goods face a 10% tariff in China. BBC