Does it seem like the Trump Administration is putting together economic policies that help billionaires (who have millions saved in foreign bank accounts) more than the rest of Americans? Can China use US debt in its tariff war against Trump? China is the second largest holder of US debt and could, theoretically, dump it to devalue the dollar. The US exported $143bn worth of goods to China in 2024 and has a trade deficit of $295bn. According to Treasury Department data, the tariffs have brought in $200m a day.

“As the tariff barriers become so prohibitive that we are just no longer able to access each other’s markets, the only source of escalation becomes kind of more escalating retaliatory tools,” like selling off US debt for less than it is worth to devalue the dollar, said Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the economic think tank, the Groundwork Collaborative.

James Mohs, a professor of accounting, taxation and law at the University of New Haven, says that it could be worse if China were to buy more of the debt that the US may issue. “If we have to issue more debt, that is going to weaken our economic structure. Of course, it’s going to probably weaken the dollar because it’s a pure amount of excess debt,” Mohs told Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/4/14/can-china-use-us-debt-in-its-tariff-war-against-the-us