Is there a Trump-China deal in the offing? We’ll see

President Donald Trump says his trade negotiations with China are going swimmingly, but his chief economic adviser says they’re nowhere close to a deal.

Over the past 24 hours, the White House has sent a flurry of mixed messages about the status of trade talks with Beijingamid an ongoing tit-for-tat that started with Trump’s decision to tax billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports.

Trump has teased a victory in the trade war ahead of next week’s crucial midterm elections, claiming that Chinese President Xi Jinping is eager to make a deal at their expected meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit of global leaders in Argentina later this month.

“We’ve had very good discussions with China. We are much closer to doing something. They want to make a deal,” Trump said Friday outside the White House.

A Bloomberg report overnight that the administration was already drafting terms sent global stocks higher early Friday – but then National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow went on television to knock it down, telling CNBC “there’s no massive movement to deal with China.”

The US administration has offered to host a dinner in Argentina with Xi, US officials told CNN this week. But they alsosaid a trade deal with China is still far off and that existing administration tensions over China have not eased. They are not at a place yet to start formally drafting a trade deal.

The administration has taken atough stance with China over the past two months. Trump escalated the trade war in September by slapping tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, on top of an earlier $50 billion round. The move drew complaints from US importers who will have to pay more for consumer goods ranging from luggage to hats to spices. The administration has also this week targeted Chinese companies over attempts to steal trade secrets.

As recently as Monday, Trump has suggested China wasn’t ready to come to an agreement. “I’d like to make a deal right now, I just say they’re not ready,” he told Fox News.

But after the President spoke with Xi by phone on Thursday, he tweeted that “discussions are moving along nicely” – and said meetings are already being planned for the G20. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs echoed his positive tone in a Friday briefing with reporters.

Here’s a quick time line of what the President and senior officials have said:

The Trump administration wants the Chinese to address what it says are unfair trade practices, including intellectual property theft. Trump also argues that the trade imbalance between the two countries hurts the United States.

Many American manufacturers, farmers and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say they appreciate the administration’s efforts to change China’s trade policies. But some argue the tariffs are not the best way to address the issues. Tariffs pose a dilemma to US importers who must decide whether to absorb the higher cost of the goods, or pass it on to consumers and some exporters are hurting from China’s retaliatory tariffs.

CNN White House reporters Jeff Zeleny and Abby Phillip contributed to this report from Washington, and reporter Nanlin Fang contributed from Beijing.