Today, Trump once again admitted that he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival, and he went even further by calling on China to do the same. At the same time that he’s asking them for political assistance, Trump is in trade negotiations with China, and he’s made clear he believes he has leverage over them, raising new questions of what Trump’s intentions might be.

Today, Trump once again called on Ukraine to investigate his political rival, and asked China to do the same.

Trump: “Well, I would think that if they were honest about it they would start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens because how does a company that’s newly formed and all these companies if you look at — and by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”

At the same time, Trump is in trade negotiations with China. Trump has repeatedly made it clear that he thinks he has leverage over China and that they’re desperate to make a deal, while he’s willing to walk away if things don’t go his way.

Trump: “This is the worst year they’ve had. And it’s only going to get worse. So I think they want to make a deal too. We’re dealing with them, but I think they want to make a deal.”

Trump: “But let’s see whether or not they want to make a deal. I can tell you, they want to make it. Let’s see if they can get to the table.”

Trump: “I think they want to make a deal, I sort of think they have to make a deal. We’ll see what happens.”

Trump: “If they don’t want to make a deal, that’s fine. But I can tell you: They’re having one of the worst — I guess, the worst on record, and they want to make a deal. And if I were them, I’d want to make a deal, too. But we’ll see what happens.”

And if it wasn’t clear enough, just minutes before Trump called on China to interfere in the U.S. political process on his behalf, he explained his current posture toward the trade talks.

Trump: “I have a lot of options on China.  But if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous — tremendous power.”