As coronavirus cases in the US surge, President Trump isn't focused just on those statistics, administration officials say, but is also watching another set of numbers: exports to China.
The President gets regular briefings on agriculture sales to China and monitors those figures almost as closely as his White House pandemic team tracks statistics on the coronavirus, which had surpassed more than 121,000 cases and more than 2,000 deaths in the US by Saturday.Publicly, Trump is downplaying the importance of trade during the global pandemic.
Those numbers, which Agriculture Department officials say are produced to provide an unofficial snapshot of daily export trends but are not considered a replacement for monthly data from the Commerce Department, have reinforced Trump's view that preserving positive trade relations with China is a top priority.
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