President Donald Trump said he will not drop tariffs on China to get Beijing to come to the negotiating table.

The president discussed his stance on the tariffs, which he defended, in an interview with NBC's "Meet The Press" recorded Friday from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

"They said today they want to talk. Look, China, and I don't like this. I'm not happy about this. China's getting killed right now," Trump told host Kristen Welker. "They're getting absolutely destroyed. Their factories are closing. Their unemployment is going through the roof. I'm not looking to do that to China now. At the same time, I'm not looking to have China make hundreds of billions of dollars and build more ships and more Army tanks and more airplanes."

"You're not dropping the tariffs against China to get them to the negotiating table?" Welker asked.