Donald Trump tweets 'China!' as State Department moves to expel students at American universities it claims are linked to the Communist Party - but press conference he trailed vanishes from schedule

President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about what economic steps he is planning to punish Beijing, simply tweeting 'China!' in an early Friday tweet.

The brief exclamation came just after 9 am, after Trump had attacked Twitter for its decision for his post about Minneapolis as 'glorifying violence' after he wrote: 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts.'

Adding to the confusion, Trump indicated Thursday he would hold a press conference Friday, but none appeared on the public schedule released by the White House late Thursday. 

 President Trump said Thursday that he planned to hold a press conference Friday about China, although it isn't on his public schedule 

He holds a roundtable with 'industry executives' at 4 pm where the president could choose to answer questions from White House pool reporters. 

'We'll be announcing what we're doing tomorrow with respect to China and we are not happy with China,' Trump said Thursday. 

The New York Times reported Thursday that the U.S. plans to expel thousands of Chinese graduate students and researchers with 'direct ties' to the regime's People’s Liberation Army.

There are an estimated 36,000 Chinese students studying in the U.S. – in an exchange that allows visiting students to build intellectual capital in the American university system while helping keep U.S. schools afloat with higher outside tuition prices. The Chinese state helps determine which students get the chance to study abroad. 

China's legislature endorsed a national security law for Hong Kong on Thursday that has strained relations with the United States and Britain

Pompeo brushed off concerns about a potential 'Red Scare' or racist discrimination against Chinese when Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked him about it.

'Laura, I’m not surprised to hear that from The New York Times, frankly. We’re taking seriously the threat that students that come here who have connections deeply to the Chinese state, they shouldn’t be here in our schools spying,' he said. 

'As a former CIA director, I take seriously the threat of espionage inside of our country. We know we have this challenge. President Trump, I am confident, is going to take that on. I don’t want to get in front of what he’s going to say tomorrow, but the American people should know that the Chinese Communist Party has worked to have enormous influence here in the United States,' Pompeo continued.

'This isn’t a “Red scare” and this isn’t racist. The Chinese people are great people. This is like the days of the Soviet Union; this is a communist, tyrannical regime that poses real risks to the United States. And we have an obligation – a duty – to make sure that students who are coming here to study, to take the benefits of coming to America to learn and to benefit from what we can provide to them, aren’t acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party,' he said. 

 Trump is also considering targeted travel and financial sanctions against Chinese officials in protest of Beijing's new national law cracking down on Hong Kong. 

Pompeo certified to Congress this week that Hong Kong can no longer be considered autonomous, given China's actions. The territory enjoys special trade privileges under its current agreement with China.

'We'll be announcing what we're doing tomorrow with respect to China and we are not happy with China,' Trump told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday. 'We are not happy with what's happened. All over the world people are suffering, 186 countries. All over the world they´re suffering. We´re not happy,' he said.

The Dow Jones average dropped 150 points in early trading amid fears of a resumption in the trade war. Trump has also accused China of foul play in the spread of the coronavirus.