Trump has repeatedly changed his mind on meeting the Chinese president at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea since first announcing the encounter.

"So now we're going to have a fair deal, and I think we're going to have a very successful meeting. Certainly, there are a lot of people that are waiting for it," Trump told a lunch event with Republican senators at the White House.

But he then added: "Maybe it won't happen. Things can happen where, for instance, maybe somebody will say, 'I don't want to meet. It's too nasty.'" But it's really not nasty."

Trump first announced on September 19 that he would meet Xi in South Korea -- which would be their first encounter since his return to the White House -- and travel to China early next year.

But on October 10 he threatened to scrap the Xi talks and threatened China with massive tariffs after Beijing imposed export curbs on rare earth minerals, only to reverse course.

The US president has apparently softened his stance again though, saying as recently as Monday that they would meet and that his trip to China "fairly early next year" was "sort of set."

Xi is not the only leader the 79-year-old Trump has blown hot and cold on recently.

He said on Thursday that he would meet Russia's Vladimir Putin in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine. But the White House said Tuesday that there were now no plans for a meeting "in the immediate future."