US officials are set to meet their Chinese counterparts in Beijing this week for face-to-face talks. It is the first time the two sides have met since Mr Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day truce in their bitter trade war in December.
The trade war has seen Mr Trump impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, while China has retaliated with tariffs of its own.
But the US President insisted that his tariffs were putting pressure on China.
Mr Trump said: “I think China wants to get it resolved. Their economy’s not doing well.
“I think that gives them a great incentive to negotiate.”
He said that talks were going “very well”, adding: “I really believe they want to make a deal.”
Earlier this week, Mr Trump took to Twitter to defend his tariffs.
He said: “The United States Treasury has taken in MANY billions of dollars from the Tariffs we are charging China and other countries that have not treated us fairly.
“In the meantime we are doing well in various Trade Negotiations currently going on. At some point this had to be done!”
It comes as Mr Trump is locked in a stand-off with Congress over his proposed wall along the US-Mexico border, which has caused a partial government shutdown.
Parts of the federal government were closed on December 22 after Mr Trump reached an impasse with lawmakers over his demands for the wall.
Mr Trump said on Sunday that he should not have to lower his demand for $5.6bn (£4.4bn) funding.
And he warned that he could declare a national emergency and use the military to construct the wall.
He also said he was willing to accept a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall.