Trump is talking about China trade progress days before the election – but there's reason for doubt

A week ago, President Donald Trump told a crowd at the White House that he had a message for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"They want to make a deal so badly. And I said, 'You're not ready yet. No, you're not ready. No.'" Trump said he told Xi. "I told him, 'You're not ready'"

With the midterm elections just days away, the president is singing a different song — and it seems to be buoying the stock market right on schedule.

Just a day after the president's top economic advisor Larry Kudlow said that the administration has not engaged the Chinese in "intense talks lately," the president said that trade discussions "are moving along nicely."

On Friday, a report that said Trump had asked U.S. officials to prepare a draft trade agreement with the country sent the market higher.

Investors hopeful for a trade deal are skeptical about the recent change in rhetoric, suggesting it could be heavy on politics and short on policy. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

"In my opinion, will all due respect to the president, he's talking up the stock market before the midterm elections," said Howard Ward, chief investment officer of Gamco Investors.

"There have been no discussions taking place between the China and the U.S.," Ward said on CNBC's Sqawk Box Friday. "There will be no deal next month."

Indeed, a senior administration official told CNBC on Friday that the U.S. and China were a long way from reaching an agreement.

"I think it's maybe temporary, because Tuesday is election day," said Richard Bernstein, the CEO of Richard Bernstein advisors. "We will see what happens Wednesday."

For months, administration officials have said that talks with China were stalling. The president has maintained the country is not ready to come to the table. Just over two weeks ago, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC that talks were on "hiatus."

Ross also cast doubt on the idea that a deal could be advanced during talks at the upcoming G-20 summit in Argentina.

"You can't do a multi-thousand page trade agreement in an hour," he said at the time.

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This week is not the first time that the market has risen on reports that the U.S. and China were nearing a deal. A similar situation played out over the summer. Ultimately, those talks came to nothing — with an official telling CNBC that there had been "zero" engagement between the two countries.

The off-and-on nature of the negotiating process has left a sour taste in the mouth of some investors.

"I challenge the White House to bring us a deal which we will then celebrate," Ward said. "It's not going to happen."

The trade gambit comes as the president has floated a number of other last-minute policy proposals that experts say are unlikely to come to pass, at least on the timeline the president has offered.

The president said last month that his administration was working on a "resolution" that would cut taxes on the middle class by the midterm elections, despite lawmakers having left Washington. That resolution has yet to materialize.

He has also pledged to sign an executive order doing away with birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, which experts say would amount to a broad re-interpreting of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution — something that is outside of the president's executive authority. Trump has said the issue will be resolved by the Supreme Court.

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