CNN contributor Rick Santorum said he was personally offended on Sunday after conservative writer Bill Kristol attacked President Donald Trump's trade policy.

During a segment about Trump's trade war with China, Kristol noted that the president seems "demoralized" and "depressed."

"His economists have told him privately we're slowing down and we're at some risk of toppling into a recession," Kristol explained. "His political people have told him his numbers are going down not up."

The conservative writer pointed to Trump's racist attacks on black lawmakers as one mistake he has made.

"He's sees bad economic news coming and he sees bad political news coming and he's a demoralized guy," Kristol said.

Santorum disagreed.

"I don't see that at all," Santorum quipped. "He hates being there. You give him too much credit for these things. Look, he just hates being at these meetings. He doesn't like the dynamics that are going on there."

Kristol interrupted: "So he hates being at the White House, he hates being in those meetings, he hates governing! What does he like? He's not a happy warrior."

"What you're seeing is a president engaged in a battle that presidents for generations have said they will fight and none of them have," Santorum remarked. "He's taking on China and he's doing it in a way -- some people can quibble and saying he's doing it the right way or wrong way -- but he's doing it!"

"That's total nonsense!" Kristol shot back.

"The [Trans-pacific Partnership treaty] would have done more damage to China than anything Trump has done!" Kristol exclaimed. "Because people like you demagogued it and people on the left like Bernie Sanders."

"Don't demean people who have different opinions," Santorum complained.

"A lot of the attacks on the TPP were pure demagogury," Kristol observed.