A top economic adviser to President Trump said Monday the U.S. is ready to engage in serious trade talks with China, in comments that also shrugged off massive U.S. government budget deficits as largely a function of too much government spending and not tax cuts.

“The trade system around the world has been broken” and “China is the biggest culprit” for the current troubles, Lawrence Kudlow, head of the White House National Economic Council, told a gathering of the Economic Club of New York.

“Do...