Trump Fires Off Frantic Post After Reports Say China’s Xi Views U.S. in Decline

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

President Donald Trump fired off a frantic post on Thursday claiming President Xi Jinping called the U.S. a “declining nation,” and clarifying that the Chinese leader was referring to “damage” from former President Joe Biden’s tenure.

Trump’s post marks the first remarks he’s made on Truth Social since arriving in China on Wednesday. The president heaped praise on Xi at their first official meeting upon arrival, telling him, “It’s an honor to be your friend.” Talks between the two presidents continued on Thursday, with Trump telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that Xi said he’d “love to” help the U.S. and Iran secure a peace deal that sees the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Yet Trump’s Thursday post stuck a slightly different tone, referencing reports that Xi views the U.S. as an empire in decline.

“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct,” wrote Trump. “Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!”

The president then went on to list some of his achievements while in office, notably calling out the U.S. operation in Iran as something “to be continued,” despite the ongoing ceasefire.

President Xi was not referring to the incredible rise that the United States has displayed to the world during the 16 spectacular months of the Trump Administration, which includes all-time high stock markets and 401K’s, military victory and thriving relationship in Venezuela, the military decimation of Iran (to be continued!) — Strongest military on earth by far, economic powerhouse again, with a record 18 trillion dollars being invested into the United States by others, best U.S. job market in history, with more people working in the United States right now than ever before, ending country destroying DEI, and so many other things that it would be impossible to readily list.

“In fact, President Xi congratulated me on so many tremendous successes in such a short period of time,” Trump continued. “Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline. On that, I fully agree with President Xi! But now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world, and hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!”

Multiple outlets have recently highlighted a growing perspective among Chinese leadership that the U.S.’s favor is falling while China’s rises.

The New York Times ran a piece on Tuesday headlined, “China Increasingly Views Trump’s America as an Empire in Decline.” The article cited Chinese nationalists and state-linked commentators as believing that Trump’s stewardship over the U.S. “validates Mr. Xi’s worldview centered on ‘the rise of the East and decline of the West.'”

The article cites a study showing that official Chinese sources’ use of terms relating to “American decline” doubled last year.

Asia Group Chairman Kurt Campbell went further, directly invoking Xi’s state of mind in a Foreign Affairs piece on Monday.

“Xi believes firmly that China’s rise is a historical certainty and that the United States will continue its hurtling decline—a viewpoint that imbues him with unwavering confidence as he prepares to meet Trump,” he wrote.

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