Donald Trump appears to be deeply enjoying his trip to China – but that’s not the only reason he’s been so quiet in the last few days. Here’s more from the trip – and all the other nonsense happening in Trumpworld while he’s gone
Donald Trump is enjoying himself in China.
He always seems in his element on foreign jollies like this – mainly because people keep lavishing him with praise, luxury and ceremonial welcomes, which is basically his whole deal. And he has been remarkably well behaved during this trip – just as he was on his state visit to the UK. There have been no wild outbursts, no meandering speeches and he has not, as yet, committed any news that wasn’t to do with the aims of the trip. Also curiously quiet has been his Truth Social account. After a week of him posting 50 or more times a night – often until the early hours of the morning – his personal social media presence has been largely zero since he got on Air Force One in Anchorage, Alaska on Tuesday. This may be down to him having had his phone taken off him for security reasons – the advice is to take burner devices if visiting China, lest they be hacked and turned into remote control bugs. It’s possible that even if he had his phone, he wouldn’t be able to get on Truth Social anyway. The website has been blocked in China since 2022. Even Elon Musk, also along for the trip, has been using a VPN to get onto X, because it too is blacklisted on the great firewall of China.
So as Depeche Mode would say, enjoy the silence. While it lasts, he’ll be back on Saturday and I imagine he’ll have a fair amount to say.
1. The White House posted a deeply weird video
The White House posted a deeply weird, cinematic video of Trump’s arrival in Beijing, with the caption “The arrival everyone has waited for.”
The clip shows Trump descending the steps of Air Force One, in delicious slow motion, before walking along the red carpet as a choreographed crowd of students cheered and waved Chinese red flags and US flags at him. Fair enough to big up the arrival, but the triumphal vibe of the video is decidedly odd – especially given the attitude of Trump’s party and his base to China, which ranges from suspicion to outright loathing.
2. He made a deeply unsettling comment about “children”
During the welcoming ceremony, there was a curiously choreographed appearance by a large group of children, who very suddenly started shouting and cheering for Trump and Xi, while waving flags and flowers.
Trump LOVED this, it seems. Because later at the bilateral meeting between him and Xi, he brought it up. “That was an honour like few have ever seen before,” Trump told Xi at the top of the meeting. “I think I was particularly impressed by those children. They were happy. They were beautiful. The military is obvious, it couldn’t be better, but those children were amazing.”
Eesh.
3. Fox News got a parking ticket because COMMUNISM
“Big brother is watching!” Fox News host Bret Baier complained on his programme last night, noting the thousands of cameras covering every inch of Beijing. “Our driver parked illegally for two minutes, and he got a message on his phone, and he got a ticket for about $40, because they saw it on the camera.”
4. Xi’s coming to America
During the state banquet this morning, Trump extended an invitation to President Xi to come to the White House in September. This was almost inevitable, no matter how the bilateral meetings went.
5. And Team Trump say the bilateral went very well.
“President Trump had a good meeting with President Xi of China,” begins the White House readout. “The two sides discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between our two countries, including expanding market access for American businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment into our industries. Leaders from many of the United States’ largest companies joined a portion of the meeting. The Presidents also highlighted the need to build on progress in ending the flow of fentanyl precursors into the United States, as well as increasing Chinese purchases of American agricultural products.”
Then it turned to Iran: “The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy. President Xi also made clear China’s opposition to the militarisation of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use, and he expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the Strait in the future. Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
That slightly puts paid to the idea floated by Trump last month of Iran and the US hatching a deal to charge people to use the Strait. Agreement on Iran not having a nuclear weapon will be welcomed by Trump, if nobody else.
The glaring absence in the readout is Taiwan – which according to the Chinese side was discussed, with Xi warning Trump that mishandling Taiwan risked “putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.” Currently the US position on Taiwan, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said was “unchanged”, is that America “does not support” independence. Xi might be wanting to firm that up to “opposing” it. But there’s certainly no sign of it going the other way. Meanwhile, Xi was expected to push Trump to agree to scale back or suspend weapons sales to Taiwan. Trump in December authorized an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own territory – but the US has not yet moved forward with delivery. Trump’s silence (more of which in a moment) might be an indication that he’s traded that away to get a win elsewhere. Equally, it could suggest it remains a sore subject.
6. Trump kept schtum on Taiwan
After the bilateral, Trump and Xi were obviously asked whether Taiwan had come up – and the US President was uncharacteristically restrained. Despite two shouted questions from members of the media, he refrained from his usual freewheeling and posed for photos in silence.
7. Trump’s speech at the state banquet was …mostly well behaved
Trump gave a relatively brief address at the State Banquet held in his honour in Beijing – with his usual “weave” slightly stepped on by having to stop every few sentences to allow his remarks to be translated. He peppered the speech with references to elements of Chinese influence that exist in American culture – from Benjamin Franklin quoting Confucius in his newspaper to Chinese restaurants outnumbering US fast food outlets in the States.
The menu, according to the White House, included some Chinese elements.
- Lobster in Tomato Soup,
- Crispy Beef Ribs,
- Beijing Roast Duck,
- Stewed Seasonal Vegetables
- Slow-Cooked Salmon in Mustard Sauce.
Guests also dined on Pan-Fried Pork Bun, Trumpet Shell-Shaped Pastry and Tiramisu, as well as fruits and ice cream.
8. How did they get around Marco Rubio being sanctioned by China?
Marco Rubio is subject to Chinese sanctions because of things he said about China when he was a Senator – which includes an entry ban. So how’s he managed to be on the US delegation to China on this trip? Well, the Chinese came up with a wicked diplomatic wheeze – they just…s pelled his name differently.
Shortly before he took office in January last year, the Chinese government started using a different Chinese character for “lu” at the beginning of his name.
9. Kash Patel accused of “padding” FBI stats
Meanwhile, in Washington, FBI Director Kash Patel has not been covering himself in glory this week. First there were his testy and lie-riddled exchanges with Senators which we covered yesterday. And Today MSNow, (which used to be MSNBC), reports he’s been juicing his figures. At his hearing yesterday he boasted that he had “almost doubled” the number of arrests made under his tenure as Director, as well as capturing people on the bureau’s famous “ten most wanted” list at a record pace. To start with, the outlet noted, the FBI has started recording immigration arrests when they ride-along with ICE on their tallies, which they haven’t before. Also, he seems to have coincidentally added people to the most wanted list hours or days before they were arrested.
There’s been a lot of chatter about Patel while Trump has been otherwise occupied. If I was a betting man, I might consider a flutter on how long he might remain in post.
10. Trump might be about to order America’s taxman to give him an enormous pile of money. Personally
So Trump is suing the IRS – the US equivalent of HMRC – for a Dr Evil amount of money in a feud that stems from the unauthorised leaking of his tax records back in 2020. He filed the suit seeking $10 billion – which is about ten times the annual budget of the IRS. It’s the first time a sitting president has sued another part of the executive branch – which he has control over. The guy who leaked his tax records has since been tracked down by the IRS and prosecuted. He’s serving FIVE YEARS in prison for his act of whistleblowing. In recent days and weeks, the judge has been making the kind of noises you make when you’re about to throw a case out – probing in particular whether the two sides here – Trump and his family and the Justice Department and IRS, both of which are overseen by Trump in his capacity as President, are actually on opposite sides of the issue. With this in mind, it seems weird that the Justice Department are reportedly discussing the possibility of settling the case, which would hand vast amounts of taxpayer’s cash directly to the President. (He says he’ll give it to charity, but he says a lot of things.) Also being discussed, according to the New York Times, is the possibility that a condition of the settlement might be that IRS could drop any audits of Trump, his family members or businesses. Which sounds like an awfully sweet deal for a President so openly grifting from the Oval Office.
11. Turns out RFK Jr hasn’t actually been doing surgery in Ohio
Talk about burying the lede. The website KFF News yesterday published a lengthy report of Health Secretary RFK Jr’s trip to Ohio, where he visited a daycare centre, a farm…and controlled a set of robotic surgical hands in the middle of someone’s actual heart surgery. This final detail did not appear until the EIGHTH paragraph of the story. “Under the careful watch of a surgeon, Kennedy briefly tested the teaching console of the renowned Cleveland Clinic’s robotic hands with a live patient splayed open for heart surgery in the room,” it read. This, understandably prompted widespread alarm and distress that a man with no medical training and whose brain had been partially eaten by a worm was performing major surgery.
It has since been clarified that no, RFK did not perform actual surgery, because the machine was disconnected when he started pushing buttons on it.
Still, though, with a patient literally open on the operating table, this doesn’t seem like a good time for the errant Health Secretary to be messing around with the kit, plugged in or not.