Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) likes to lie to U.S. presidents.
He lied to Barack Obama in 2015 at the White House when he told him China would not militarize its artificial islands in the South China Sea.
He lied to Donald Trump in 2020 when he said China would increase U.S. imports by $200 billion under the Phase One trade agreement.
And he has lied to Trump repeatedly for the last two years.
In November 2025, Xi told Trump that China would suspend export controls on rare earths. That has not happened.
In May 2026, Xi told Trump that China would buy more U.S. farm goods. That has not happened.
And in May, Xi told Trump that Chinese airlines would buy at least 200 Boeing airliners. That has not happened.
Despite all of this, Trump seems oblivious to the fact he is being played. He seems to believe Xi is his friend.
“I think he’s behaved reasonably well, and we behave reasonably well,” Trump said of his relationship with the Chinese dictator as he flew home from a weekend in Ireland where he watched golf and casually expressed his support for Irish reunification.
It’s a sign of how much the currency of the word of the presidency has depreciated that this remark did not spark political crises in Dublin, Belfast and London.
Xi’s “reasonable behavior” includes support for Iran in the war Trump started.
On September 11, The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report alleging that “Chinese entities” provided Iran with satellite imagery of a U.S. base in Jordan in July. Three American service personnel died in the ensuing attack.
When Trump was asked about the report, he said this: “They basically do what we do.”
Providing lethal support to our adversaries is tantamount to an act of war against the U.S., John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Trump in a letter on September 18. “The United States does not help third parties kill Chinese soldiers, and we should expect the CCP to continue this murderous treachery unless consequences are imposed.”
If Trump won’t put a high price on the lives of U.S. troops, what else will he sell cheaply?
When Xi lied to Trump and said Taiwan is seeking to declare formal independence, as he evidently did in May, the result was that Trump parroted it to the world.
If Xi asks Trump not to sell weapons to Taiwan when the two meet this week, what will he promise?
To buy more jets, more chips? To sell more cars?
Only a fool would fall for it again.
Leave a Reply