Before Donald Trump arrived in China, some of his supporters expressed confidence in his ability to deliver real results during the trip. Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, for example, emphasized Trump’s ghostwritten book “The Art of the Deal” and said the president had “what he needs” to reach breakthroughs with Xi Jinping.
Around the same time, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also cited the president’s book before telling Fox News viewers, “He’s the strongest leader of your and I’s time, period.”
Apparently, officials in Beijing were less impressed. Reuters reported:
U.S. President Donald Trump left China on Friday with no major breakthroughs on trade or tangible help from Beijing to end the Iran war, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host, Xi Jinping.
Trump’s visit to America’s main strategic and economic rival, the first by a U.S. president since his last trip in 2017, had aimed for tangible results to lift his sagging approval ratings before midterm elections in November. Xi will visit the U.S. in the fall at Trump’s invitation, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
Trump reportedly hoped to make some progress on Chinese policy toward Iran, but by all accounts, there were no breakthroughs. He also hoped to advance U.S. trade policy, but despite some rhetoric about vague “deals,” the White House had nothing of substance to point to after the trip wrapped up.
A related report from the Financial Times added that Xi “conceded little” to Trump and said that their discussions “yielded no clear breakthroughs on the big foreign policy and economic fissures between the two countries and fell short of delivering the sort of big business deals the White House covets from international summits.”
Indeed, the American president who arrived in China in a position of weakness was no better off upon exiting the country. If anything, Trump established a new equilibrium that elevated the U.S. rival. As a New York Times analysis explained:
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Mr. Xi arrived highly scripted, leaving no doubt that for all of China’s problems — deflation, depopulation, the bursting of the real estate bubble — the moment when China acts as a peer superpower had arrived.
At every turn, at least as he began his two-day trip to China, Mr. Trump sounded conciliatory, the exact opposite of his portrayals of China in public appearances back home, where during his presidential campaigns he has talked about the country as a job-stealer and national security threat. Mr. Xi, while smiling and welcoming to Mr. Trump, was quietly more confrontational — especially on Taiwan, where he delivered an unequivocal warning.
No progress on Iran, no progress on trade, no progress on tariffs, but a stern lecture on Taiwan.
Behold, the towering dealmaker of our time.
After the trip wrapped up, the Republican apparently felt compelled to respond to a rather brutal claim from the Chinese leader that the public hadn’t heard. “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,” Trump argued by way of his social media platform.
So to recap, the Republican who traveled around the planet to make headway with China left empty-handed, though he was inclined to endorse the Chinese president’s unheard insult regarding the United States — amid reports that Beijing actually sees Trump as evidence of American decline.
Trump’s first trip to China, in November 2017, was largely a flop. Nearly a decade later, his second excursion was worse.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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