Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands at a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 14, 2026.
On Thursday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping used an ancient literary reference to insult the United States during a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump. The president, meanwhile, has been accused of diminishing his office through his displays of deference to the U.S. adversary.
The insult in question came as Xi delivered a statement on the conditions necessary for the U.S. and China to avoid war, during which he referred to “the Thucydides trap,” which, according to the Guardian, "refers to the phenomenon, defined by the Greek historian, of tensions that arise when an emerging power challenges the dominance of an established power.” Xi first invoked the phrase in his summit with Trump in Beijing in May, asking the US president how he planned to avoid it.
“President Xi just insulted Trump and the USA, right to Trump's face -- in the White House,” posted distinguished strategic studies professor Phillips P. O’Brien. “Xi referred, yet again, to the ‘Thucydides trap.’ This is a reference to the US being in decline and China replacing it. And Trump sits there making moo eyes like a lovestruck teenager.” Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul seconded this assessment, posting, “When Xi invokes the Thucydides Trap, as he did again today, he means he sees China as the rising power and the U.S. as the declining power. Kinda weird for an American president to just let that go, especially in remarks delivered in the White House. But these are not normal times.”
This wasn’t the only criticism delivered of Trump’s behavior at the summit so far. On Wednesday, he took the unusual step of meeting Xi as he arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington D.C. “It was a remarkable act of deference,” asserted the Atlantic. “By tradition, American presidents don’t make the 12-mile trip to the base to greet a foreign leader. They instead wait at the White House, backed by the grandeur and power of the executive mansion. But not this time.” What’s more, notes the Atlantic, “Xi did not display the same level of hospitality when Trump visited Beijing.”
According to the Atlantic, Trump will continue to “extend the pageantry” by throwing “a glitzy state dinner for the Chinese president. Trump’s trip to Andrews last night underscored the lengths to which he is willing to go to flatter Xi; there have been only a handful of times when a president has greeted a visiting leader at the base — among them, a pair of pontiffs (the most recent was President Obama greeting Pope Francis in 2015) and the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was welcomed by President Dwight Eisenhower at the height of the Cold War. This time, both the United States and China's anthems were played, and a cannon sounded. Xi glanced above as a pair of B-1 bombers flew overhead. Trump winced at the noise.”