President Trump rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, complete with a state dinner at the White House — a striking reversal from his years of blistering criticism of predecessor Barack Obama for doing exactly the same thing.
Trump personally greeted Xi on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, where military bands played, children presented bouquets, a cannon salute thundered, and two B-1 bombers flew overhead. On Thursday, he hosted Xi for a formal state dinner, the kind of event he once derided as a waste of money and a sign of weakness.
In 2016, at a campaign rally, Trump said, “We shouldn’t have dinners at all. We should be eating a hamburger on a conference table, and we should make better deals with China and others and forget the state dinners,” adding that they “cost a fortune.”
A year earlier, on Fox News, he declared he would not throw Xi a state dinner, saying, “I would not be throwing him a dinner… I’d get him a McDonald’s hamburger and I’d say, ‘We gotta get down to work.’” He went further, arguing that such hospitality was undeserved because China had “sucked all of our jobs and… the money right out of our country.”
Trump’s criticism extended to Obama’s handling of Xi even before Xi became president. In 2012, when then-Vice President Xi visited the Pentagon and received full military honors, Trump tweeted, “So wrong! @BarackObama is hosting China’s VP Xi Jinping today at the Pentagon with a full honor ceremony with music and cannons…”
He also slammed Obama in 2011 for hosting then-President Hu Jintao for a state dinner, saying, “We have the president of China come a few months ago to Washington and we give him a state dinner. Now, when people are screwing you, you don’t give them state dinners.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the apparent about-face. Trump’s decision to roll out the full diplomatic treatment for Xi drew bipartisan rebukes on Capitol Hill. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took to the floor Tuesday night to call Xi “a brutal, unelected, and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States.”
A group of Democratic senators issued a joint statement accusing Trump of “rolling out the red carpet for President Xi” while American families struggle with rising costs for gas, food, and housing, and warning that closed-door dinners could let “billionaire friends” strike deals that jeopardize U.S. jobs and security.
Trump’s summit with Xi came amid broader trade tensions and GOP unease over the president’s approach to Beijing. Earlier this year, when Trump traveled to Beijing, he received a red-carpet welcome but was greeted by China’s vice president, Han Zheng, rather than Xi himself.
On Friday, Trump praised the visit as a success, saying, “Tremendous strides” had been made. “A lot of very positive things happened, but America is very happy about this visit, and I’m sure China is very happy also,” he said. “Great things for both countries, and it’s been just very, very productive.”
The contrast between Trump’s past rhetoric and his current actions was not lost on political observers. During the 2016 campaign, he repeatedly used Obama’s state dinners for Chinese leaders as a foil to portray himself as a tougher negotiator. Now, as president, he has embraced the same trappings of diplomatic pomp he once mocked.
Trump also gave Xi a personal tour of the White House renovations during the visit, and some Republicans have tried to soften the optics, with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) jokingly suggesting a fast-food alternative to the formal banquet. But the symbolism of the week was unmistakable: the president who once said he’d hand Xi a McDonald’s burger instead of a state dinner was now toasting him in the East Room.
