'Trump’s MAN-CRUSH on Xi’: Nicolle reacts to Trump FAWNING over Xi, parroting CCP talking points

[0:00] The reviews are in. The summit between Donald Trump and China's leader Xi Jinping was a huge [0:05] success for China. Donald Trump's profound political weakness is now on full display [0:11] for the entire world to see as Donald Trump leaves China largely empty-handed and parroting [0:17] the talking points of China's authoritarian leadership. During the trip, Donald Trump [0:21] took to his favorite network, Fox News, for an exercise in flattery. [0:26] We have a friendship, really. He's a tremendous leader. He's been here a long time, very powerful, [0:36] very strong. There's no doubt about it. I say about him that if you went to Hollywood and you [0:41] looked for a leader of China to play a role in a movie. Central casting. Central casting. You [0:48] couldn't find a guy like him. Even his physical features, you know, he's tall, very tall. I'll get [0:55] criticized. They always criticize me when I say good things about certain leaders and this one. [1:04] But he's a leader for China. He's led almost 1.5 billion people for a long time. And he's respected. [1:17] He's respected. He's so handsome. He looks like he's at essential casting. He's, quote, [1:21] powerful and strong. 27 percent of Americans agree with that assessment. 27 percent of Americans [1:29] approve of China. But Donald Trump's man crush on Xi is so deeply felt by Donald Trump and now on [1:39] public display that Trump went beyond complimenting the leader. He even parroted and agreed with [1:47] Chinese propaganda about the decline of his own country, the United States of America. [1:53] Donald Trump posted this on social media, quote, when President Xi very elegantly referred to the [1:58] United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we [2:04] suffered during the four years of sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden administration. On that score, [2:09] he was 100 percent correct, end quote. Trump went on to list a litany of complaints about America [2:16] and culture war grievances, things Donald Trump has said many times before, but not after being in [2:22] charge of the country for 18 months. That post appeared to be in response to President Xi [2:27] referencing the so-called Thucydides trap, a theory in which war erupts when an existing power is [2:34] threatened by rising power. Instead of defending the United States of America, Donald Trump threw in [2:42] with China's dictator, agreed with him in his assessment and criticism of his own country and [2:48] then tried to spin it away as a result of the policies enacted by his predecessor, who, as we said, [2:54] has been out of office for a year and a half now. All in all, Donald Trump's post underscored [3:01] who clearly, undeniably, came out the winner of the summit. On that, David Sanger of The New York [3:07] Times writes this, quote, Trump sounded conciliatory, the exact opposite of his portrayals of China and [3:13] public appearances back home. Mr. Xi, while smiling and welcoming to Trump, was quietly more [3:18] confrontational, especially on Taiwan, where he delivered an unequivocal warning. The gap spoke [3:25] directly to the new level of confidence and authority Mr. Xi has adopted in his public speech, [3:31] despite his challenges with the domestic economy, as he watches the United States plunge it to [3:37] Iran. Donald Trump leaving China on the defensive and empty handed is where we start today with [3:43] some of our favorite reporters in France. New York Times reporter Michael Crowley is here [3:47] with me for the hour, political analyst and host of the Bulwark podcast. Tim Miller is back [3:52] and back with me at the table. What could go wrong? Puck News senior political columnist, [3:57] national affairs analyst John Heilman is here. Michael Crowley, you and your colleagues had an [4:02] incredible live blog running as well as some great reporting and analysis. I read something from [4:08] David Sanger. And I honestly, I was homesick and I kind of kept updating it to see if I was missing [4:16] like the good news part of the trip. It was a pretty abysmal outcome for the United States of America and [4:24] Donald Trump. Well, Nicole, you know, I'm just really marveling here at the point that you struck [4:32] in that intro, which is the change in the president's tone toward China. And, you know, [4:38] you couple that with the fact that he launched a war in the Middle East with sort of unclear objectives [4:46] that was aimed at regime change or regime change war in the Middle East. And then went to China [4:51] and praised its leader and, and, you know, took a pretty soft line approach toward the U.S.-China [4:58] relationship. It's like, makes me wonder what's going to happen next. Like, is Trump going to, [5:02] you know, give Hillary Clinton a job in his administration? It's, it's just kind of amazing [5:06] how flexible this president has become to use a charitable word or so, or how dramatically [5:12] he's reversed some of his past positions. And just as a footnote to this, although it's not Trump [5:18] himself, I stumbled on something really interesting, which was that in 2012, no, I'm sorry, 2015, [5:24] Marco Rubio gave a big speech about China attacking President Obama. And he stopped just short of [5:30] saying that Obama should not, should cancel a visit from Xi Jinping at the White House because Rubio was [5:36] saying that Xi was, you know, committing atrocious crimes against humanity and oppressing his people, [5:41] but said, you know, Obama should not roll out the red carpet and basically not, you know, [5:46] treat him like his good buddy, because that's not how we treat authoritarian leaders like this. [5:50] So, you know, Rubio is part of this here also. And it's quite remarkable. Now, [5:55] the last thing I would say is, look, if there's good news here, it's that we are not on the brink of [6:00] a dangerous confrontation with China. I mean, a lot of, a lot of people that, you know, [6:05] national security experts were worried that we were in this kind of cycle of escalating rhetoric [6:11] and threats between Washington and Beijing that could spiral out of control. And, you know, [6:18] at least we're talking because there are so many important things, including AI, where we've got to [6:24] be on the same page. However, last point, the warning about Taiwan from Xi Jinping was kind of [6:31] chilling. That remains a very dangerous splash point. And it's not clear to me how President [6:36] Trump is thinking about that. So that remains a huge question mark out of all of this. [6:40] I mean, Trump said about Taiwan, what do we want to be in a war thousands of 9,500 miles away, [6:46] you know, almost the same distance as Iran? I mean, I mean, I think people who watch Taiwan [6:53] found the summit most ominous for the prospects of the Taiwanese and our alliance with Taiwan. I mean, [6:59] doesn't this make actual aggression there far more likely or far more palatable from Xi's [7:09] perspective? Yeah, it may well. It's an incredibly complicated issue, you know, that involves, [7:15] among other things, this chip manufacturer on the island that no one can afford to see heavily [7:21] damaged or destroyed because this one, like the whole global economy basically depends on this one [7:27] factory. But, you know, maybe if Xi Jinping thinks that President Trump is not going to put up any [7:33] kind of a fight, he can roll in and take it and that makes it safer. I do think that what [7:37] the president says and what he would actually do in a circumstance like that might not be the [7:42] same thing. I just think it's very difficult to predict. Having said all that, I think that [7:47] people in Taipei have got to be pretty freaked out right now about how President Trump is messaging, [7:53] because you'll recall on several occasions when President Biden was asked what he would do [7:58] if China made a move on Taiwan, Biden broke with official U.S. policy, which is to remain [8:04] ambiguous and to say that he would come to Taiwan's defense. The White House walked it back, [8:08] but Biden did it three times, which led me to believe that Biden was kind of playing a little [8:12] bit of a wink and nod game there. Definitely not what Trump is doing. [8:16] Let me show you, because we're at a moment where Trump's approval rating drops a little [8:22] bit every week, I want to show you how sort of the culture shapers assess the trap. This is from [8:30] The Daily Show. President Xi said that he hoped the two countries could avoid the so-called [8:39] Thucydides trap. It's a historic reference about a great power being threatened by the rise of another. [8:44] Imoji! Hit President Trump with a Thucydides trap? He could his brain go up a flight of stairs. [8:55] Come on, all right, President Trump, don't let this guy history mog you. Show him you can [9:00] communicate in equally sophisticated terms. Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber [9:07] the five largest fast food chains in the United States all combined. That's a pretty big statement. [9:13] Yeah. That's my president, putting his understanding of geopolitics into fast food terms. [9:22] He gives a summit speech like a third grader who got assigned China for his geography project. [9:28] In conclusion, China is a land of contrast, and I brought Panda Express for everyone. [9:37] So, Tim Miller, I think before Donald Trump started a war for which 9 to 17 percent of Americans [9:44] feel supportive and enthusiastic about, these could be read as sort of elite things that Trump doesn't [9:52] know anything. I think that now that his ignorance of geopolitical dynamics and his weakness on the [9:59] world stage has cost the lives of 13 American service members in a war in Iran for which there's [10:06] no explanation, no articulated endgame, and gas is going up by the day, I think his weakness on the [10:13] world stage is a different political calculation. How do you see this trip sort of fitting into an [10:19] increasingly troubling narrative for him? [10:22] And, Nicole, we're singing from the same hymn book like usual today, because that's exactly where I was [10:26] going to go with this. I think that because of what is happening in Iran, like the, whatever you want to [10:33] call this, confab, the summit, the non-result of the summit is actually worse than what we just laid [10:41] out, right? Like, if you removed Iran from the equation, it would have still been a pretty [10:47] humiliating summit. I mean, Trump ran on being a China hawk. He's got a lot of alleged China hawks [10:52] around him, like Mike Waltz and Rubio, et cetera, as Michael Crowley pointed out. And instead, he goes [10:58] there and just basically lies prostrate before she and talks about how hot and strong he is. [11:04] Like, I mean, honestly, if you can imagine what Fox would do if any democratic president would talk [11:10] about this, they're just minute by minute. It would just be about how weak and humiliating and [11:14] embarrassing the president is. And that's what our president is. He's extremely weak in the face of [11:20] this negotiation. And so, like, that would be one thing if we're talking about, like, big picture, [11:25] long-term geopolitical concerns, Thucydides trap, what happens with Taiwan in the future. But, like, [11:31] we have this acute crisis right now. And Iran is simultaneously, or excuse me, China is simultaneously [11:36] helping Iran somewhat in that crisis. They're also providing assistance to some of our prudative [11:44] allies in the region that now are dealing with shortages, you know, in gas and other, you know, [11:52] other products such as that because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. There have been multiple [11:58] articles by Mike's colleagues at the Times and Wall Street Journal and others about experts about how [12:02] China is taking this moment of our demonstrated weakness in Iran to kind of increase its footprint [12:08] around the globe. And so, like, Trump goes there for this summit with kind of like the Iran war, [12:14] with no clear objective, doesn't get anything out of it. And it happens amidst an ongoing conflict [12:20] that we started that is exposing us as being very ineffectual on the world stage. And on top of that [12:26] is harming people in our country and abroad. So it's just a total disaster class as far as I'm concerned.