President Donald Trump tried to spin Xi Jinping’s apparent suggestion that the U.S. was a declining power by claiming he knew what the Chinese president was really talking about: the Biden administration.
Trump, 79, posted on Truth Social at 5:42 a.m. Beijing time, apparently referencing Jinping’s comments the day before in which he warned that the U.S. and China should not fall into a “Thucydides Trap.”
That term, coined by international relations theorist Graham Allison in the early 2010s, references the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 404 B.C. Athenian general and historian Thucydides wrote in his History of the Peloponnesian War, “The rise of Athens frightened Sparta and forced them into war.”
Xi, according to the Western view, likened China to Athens.
“Can China and the United States overcome the ‘Thucydides Trap’ and establish a new paradigm for relations between great powers?” he asked, echoing comments he made back in February 2014.
But to Trump, any potential suggestion by Xi about declining U.S. power on the world stage should be interpreted as being strictly about the U.S. under the Biden administration. His comments didn’t apply to what has happened since noon on Jan. 20, 2025, just 16 months ago, he claimed.
“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 wrote. “Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!”
Trump then listed what he described as accomplishments, which he claimed his counterpart wasn’t talking about. They included “economic powerhouse again,” “best U.S. job market in history,” and “so many other things that it would be impossible to readily list.”
However, Chinese leaders have been talking about the “decline of the West” for years, and Chinese nationalists have said Trump has only accelerated that process, according to The New York Times.
The U.S., Chinese leaders and their advisers say, is “declining but dangerous,” The Atlantic reports.
When asked about this context, the White House merely referred the Daily Beast to Trump’s post.
When meeting Xi, Trump dished out flattery. Xi did not sound nearly as conciliatory.
