President Donald Trump’s desperate campaign to spin his China visit as a victory for the U.S. is running into a massive roadblock, his longtime biographer has said.
Author Michael Wolff said Trump’s efforts to cast himself as the winner in a face-off against Chinese President Xi Jinping are undercut by China’s political, economic, and military might, which were on full display as top U.S. officials paraded around Beijing in a two-day summit.
“I mean, I don’t see how you can characterize what happened in China as anything more than a win for the Chinese and an embarrassment for Trump,” Wolff told the Daily Beast’s executive editor, Hugh Dougherty, in a new episode of Inside Trump’s Head.
“Let’s remember: China was the point of Trump’s political enterprise. China was responsible for all of the problems in America… This was Trump’s central issue—[it] was the central issue in 2016, remained the central issue when he came back into office,” he continued. “In 10 years of the Trump era, we have only seen China become more powerful economically, politically, and in their military. So that’s what Trump has accomplished.”
On Wednesday, China rolled out the red carpet—literally—in a lavish welcome for Trump and several of his top officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The American delegation was greeted by upbeat dancers, treated to a tour of a sprawling leadership compound, and regaled with a massive show of force.
Despite the elaborate display, the Trump administration has tried to paint the visit as a win for America.
The White House posted a minute-long video of China’s military with the caption, “American strength back on the world stage.” But the post was swiftly inundated with responses pointing out that the video seemed more like a display of Chinese strength than American.
“Well, we have a relationship, he and I, and we’ve been working together a long time. We’ve gotten along well,” Trump later told Fox News of Xi. “When I first came here, China was really taking advantage of the United States. He understands that, and now we do great with China, and we have a very good relationship.”
Wolff said Trump’s ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ act toward China has suddenly turned him into ‘Mr. Nice Guy.’
“It’s interesting that he can go from pure confrontation to pure sucking up,” he said. “Again, there are no goals here. The goals are really irrelevant to the fact that Trump can come out of a situation and say, ‘I won,’ which he’s doing now. ‘It’s all great. Everything is perfect. Nothing to see here. All good.’”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wolff said Trump still understands that the public could see the other side of the story.
He said, “I think he probably does understand, ‘Man, these Chinese, this has been a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. We’re really kind of screwed here. So how do I look—me personally—look less screwed?’”
The answer, Wolff speculated, could come in the form of “side deals galore.”
On Friday, Trump announced that aircraft manufacturer Boeing will sell 200 planes to China—its first major sale to the country in nearly a decade—following the glitzy summit.
“We had a very successful trip to China and accomplished our major goal of reopening the China market to orders for Boeing aircraft,” the company said in a statement.
“It’s always ‘Look, what’s the silver lining here?’ and what’s the silver lining is always how much money can we make off of this. You know, life is a transaction,” Wolff said. “How do we get something? Even if the overall deal is not looking good, maybe there’s side deals we can we can get. And I think that we’re going to see likely side deals galore.”
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