From ‘cheats’ to ‘great friendship’: How Trump’s rhetoric on China changed

When Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington on Wednesday evening, United States President Donald Trump rolled out a warm and unusually lavish welcome for his Chinese counterpart.

Trump went down to Joint Base Andrews near Washington to greet Xi on the tarmac – the first time a US president has greeted a foreign leader in such a way since 1962, when John F Kennedy welcomed UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Though the Xi-Trump meeting delivered little significant shift in relations beyond extending a fragile trade war truce for another two months, Washington laid on hours of pageantry, more pomp and lavish tours for Xi’s entourage, and praise for the Chinese president and his wife.

But the warmth on display in Washington this week contrasts starkly with the language Trump has used to characterise Beijing and Xi in the past. We map how the language of communication, and the larger relationship, has changed over a decade.

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Xi got Trump's red carpet welcome - but not everything he wanted

How has Trump talked about China in the past?

Here are some examples of how Trump addressed Xi and China.

‘Cheating’: August 2012

On Twitter, now X, Trump posted: “No surprise that China was caught cheating in the Olympics. That’s the Chinese M.O.– Lie, Cheat & Steal in all international dealings.”

‘Take them to McDonald’s’: July 2015

Trump said at a campaign event in South Carolina: “You can win against China if you’re smart. But our people don’t have a clue. We give state dinners to the heads of China. I said, why are you doing state dinners for them? They’re ripping us left and right. Just take them to McDonald’s and go back to the negotiating table.”

‘Enemy’: 2015

In his book, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, Trump wrote: “There are people who wish I wouldn’t refer to China as our enemy. But that’s exactly what they are. They have destroyed entire industries by utilizing low-wage workers, cost us tens of thousands of jobs, spied on our businesses, stolen our technology, and have manipulated and devalued their currency, which makes importing our goods more expensive – and sometimes, impossible.”

‘Rape our country’: May 2016

At an election campaign rally in Indiana, Trump stated: “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing. It’s the greatest theft in the history of the world.”

‘Ripped us off’: September 2020

At a Labor Day news conference at the White House, President Trump stated: “ … there’s been no country anywhere, at any time, that’s ripped us off like China has. We’ve lost billions and billions and billions of dollars by dealing with China. And they take that money, and they build their military.”

‘Screw the USA’: April 2025

Speaking with reporters amid the escalating US-China trade war, President Trump said: I don’t blame China at all [for the US losing billions of dollars in trade with Beijing]. I don’t blame President Xi. I like him. He likes me. Who knows? Who the hell cares, frankly. … I don’t blame China. I don’t blame Vietnam. I don’t – I see they’re meeting today. Isn’t – that’s a lovely meeting. They’re meeting, like, trying to figure out, “How do we screw the United States of America?”

Why has Trump changed his tune now?

“Great gentleman.”

“Very good trading relationship.”

“Truly great friendship.”

Those are just a few of the phrases Trump has used this week to describe Xi and Beijing.

This week’s state visit was the first by a Chinese leader to the US in 11 years. But it is also the third time in less than a year that Trump and Xi have met face to face, as the two powers remain uneasily gridlocked in competition over the development of AI, access to rare-earth metals, the question of Taiwan, and the Iran war.

Overhanging it all is the paused, but simmering, trade war between two nations.

Early into his second term at the White House, Trump upped tariffs on Chinese goods as he accused China of facilitating the flow of fentanyl, a deadly drug, to the US. Beijing responded with its own levies and restricted exports of valuable rare-earth metals, crucial for the development and manufacture of everything high-tech, from smartphones to fighter jets.

At its peak, tariffs headed towards 150% by each side before being paused to allow time for talks in October last year.

But nearly a year since the two sides called that temporary truce, the US position is not as strong as China’s, analysts say.

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Key takeaways from Trump-Xi talks in the US

Trading deficit

First, despite Trump’s ambition of reducing trade deficits with other countries via his campaign of tariffs, the gap between China and the US has widened – and not in favour of the US.

Washington’s overall trade deficit has remained stagnant and, in fact, risen in some quarters. Between May and July 2025, the US recorded a combined goods trade deficit of about $277bn, according to Census Bureau data. In the same period in 2026, the deficit reached $325bn, an increase of 17.4%.

Meanwhile, Beijing has been minting profits. China’s total goods exports rose 6.1% in 2025, reaching about $3.77 trillion, according to its National Bureau of Statistics. Until August this year, China had a goods trade surplus of about $820bn – already approaching the mammoth 2025 full-year surplus of roughly $1.2 trillion.

The equation is such that US-China’s bilateral trade has been in a near free-fall over the last two years, just as the US national debt hit a record $40bn this year – two years ahead of expectations.

“Washington is playing a high-stakes game of economic chicken with a $40 trillion debt load, an inflationary sword of Damocles, zero fiscal cushion to absorb a truce collapse and a dependence [on] Chinese industrial and manufacturing inputs,” Beijing-based Einar Tangen, a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, told Al Jazeera.

US consumers and the economy in general will find it tough to survive yet another inflationary shock from renewed tariffs “at a time when the federal budget already operates like a high-wire Ponzi scheme,” he added.

Trump simply can’t afford for the trade truce to collapse now.

Rare earth minerals

Second is China’s ace card of rare earth metals. These are crucial for the development of AI and defence sectors as they are used in the manufacture of all things tech, from smartphones to fighter jets. China has 60% of the world’s known deposits of these minerals, and processes 90% of them. During the trade war last year, China restricted exports of seven of the 12 it has in April, and threatened to restrict five more before the truce delayed that.

China, therefore, has huge leverage and Trump has little choice but to play nice, observers say.

What are the main outcomes from the Xi-Trump summit?

The bottom line is that the meeting in Washington showcased the two nations’ potential for bilateral relations rather than any grand bargain in the making. While the trade truce was extended, major strategic disputes like the question of Taiwan, the war on Iran, as well as tensions over trade and technology remain unresolved.

Trade truce extended: The US and China agreed to extend their existing trade truce, which had been due to expire in November, giving negotiators more time to work towards a broader agreement. The extension now runs to January 10.

No breakthrough on Iran: Trump had wanted Beijing to use its influence with Tehran to help isolate Iran economically and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. No breakthrough was reported.

Taiwan remains unresolved: Xi urged Trump to oppose Taiwanese independence and handle the Taiwan issue “prudently”, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. The White House has not commented on it so far; however, a second, $14bn arms deal between the US and Taiwan, following an $11bn sale announced in December last year, remains on hold.

Push for stable relations: Both leaders signalled a desire to prevent further deterioration in ties. Xi called for competition to remain “within bounds” and warned against the “Thucydides Trap” of conflict between a rising and established power.

AI race: In advance of the talks, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington had proposed an AI “notification mechanism” with China – in effect, a hotline to alert each other when AI incidents threaten national security.