MAGA Republican President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, before the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit that is set for October 31 – November 1 at Gyeongju, about 53 miles away from the site of their meeting.
Trump isn't attending the summit, but made a stop in Gyeongju on Wednesday to meet with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, address APEC attendees, and get some shiny new gold trinkets for his collection.
Trump's post-Xi meeting assessment was high, with the POTUS saying:
"...on a scale from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12."
Trump added:
"It was an outstanding group of decisions I think that was made. A lot of decisions were made too, there wasn't too much left out there."
Despite Trump's bunch of words that didn't really say anything substantive, others had a very different viewpoint on the meeting's success.
India's Hindustan Times reported:
"Tense body language, muted diplomacy but no major deal. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s long-awaited Busan meeting ended with an awkward exchange caught on camera, as Trump tried to speak to Xi twice before the Chinese leader turned away."
The media outlet shared a video of the awkward interaction on YouTube.
The Hindustan Times added:
"While Trump hailed it as an 'amazing meeting,' Beijing offered only a one-year lift on rare earth export bans and no deal on AI chips. With no Taiwan talks and no trade breakthrough, the optics spoke louder than words—six years later, nothing truly changes between Washington and Beijing."
On social media, video of a Trump Xi photo-op went viral for its cringe factor.
Trump was effusive with his praise for Xi as they posed for photos, but the Chinese leader remained tight-lipped.
Trump gushed:
"The very very distinguished and respected President of China and we will be having some discussions, I think we have already agreed to a lot of things and we will agree to some more right now. But President Xi is a great leader of a great country and I think we're going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time..."
To Xi, Trump said:
"...and it's an honor to have you with us."
Xi barely responded. He barely looked at Trump, who looked like a student fawning over one of the popular kids—a position Trump often takes with the "strongmen" he admires: dictators and authoritarians like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Nayib Bukele.
People found it all a bit pathetic.
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Trump isn't going to make the nickname TACO go away any time soon with such foreign policy blunders.
Trump can try to spin his capitulation as a win, but no one outside the MAGAsphere will buy what he's selling—including China.
As a result of their less than two hour meeting, China agreed to buy fewer soybeans from the United States while Trump will be removing and lowering more tariffs on Chinese goods.
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