The Art of the Kneel: Trump Bends Knee to China, Bigly

The Lincoln Project

News, Government, Politics, News Commentary

4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Donald Trump’s high-stakes meeting with Xi Jinping was supposed to project strength. Instead, it exposed exactly how weak, desperate, and dangerously unprepared he is for a real geopolitical showdown with China. This week, Rick's ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM breaks down Trump’s humiliating “Chyna” summit, his obsession with personal grift over American power, and why even before the cognitive decline, Trump never had the foreign policy discipline, strategy, or attention span to negotiate with Beijing. From trade wars and tariffs to global instability, Xi Jinping saw exactly what America’s allies and enemies now see: a fragile ego wrapped in chaos. Rick Wilson tears into Trump’s surrender politics, dictator worship, economic self-sabotage, and the terrifying reality that America’s global influence is shrinking while Trump keeps bowing for applause, leverage, and money. This is the collapse of American credibility in real time — and Beijing knows it.
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Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.

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Transcript

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1:04.4	Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battlehardt. There is not a liberal America and a
1:10.3	conservative America. There is not a liberal America and a conservative America.
1:11.7	There is the United States of America.
1:16.4	Good night and good luck.
1:18.6	Hey folks, welcome to the Elephant in the Room podcast.
1:22.0	This week's elephant in the room is China.
1:28.5	The second Trump term has been the single greatest accelerant of Chinese capability in the
1:34.8	world that anyone could have imagined.
	...

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