Trump's campaign tough talk on China EVAPORATES in real world test

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

MS NOW, Jen Psaki

Politics, News, Ms Now, Versant Media, Versant

4.4 • 975 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jen Psaki looks at the boasts and promises Donald Trump made on the campaign trail about how he would handle China and President Xi, and compares that to Trump's performance on an actual trip to China.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	When Donald Trump was running for president, you may remember this.
0:04.0	He had a question he loved to ask.
0:06.4	A particular thought experiment about a tete-a-tete between Vice President Harris and President Xi.
0:12.6	And it went like this.
0:15.2	Kamala Harris is so incompetent.
0:17.9	Can you imagine her dealing with President Xi of China? Can you imagine her dealing
0:22.7	with President Xi? Can you imagine with President Xi? Can you imagine her negotiating with President
0:28.9	Xi of China? Can you imagine her standing with President Xi of China? I don't think so.
0:34.5	Can you imagine? He said that so many times.
0:38.2	I mean, Trump spent that campaign railing about China's influence in the world, and he repeatedly insisted that he alone was the only candidate tough enough to go toe to toe with President Xi of China.
0:49.4	He was the only person who could show Xi whose boss.
0:53.7	Well, Donald Trump just finished his first state
0:55.9	visit to China in his second term. And how did it go? Did big, bad Donald Trump stand up to
1:02.1	the Chinese leader? We have a friendship, really. He's a tremendous leader. He's been here
1:09.8	a long time, very powerful, very strong.
1:13.2	There's no doubt about it.
1:14.5	I say about him that if you went to Hollywood and you looked for a leader of China to play a role in a movie.
1:22.3	Central casting.
1:23.4	He's central casting.
1:24.3	You couldn't find a guy like him.
1:26.9	Even his physical features, you know, he's tall, very tall.
1:31.7	Now get criticized.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MS NOW, Jen Psaki, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of MS NOW, Jen Psaki and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.