Trump Says Xi’s ‘Declining Nation’ Reference Was About Biden-Era America

Trump said Xi was ‘100% correct’ on U.S. decline, but argued the Chinese leader was describing the country Biden left behind, not the one Trump now leads.
Trump Says Xi’s ‘Declining Nation’ Reference Was About Biden-Era America
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) is greeted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony in Beijing on May 14, 2026. Alex Wong/Getty Images
|Updated:

President Donald Trump on May 14 publicly agreed with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s suggestion that the United States had become a “declining nation,” and made clear that Xi was describing the country Joe Biden left behind, not the one Trump now leads.

“He was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100 percent correct,” Trump wrote on Truth Social from Beijing, where the two leaders were holding a two-day summit.

Google LogoMark Us Preferred on Google
Sean Tseng
Sean Tseng
Author
Sean Tseng is a Canada-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on Asia-Pacific news, Chinese business and economy, and U.S.–China relations.