A Fox News reader comments: “I wish Trump would stop saying that he has a good relationship with Xi. China is out to dominate the world economically and militarily” (May 5, 2026).
On her live stream recently, Lei of Lei’s Real Talk interviewed and translated for a Chinese pundit, Jingyuan Tang, who says that President Trump’s talk about how Xi Jinping is his “friend” is just “a diplomatic expression…. I noticed that if Trump is very polite when describing someone, then that means that person is probably his opponent…. The CCP leadership is rather fearful of Trump.”
Various theories compete. Maybe Trump is confused about the nature of friendship and could benefit from a perusal of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Maybe Trump’s doublespeak about Xi is intended to soothe as he whacks the CCP over the head with a two-by-four.
When asked what he expects to accomplish with respect to the Iran war when he meets with Xi in Beijing, Trump says:
“I have a very good relationship with President Xi. You know, I find him to be a tremendous guy, and we get along well. And you see how we do.
“We do a lot of business with China and [are] making a lot of money. We’re making a lot of money. It’s different than it used to be, but I’ll be talking about—that’ll be one subject.
“But he’s been very nice about this. You know, in all fairness, he gets like 60% of his oil from Hormuz. And he’s been, I think he’s been very respectful.”
You—or not you, someone else—could say that in addition to being a scumbag totalitarian dictator—an oppressor and a killer—Xi Jinping is a very sweet, nice guy, very respectful, a tremendous guy, and easy to get along with. Is he, to President Trump, “another self” (Nicomachean Ethics IX.4, 1166a31; IX.9, 1170b5-7)? No.
