‘There’s always a video': Trump’s 2015 comments on Xi Jinping state dinner resurface

The internet adage “there’s always a tweet” continues to ring true in the case of US president Donald Trump, as a 2015 Fox News interview in which the then Republican candidate talked about Chinese president Xi Jinping has resurfaced online amid the latter’s state visit this week.

Images captured by Getty show Jinping enjoying a state dinner with first lady Melania Trump, as well as X/Twitter owner Elon Musk and Apple executive chair Tim Cook.

Except, more than a decade ago, the Potus had a completely different stance on holding a state dinner for Jinping, telling Bill O’Reilly, then the presenter of The O’Reilly Factor that he “would not be throwing him a dinner” if he was president.

“I’d get him a McDonald’s hamburger and say, ‘we’ve got to get down to work, because you can’t continue to devalue’. We’re giving him a state dinner and what he has done is sucked all of our jobs,” he said.

The contrast between his position on a state dinner for Jinping in 2015 versus 2026 has since been pointed out by X/Twitter users, with journalist Molly Jong-Fast simply writing: “Trump did in fact throw XI a state dinner”:

“Saying all this and then turning around and giving Xi the most elaborate state dinner is crazy work,” said political commentator Covie:

Republicans Against Trump said: “There’s ALWAYS a video. Or a tweet”:

Mother Jones DC bureau chief David Corn simply tweeted: “Hahahahahahahahaha”:

And political commentator Brian Krassenstein asked: “Any comment MAGA?”:

Awkward.

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