'Umm….nope': Fox's Laura Ingraham skewered for 'epic' flip-flop on China

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has criticized the Chinese Communist Party for years. On Friday night, she told viewers that the White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping was "historic and epic," and critics online didn't let the change go.

Ingraham, who attended the dinner, brought up her past criticism of Beijing on her show, "The Ingraham Angle."

"All of you already know how I feel about the CCP, its trade practices, human rights abuses. Not to speak of the cover-up at the Wuhan lab," she said. "Imagine my surprise that I was invited. It was historic and epic."

In another segment, which ran under the chyron "TRUMP DEALING WITH XI FROM STRENGTH," she argued that President Donald Trump has the upper hand.

"China needs us way more than we need China," Ingraham said. "Our economy is booming."

Acyn Torabi, who posts political video clips on X, shared both segments. The replies came quickly.

Tennis great Martina Navratilova, an outspoken Trump critic, quote-posted the economy clip with a short response: "Umm….nope."

John Harwood, a former White House correspondent for CNN and CNBC, answered the dinner clip by throwing Ingraham's word back at her: "this is epic."

An X user posting as "Radio Justice" compared her upbeat economic talk to what a loyalist might have told Hitler late in World War II.

"Yes, Mein Fuhrer, we are winning the war on the Russian Front," the user wrote.

Jill E. Friedman, a writer and sculptor, replied with a GIF of Will Ferrell laughing as Ron Burgundy.

"No they don't," she also wrote.

Ingraham's evening at the dinner also drew attention because of who wasn't there. Reporters from CNN and MS Now were reportedly kept out of the event. A federal judge had ordered the administration earlier that week to restore the press credentials it pulled from those outlets and Politico.