US President Donald Trump holds a binder as he stands next to Chinese President Xi Jinping before Xi delivers a speech during a state dinner at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 24, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
MS NOW's Jen Psaki had some intense opinions on Thursday evening, as President Donald Trump entertained Chinese President Xi Jinping — and openly fawned over his authoritarian powers.
"What makes all of this so on the nose, so maddeningly ridiculous, is that the event those reporters were denied access to was a greeting ceremony Donald Trump is hosting for the leader of a country with a truly reprehensible record on press freedom and human rights," she said.
As a consequence of this, she continued, "We're not showing you images of this state visit because the pool is not covering these events. But for those of you who don't have the imagination to picture what the meeting looked like, we do have this a colorful description of the communist dictator straight from the president. And here's what he said. Quote, 'I met President Xi at the plane ... and he looked strong, vibrant, and fit better than ever.'"
But Trump didn't stop there, Psaki noted. When the second press spray happened, she said, Trump "made a jokeabout how the Chinese had thefriendliest press corps again." And it's this moment, in particular, that left her scandalized.
"I'm going to pauseon this for a moment, becauseTrump praised China's state-runmedia while he is activelybattling to prevent Americanmedia from covering hisadministration," she said.
This matters, she said, "because the prismthrough which you all of you,everybody receives informationabout what this White House isdoing and tries to hold themaccountable is through many ofthe media who are covering themevery day." And China, by contrast, "has a long, longhistory of suppressingindependent media outlets andof keeping independent pressfrom other countries out ofthese kinds of events."
"Itactually prompted a lot of battles through many presidents, Democrats and Republicans, over the course of the last several decades," she added. "And U.S. presidents are supposed to condemn that behavior. They usually do even when they're conducting delicate diplomacy."