Donald Trump, who openly admires and envies the world’s dictators and strongmen, chose the week of Joe Biden’s summit with Xi Jinping to lavish praise on the Chinese president — and trash the U.S. president.
After mocking Biden as confused, Trump, the former president and Republican frontrunner for 2024, said during a gala at his Mar-a-Lago home that Xi is “like a piece of steel — strong, smart,” according to a video obtained by Raw Story.
“There’s nobody in Hollywood who could play the role,” Trump added.
Biden, who turns 81 next week, and Xi have their first in-person meeting in more than a year Wednesday in California, with tensions high between the countries.
"We have a man who can't put two sentences together ... we have a guy who can't speak," Trump said of Biden. "It's very dangerous for our country."
Meetings between U.S. presidents and foreign heads of state are not traditionally times when a political candidate of any stripe would praise the foreign leader and denigrate the American president. Trump's campaign did not immediately answer a request for comment from Raw Story.
But Trump has previously praised an all-star lineup of autocrats, including Vladimir Putin of Russia, Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey.
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Before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Trump called him “smart.”
“I mean, he's taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions,” Trump said. “I'd say that's pretty smart. He's taking over a country — literally a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in.”
But while praising political strongmen, Trump, 77, himself has recently become confused.
"Viktor Orbán, did anyone ever hear of him, he is probably one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He is the leader of Turkey," Trump said at a campaign rally last month in New Hampshire, as noted by Business Insider. Orbán is the leader of Hungary. Turkey's president is Erdoğan. Trump later fixed his mix-up.
For Trump, his admiration of autocrats dates back to his entry into presidential politics.
In a 2016 political rally in Iowa, Trump famously praised Kim as deserving “credit” for his dispensing of political rivals.
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“How many young guys — he was like 26 or 25 when his father died — take over these tough generals and all of a sudden, you know, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it,” Trump said.
In 2018, as the sitting president, Trump said of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, “It could very well be that (Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t! We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
As a sitting president in 2020, Trump said of Erdogan, “He’s tough, but I get along with him. And maybe that’s a bad thing, but I think it’s a really good thing.”
From Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, former presidents have occasionally criticized their successors.
But the critiques were typically mild compared to those of Trump and almost never contrasted the performance of a sitting president with that of a foreign adversary.
