Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Joint Base Andrews with a literal red carpet while his own party was in Dallas days earlier screaming about communism. Senate Republicans are now publicly saying they wish the White House had never made the call — and they're saying it to Fox News, which should tell you something about how bad the optics are.
The Convention Was Literally Called 'Common Sense vs. Communism'
Republicans held their midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month. The rallying cry they left with, the bumper sticker they were supposed to plaster across every competitive Senate race from now until November, was: "Common sense versus communism." The whole message was that while Trump's name isn't on the ballot, his agenda is. Communism bad. America good. Vote accordingly.
Then, about two weeks later, Trump welcomed the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party to Washington with a red carpet welcome at Joint Base Andrews — the first time a U.S. president has greeted a foreign dignitary there since 2015, according to Fox News. Two new pandas were apparently on the table. Chinese electric vehicles built on American soil are apparently under consideration. And a man whose party just trademarked anti-communist messaging hosted a summit so lavish that his own senators are now going on record to say they wish it hadn't happened.
Republicans Are Not Happy, and They Are Saying So Out Loud
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, did not pull his punches. "Quite frankly, had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States of America," Wicker told Fox News Digital. He listed what he called "troubling issues" with Xi and the Chinese Communist Party, which is a polite way of saying he thinks this whole thing was a bad idea.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina pointed out the obvious contradiction with admirable directness. "I mean, the president campaigned on an anti-China policy," Tillis said. "You go look at those MAGA rallies and look at everybody cheering when he said he's gonna take it to China." He then added: "Any time we roll out the red carpet for a despot from Russia, or a despot from China, I feel the same way. It's kind of not good." Senator John Cornyn of Texas said he was not "enthusiastic" about the summit and described China alongside Russia, Iran, and North Korea as an "axis opposed" to the United States. "I hope the president's clear-eyed about who he's dealing with," Cornyn said. "He tends to call some of these dictators friends, and they're no friend. I can guarantee."
The White House Has an Explanation, If You Want to Call It That
The White House told Fox News Digital that this is all just reciprocal hospitality. Trump visited Beijing in May, Xi treated him well, so now Trump is returning the favor. "President Xi hosted President Trump in China for a historic summit this summer, and President Trump is reciprocating his hospitality by welcoming the Chinese delegation for a reciprocal visit this week," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. "The President will forge relationships with anyone in order to advance our national interests and make good deals for the American people."
Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who spent years working in China before entering politics and was invited to the summit dinner, offered a similar defense. "This relationship is too big to fail," Daines said, adding that it was "only appropriate" to extend respect to Xi in the same way Xi's government showed respect to Trump in Beijing. Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said he trusts Trump's instincts even if, personally, he hates seeing it. "I'm not gonna second guess it," Cramer told Fox News Digital. "You know, I hate seeing it at a personal level, but I trust his instincts on it." That's a very diplomatic way to say your stomach hurts but you're not going to do anything about it.
What the Summit Was Actually Supposed to Deliver
Senators were hoping the two-and-a-half-day summit would produce real results. Fox News reports that lawmakers wanted deals on artificial intelligence competition, a resolution to the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, and pressure on Xi to use his influence to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for oil and gas flow.
So far, according to Fox News, Xi has promised two pandas while Trump is apparently considering allowing Chinese electric vehicles to be manufactured inside the United States. Whether that counts as "winning" on trade policy is a question the MAGA crowd at those rallies Tillis mentioned might want answered before November. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana put the stakes plainly: "I just suggested — and I don't think he will, the president's a pretty good judge of character — not to believe President Xi's bulls---, because he's lying. Particularly about helping Iran, and Xi could get the Strait open immediately if he wanted." Kennedy's version of optimism, apparently, is hoping the president doesn't get conned.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to believe that rolling out a red carpet for the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, two weeks after your party built its entire midterm message around the word "communism," is just shrewd dealmaking. You are supposed to see the pandas as a win. You are supposed to trust the instincts of a man whose own Senate Armed Services Chair went on television to say, politely but unmistakably, that nobody asked him and he would have said no.
This is not complicated. Trump has always treated authoritarian leaders with a warmth he almost never extends to democratic allies. The red carpet at Joint Base Andrews was not a strategic anomaly — it is a pattern, and the Republicans who are now quietly wincing about optics have spent years enabling it. Wicker and Tillis can grumble to Fox News cameras all they want. They have the votes to do considerably more than grumble, and they won't.
What makes this genuinely funny, in the darkest possible way, is that the "Common Sense vs. Communism" convention was not even a month ago. The ink on the bumper stickers is barely dry. Republican candidates across the country are supposed to spend the next several weeks telling voters that the Democratic Party represents an existential communist threat to American values — while the president of their party hosts the actual General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party for a summit so lavish that his own senators called it despotism-adjacent on the record. Good luck with the messaging, guys. The pandas are a nice touch.
Comments