Trump to Xi: “You’re A Great Leader. Sometimes People Don’t Like Me Saying It.”
President Trump arrived in Beijing on Thursday for a multi-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, during which he addressed the leader and said he’d seek to deepen diplomatic and economic ties between the world’s two largest economic powers. “We’ve gotten along when there were difficulties, we worked it out,” Trump said in his opening remarks. “I would call you, and you would call me whenever we had a problem, people don’t know, whenever we had a problem. We worked that out very quickly, and we’re going to have a fantastic future together.” “You’re a great leader,” Trump continued. “I say it to everybody. You’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true.”
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: President Xi, I want to thank you very much. First of all, that was an honor like you have ever seen before. And I think I was particularly impressed by those children. They were happy. They were beautiful. The military is obvious. It couldn’t be better. But those children were amazing, and they represent so much. And I know they represent so much to you. You and I have known each other now for a long time. In fact, the longest relationship of our two countries that any president and president has had. And it’s, to me, an honor. We’ve had a fantastic relationship. We’ve gotten along. When there were difficulties, we worked it out. I would call you, and you would call me. And whenever we had a problem, people don’t know. Whenever we had a problem, we worked it out very quickly. And we’re going to have a fantastic future together. Such respect for China, the job you’ve done. You’re a great leader. I say it to everybody. You’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway because it’s true. I only say the truth. And I just want to say, on behalf of all of the great delegation that we have, we have the greatest businessmen, the biggest and, I guess, the best in the world. We have amazing people, and they’re all with me. Every single one of them. We asked the top 30 in the world. Every single one of them said yes. And I didn’t want the second or the third in the company. I wanted only the top. And they’re here today to pay respects to you and to China. And they look forward to trade and doing business, and it’s going to be totally reciprocal on our behalf. So I really look very much forward to our discussion. It’s a big discussion. There are those that say this is maybe the biggest summit ever. They can never remember anything like it. I can say in the United States people aren’t talking about anything else. But it’s an honor to be with you. It’s an honor to be your friend. And the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before. Thank you very much.
