Trump Panics as Xi Refuses to Greet Him

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2:26Ben Meiselas:Not only that, Xi Jinping did not send any top Chinese government officials to greet Donald Trump. Instead, Xi Jinping sent lower level ceremonial people from the government. And then he also sent a group of Chinese schoolchildren to wave in Donald Trump's face, mostly Chinese flags, some American flags. This was a greeting that showed that Xi Jinping did not care that the president of the United States was arriving for a purported state visit. Now, Donald Trump was very nervous walking down the steps of Air Force One. He was struggling step by step. He was holding on for dear life not to fall down the steps.

3:12Ben Meiselas:Let me show you what went down. This clip is going viral right now as Donald Trump struggles to get down the stairs of Air Force One. Let's play it.

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4:15Ben Meiselas:Now, let me show you an angle of the school children right here that Xi Jinping sent to wave, Again, mostly Chinese flags in Donald Trump's face. This is what Donald Trump was greeted with, Chinese schoolchildren, not Xi Jinping. Here play this clip.

4:38Ben Meiselas:Show you more B-roll of Donald Trump struggling down those stairs. Again, you can see him holding on to the handle for dear life right here. I just find it so interesting that he would always mock former President Biden for this exact thing. And Donald Trump just looks so much worse. So weak, so frail, so pathetic looking. No Xi Jinping, no top level foreign minister there. Here's how state regime media, which calls itself Fox, tried to spin this. And then they admit, oh, it looks like Elon Musk is there. Who else is there? This is how state regime tried to spin it. Here play this clip. You know, the president comes in.

5:20I think that's Elon Musk right there, I do believe, just behind there. Yes, right in front of the ambassador, David Perdue. So we'll try to pick out a few others. Yeah, Eric Trump and Laura Trump. We mentioned that a moment ago. So tomorrow is the bilat and then he is going to tour some important places. And then on Friday before they leave is the tea. And then there is the lunch. These are participants. These kids apparently include 10 American expatriate children that were selected by Chinese organizers to make the president feel warmness of home. You can see the beast is leaving.

5:52Ben Meiselas:Now, as former ambassador Luis Marino explains, no Xi, no foreign minister, just bells and whistles and lower ranking folks. As someone who has done more than a few POTUS visits abroad, that doesn't happen unless someone Xi Jinping is sending a message to Donald Trump. I mean, you had David Perdue there, which Donald Trump's ambassador to China over there. You had China's ambassador to Washington there. You had a vice minister there, but none of the top level people were there. And this is what Donald Trump posted as he was arriving in China. And then he's gone radio silence since he landed. He just wanted everybody to know as he was on the plane heading to China that CNBC incorrectly reported that the great Jensen Wang of NVIDIA was not invited to the incredible gathering.

6:49Ben Meiselas:But he's going to be there with all of these CEOs. Now, Donald Trump is so paranoid. He has such imposter syndrome. He knows that he is so weak and frail when negotiating with Xi Jinping that Donald Trump is surrounding himself and he's so insecure that he's surrounding himself with all of these top level CEOs. He thinks that's going to make him look strong, but it's making him look so utterly weak and pathetic. I mean, you can see Elon Musk in the background. You can see some of these other CEOs that were there. Also, you had Eric Trump and Lara Trump there. Now, Eric Trump runs the Trump family businesses right now, I'm sure going there to scoop up some more business opportunities for the Trump family, in my opinion, continuing to use the office for quid pro quo.

7:40Ben Meiselas:That's my opinion. You had MAGA Republican Congress member James Comer, though, and all the MAGA sycophants this morning, you know, saying, I can't think of any better person to be leading these negotiations right now than Donald Trump. play this clip. There's so much on the table and I can't think of a better person to lead the negotiations than President Trump. China has already received the message that the United States is serious with all the tariffs that have been slapped on China. And if I were President Z, I would worry if this is an unsuccessful summit after two days, that China could be faced with even more tariffs from the United States.

8:17No, I think that's a great point.

8:19Ben Meiselas:The American people definitely disagree with that. Donald Trump's approval at all time lows Never have we had a president this week, this unpopular, doing a trip abroad. I mean, Donald Trump's less popular than Nixon at the time that Nixon resigned. Here's how Harry entered on CNN, described it this morning regarding Donald Trump's approval. Let's play this clip. We've been talking about inflation. We've been talking about the president's approval on it, which is not good. Our poll shows that people are very unhappy with the economy, with inflation, with his handling of inflation. On a historical perspective, though, how much don't they like how he's handling inflation?

9:00These are the ugliest numbers I have ever seen on inflation. And it's not just one poll, Johnny Berman. It's many polls. Just take a look here. President's net approval on inflation. The five worst polls ever for any president. They all belong to Donald John Trump, and they have all occurred in the last month. The CNN poll, one of them, 48 points below water on the net approval rating. So what we're talking about here is the worst numbers ever in multiple polls now belong to the president of the United States, Donald Trump. It is a record, simply put, you do not want to have. The five worst polls ever.

9:37Five worst polls ever. Joe Biden's not in there. Joe Biden's not in there. Jimmy Carter's not in there. Jimmy Carter's not in there. All Donald Trump. All Donald Trump. The five worst ever belong to this gentleman on this side of the screen.

9:48Ben Meiselas:And by the way, here's how they're referring to it, or here's how they're discussing it on Canadian TV right now about how weak it looks when Donald Trump has been arriving to China. Let's play this clip. I imagine, though, that there are people in China who are wondering how the U.S., who should have had every advantage in this war that it started, is getting bogged down by a much lesser power. That is an American tradition, I hate to tell you. Whether you're planting now or later, Fast Growing Trees has everything you need to make your dream yard a reality, starting with the best quality and selection of plants delivered to your door.

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11:53Ben Meiselas:Look, even MAGA Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House, gave an interview with state regime media, which calls itself Fox this morning, acknowledging just how bad things are. Let's play this clip. Got up to not great news today when it comes to inflation, up at 3.8 percent, highest since 2023. So far, a 40 percent spike in terms of food prices, grocery prices, core inflation. Those numbers are up. Mostly has to do with energy. It can't be the great surprise, but certainly not good news. Not good news, and real families are feeling that, and we're keenly aware of it, very sensitive to it here in Congress.

12:32We put together all the pro-growth policies in the big, beautiful bill, the working families tax cuts to allow the U.S. economy to take off like a rocket. And we were doing that prior to the conflict in Iran. So now

12:43Ben Meiselas:we've got to settle that out. The straight of Hormuz is the big. And he was asked questions later during a press conference this morning about Donald Trump's ballroom. Should the final bill that y 'all are talking about, you know, this government funding bill, should it explicitly rule out$1 billion to Donald Trump's ballroom? Doesn't seem like the American people are into ballrooms right now. What say you, MAGA Mike Johnson? Here, play this clip. I love that question. I mean, the Trump administration has repeatedly argued before that the ballroom itself is part of the security apparatus. So should the final bill explicitly rule out funding for the ballroom itself?

13:21I mean, do you think that would smooth over some of what you say? Is this a false narrative that's developing? Look, again, I don't have the pen in the Senate, they're writing the bill, we'll see what we get. But I think the president has been abundantly clear. He is excited about building a ballroom with private funding, not taxpayer funding. But the Secret Service says that as we enhance the White House grounds and the modernization there, that obviously we have to think differently about security. We live in a very dangerous time and there are new and increasing threats that we have never faced before.

13:51And so Congress has a role in funding that and we'll have to see how it all works out.

13:55Ben Meiselas:Then you had other Trump sycophants this morning trying to distract from Donald Trump's horrible trip to China. Like you have MAGA Republican Congress member Andy Ogles. He says, my little ones, my kitties, they have nightmares. They're afraid that their daddy is going to be taken away by big bad Biden. Like it's a direct quote here. Like play this guy's clip. Play this clip. Let's play it. So you they just came over to you and said, Congressman, give me your phone. Yes, ma 'am. And so I turned it over. I spent the last two years working with the DOJ, clearing my name. It's taken two years. And quite frankly, the impact that has on your family, my little one still has nightmares, afraid that his dad's going to be taken away by big bad Biden and his Department of Justice.

14:42That should never happen again. What was the answer to coming over to you in the middle of your private family time and demanding your phone? Why did they do that?

15:04Also,

15:07Ben Meiselas:while Donald Trump taking this trip to China, we got some more horrible economic news here in the United States. Month over month, US PPI, the producer price index inflation, PPI inflation rose 1.5 % in April, marking the biggest monthly jump in inflation since March of 2022. As the Kobayashi letter explains, all of that data is very clear. Consumers are about to face another wave of serious pressures on spending power. So April PPI inflation surged to 6%, well above the expectations of 4.9 % and the highest level since January 2023. Core PPI inflation rose to 5.2%, above the expectations of 4.3%.

15:58Ben Meiselas:Both CPI and PPI inflation are now officially at three-year highs. Odds of a interest rate hike now continue to spike, continue to rise. Not rate cut decreases, interest rates increase. Now, you may be saying, Ben, I'm a little confused. Didn't you give an inflation report yesterday where you said inflation rose to 3.8 %? Yeah, that was the consumer price index. That was consumer inflation. So how we're all feeling the inflation. That was 3.8 % year over year. PPI is the producer price index, basically how the manufacturers, how the producers are feeling, you know, how they're experiencing inflation.

16:42Ben Meiselas:That then gets passed on to consumers. So when the PPI starts to increase, the consumer price index often follows. That's why both of these indicators taken together are really bad. It should also be noted that all of the 48 Bloomberg economist forecasters, they all predicted that PPI was going to be significantly less than it came in at, which is not good at all. Another important data point, as Brett Bruin points out about this China trip, let me go back to that for a moment. There was not a single China expert with Donald Trump on Air Force One. As Brett Bruin explains, POTUS would normally have at least one national security council, one State Department official, the top Chinese, the top people on Chinese affairs would be surrounding him, not Eric Trump, not just corporate CEOs who are interested in the bottom line for themselves.

17:38Ben Meiselas:And it underlines how utterly unprepared Donald Trump is for his meeting with Xi Jinping, to which Donald Trump's communication director flipping out this morning and saying, you have no idea what you're talking about, you slow brained mouth breathing moron. Stop calling yourself an expert in anything aside from sucking. Anyone that hires you, not many, should get an immediate refund and payment for wasting their time. That's the official statement out of Trump's White House from the communications director, I might add. And then finally, as Donald Trump takes this disastrous trip to China, we learned last week, of course, about Iran's trip to China.

18:18Ben Meiselas:Iran Foreign Minister Aragji getting a hero's welcome in China, much different than what we're seeing from Donald Trump so far. And what we're learning now as well, you know, as Donald Trump lands in China, we're learning from New York Times, classified military intelligence assessments from early this month show that Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, most of its missile launchers and most of its underground facilities, including U.S. intelligence now assesses Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz. And about 90 percent of Iran's underground missile sites are partially or fully operational.

19:09Ben Meiselas:They pretty much have all of their drones, all of their FPV drones, all of their Shahid drones, Their ballistic missile capabilities are back and ready. And so, you know, you've never had somebody, you know, never had a U.S. president arriving this week. So pathetic. And then Donald Trump posted again when he was on Air Force One. He goes, many others will be joining my journey to the great country of China. Well, I will be asking Xi Jinping, a leader of extraordinary distinction, to open up China so that these brilliant people can work their magic and help bring the People's Republic to an even higher level.

19:47Ben Meiselas:In fact, I promise that we can work together, which will be in a matter of hours. I will make that very first request. Doesn't it seem like he's showing up there begging Xi Jinping? And Xi Jinping's like, we'll just show you. We'll roll out the school children for you, Donald. There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching. You may think you're subscribed, but you might actually be subscribed. So hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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