THE TELEGRAPH: Donald Trump has pushed back on claims made by Xi Jinping that America is a “declining nation”.
The US president accepted that “tremendous damage” had been done to the US in recent years but blamed his predecessor Joe Biden.
“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social ahead of the second day of talks. » | Emily Blumenthal. Connor Stringer Chief Washington Correspondent, Beijing. Allegra Mendelson Asia Correspondent, Taipei. Robert White | Friday, May 15, 2026
Xi Jinping is right, of course. A blind man could see that the US is in steep decline. The country shows all the signs of an empire in decline. It is rotting from within.
Trump is wrong, and very unfair to blame “Sleepy Joe” for the rot. The rot started for America long before Biden’s presidency. Fact is, America has never been the same since 9/11. That attack did more to damage America and its trajectory than is easy to describe in a few words. And when it comes to apportioning blame, Trump himself must share the lion’s share of the blame in recent years. His corrupt and ludicrous presidency has brought America’s decline forward. It has also brought it into sharp focus. — © Mark Alexander
