NEWSDonald Trump Praises 'Brilliant' Chinese President Xi Jinping: 'He Runs 1.4 Billion People With an Iron Fist'
July 18 2023, Published 10:30 p.m. ET
Donald Trump gushed over Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Tuesday, July 18, town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“Think of President Xi. Central casting, brilliant guy. You know, when I say he’s brilliant, everyone says, ‘Oh that’s terrible,'” the 77-year-old said about the leader. “Well, he runs 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. Smart, brilliant, everything perfect. There’s nobody in Hollywood like this guy. I got them to pay us $28 billion because they screwed our farmers for years.”
This is hardly the first time the businessman has praised President Xi.
In April, he said, “President Xi is a brilliant man. If you went all over Hollywood to look for somebody to play the role of President Xi, you couldn’t find, there’s nobody like that. The look, the brain, the whole thing. We had a great relationship.”
As OK! previously reported, Trump has a track record of complimenting foreign dictators.
In June, Trump shared a critical article about the World Health Organization's (WHO) decision to elect the communist nation to the specialized agency's executive board.
"Congratulations to Kim Jung Un!" he said, spelling Kim Jong Un's name wrong.
People were angered when Trump stroked Un's ego.
“Look, whether it’s my former running mate or anyone else, no one should be praising the dictator in North Korea,” former Vice President Mike Pence, 63, said in Iowa in June. “Or praising the leader of Russia who has launched an unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine.”
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“This is a time when we ought to make it clear to the world that we stand for freedom, and we stand with those who stand for freedom,” he added.
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Pence isn't the only public figure to come after Trump for his remarks.
"Kim Jong Un starves his own people. It’s a total farce that North Korea has a leading role at the World Health Organization," Nikki Haley, who is running for president in 2024, said.
"Taking our country back from Joe Biden does not start with congratulating North Korea’s murderous dictator," Georgia Governor Brian Kemp quickly quipped.
