President Trump walked China’s Xi Jinping past a wall of presidential portraits, stopped at one blank spot, and said five words that sent cable news into a tailspin.
Story Snapshot
- Trump pointed out an autopen image marking Joe Biden’s spot in the White House’s Presidential Walk of Fame during Xi’s state visit.
- Video shows Trump telling Xi, “This is the autopen… it’s Biden,” and Xi laughing along with his aides.
- Critics on cable news and opinion sites called the moment “un-American,” “grotesque,” and “disgusting.”
- The broader visit focused on trade, artificial intelligence, and security talks, with no reported diplomatic fallout from the exchange.
What Actually Happened During The White House Tour
During Xi’s three-day state visit, Trump gave the Chinese leader a personal tour of the White House, including new renovation projects like a ballroom and helipad. Along a hallway displaying portraits of past presidents, Trump paused at Biden’s spot. Instead of a painted portrait, an autopen image sits there, a jab tied to Trump’s long-running claim that aides used the signing device to run Biden’s presidency.
Video captured by White House staff shows Trump gesturing at the image and telling Xi, “This is the autopen… it’s Biden.” Multiple outlets reported that Xi laughed, with one account describing Xi and his entourage as having “laughed hard” at the line. The exchange lasted only seconds, tucked inside a much longer walk covering renovation projects and diplomatic small talk.
Why The Clip Set Off A Media Firestorm
Cable commentators and opinion writers wasted no time branding the moment. One critic called it “the most un-American thing an American president has ever done”. Others used words like “grotesque,” “sickening,” and “disgusting” to describe Trump mocking a former president in front of a foreign leader. The framing treated a lighthearted aside as a national embarrassment rather than a passing joke that Xi himself found funny.
That reaction says more about media temperature than about diplomacy. Xi laughed. His aides laughed. No Chinese official issued a protest or walked back the visit’s substance. Reporters covering the trip described a friendly, ceremonial tone throughout, with real negotiations on trade and technology moving forward alongside the tour. A five-second joke did not derail any of that.
The Autopen Fight Behind The Punchline
The joke did not come out of nowhere. Trump has spent months questioning whether Biden personally approved pardons and other actions near the end of his term, or whether staff used an autopen without his full knowledge. Swapping Biden’s portrait for an autopen image was a deliberate visual statement installed well before Xi ever arrived. Showing it to a foreign leader simply put a running domestic argument on a bigger stage.
That context matters. This was not a spontaneous insult aimed at humiliating Biden in a diplomatic setting. It was Trump walking Xi past an existing display and narrating what it already said. Framing it as a shocking breach of protocol ignores that the joke was baked into the White House’s own decor months earlier, not improvised for foreign consumption.
How This Fits A Bigger Pattern In Diplomacy
Leaders using humor, needling, and public jabs to project confidence is nothing new in international politics. Researchers who study diplomacy note that leaders regularly use mockery and pointed remarks to signal strength while keeping room to claim it was all in good fun. Trump has leaned into this style before, and foreign officials increasingly plan for it rather than treat it as a diplomatic emergency.
Viewed that way, the autopen moment fits a pattern rather than breaking new ground. Xi’s laughter suggests he read it as banter, not a slight requiring a response. The louder reaction came from American commentators primed to see any Trump moment as scandal, regardless of how the actual foreign counterpart in the room responded.
🚨 LOL: President Trump had Xi Jinping LAUGHING during his White House tour after showing him the Biden “autopen” display. 😂🇺🇸🇨🇳
Trump pointed down the Presidential Walk of Fame:
“TRUMP… and then TRUMP…”
Then he reached Biden’s spot:
“And this is the AUTOPEN… it’s Biden!”… pic.twitter.com/JNtKvNsYYq
— Commentary 🇺🇸 Tom Homan (@HomanNews) September 26, 2026
No Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, embassy complaint, or bilateral readout has surfaced disputing the friendly tone of the exchange. Until one does, the loudest objections remain domestic political commentary rather than evidence of any real diplomatic cost.
Sources:
ndtv.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com, ibtimes.co.uk, huffpost.com, okmagazine.com, yahoo.com, aol.ca
