Trump responds to Xi’s ‘Thucydides Trap’ comment about America’s decline
President Donald Trump on Thursday responded to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s comment about the “Thucydides Trap” during a state visit; In this comment, Xi appeared to be referring to the political theory that a dominant power’s fear of a rising power can lead to war.
Trump claimed his counterpart did not say that the United States is currently a “country in decline” but that it was during former President Joe Biden’s term in office.
Kenny Holston/Pool/AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026.
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According to live translation, Xi said in his opening speech on Wednesday: “The world has reached a new crossroads. Can China and the United States overcome the ‘Thucydides Trap’ and create a new paradigm in major country relations?”
Posting on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said: “When President Xi very elegantly said that the United States was perhaps a country in decline, he was referring to Sleepy Joe Biden and the tremendous damage we have suffered during the four years of the Biden Administration, and he was 100% correct in that respect.”
There was no obvious indication that Xi was referring to Biden in his statement.
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Trump later added: “President Xi actually congratulated me on so much success in such a short period of time. Two years ago we were essentially a country in decline. I totally agree with President Xi on that! But now the United States is the warmest country anywhere in the world, and I hope our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever!”
The reference to the “Thucydides Trap” in political science essentially means that countries in decline must learn to accept countries on the rise or risk being put on a dangerous collision course. In Xi’s analogy, China was on the rise and the United States was on the decline.
The term, coined by Harvard Professor Graham Allison, refers to the time when Greek powers Athens and Sparta faced off in the Peloponnesian War. The name is a reference to the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who wrote, “It was the rise of Athens and the fear it instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.”
