President Donald Trump commented on Vice President JD Vance during a White House breakfast for Republican senators on Wednesday.
Trump referred to his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping while discussing how he wants his cabinet to emulate the behavior of the Chinese leader’s aides.
Trump described Xi Jinping's aides as standing straight and serious, saying, “I never saw posture like that. I’ve never seen men so scared in their lives.”
Highlights
- Trump criticized JD Vance for not exhibiting disciplined, attentive behavior like Chinese President Xi Jinping's aides during a White House meeting.
- Trump expressed a desire for his cabinet members to emulate the strict posture and seriousness of Xi Jinping’s staff.
- Vance responded to Trump’s remarks with humor, smiling and mimicking the posture Trump demonstrated.
Donald Trump praised the behavior of Xi Jinping's aides, saying he wishes JD Vance would behave like them
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
He said the aides did not respond when he tried to speak with them. “I said, ‘Are you going to answer me?’ I got no response. And President Xi didn’t let him have any,” Trump claimed.
He also said they were in “attention,” as they were standing next to the president.
“So he’s here, and he’s got about six people on each side, and every one of those people, they were standing like this,” Trump said, while mimicking the positioning and expression of Xi Jinping’s aides.
Trump noted that even “the equivalent of a vice president” was equally in attention in Xi Jinping’s presence.
Then, turning the attention to his own vice president, Trump said, “JD doesn’t behave like that.”
“JD butts into conversations! I want to have that for at least a couple of days, OK, JD?” Trump said.
He added, “We'll keep you long-term, but a couple of days of that would be very, very nice.”
Naturally, the internet responded with humorous remarks to the interaction. “This is the funniest f*****ng thing he possibly could’ve said. imagine you’re jd vance & you do nothing but suck trump’s toes all day & as a reward he s**t talks you on national television,” one user on X said.
"JD doesn't behave like that," Trump said, adding that Vance "butts into conversations"
Image credits: X
Another said, “It's not too dramatic a reach to suggest that maybe - just maybe - berating, and trying to instill even more fear in, the people who could decide amongst themselves to remove you from office isn't the wisest course of action there is.”
While a third wrote, "He hates him so much lol."
Vance appeared to take the comments in stride. Video footage shows him smiling and laughing at Trump’s jokes, and even mimicking the posture that Trump demonstrated for the audience.
Earlier this year, Vance faced criticism for comments he made about China. In an April interview on Fox & Friends, he referred to Chinese citizens as “peasants” while discussing tariffs and the U.S. economy.
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
“To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture,” Vance said.
The remarks prompted a response from China’s Foreign Ministry, which called the statements “both astonishing and lamentable.”
During a dinner with Central Asian countries yesterday, Trump hand-balled tricky questions to Vance while taking questions from the media.
Trump also appeared to nod off during the press conference.
During a Thursday press conference, Trump appeared to nod off and hand-balled questions to Vance
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Trump was asked a question about the significance of Kazakhstan joining the Abraham Accords, to which he told Vance, “You want to answer that, please?”
“What the president has done is signal that the momentum of the Abraham Accords is alive and well in the second administration,” Vance said. “It’s not just going to be Kazakhstan, but also several other countries that join in the months to come.”
Trump had a similar reaction to another question being asked, and Vance quickly answered on behalf of the president. Trump seemed to have his eyes shut several times during the press announcement.
“He really sleeps less and still has more energy than anybody that I know that’s 40 years younger than he is,” Vance had said of Trump just last week on a MAGA podcast. “I mean, you hear people talk about it. You wonder how true it is. Trust me, I’ve seen it from the inside. He has unbelievable energy.”