Jordan Klepper Mocks Trump’s China Summit Performance on 'The Daily Show'

The Daily Show host Jordan Klepper sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s performance during and after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.

During his Thursday night monologue, Klepper reacted to Trump’s post-summit remarks with disbelief, bluntly asking, “Holy s–t! What happened in there?”

The comedian’s segment focused on Xi’s reference to the Thucydides Trap—a theory about tensions between an established power and a rising one—during the summit, as well as Trump’s boast about Chinese restaurants outnumbering fast food chains in America.

“That’s my president! Putting his understanding of geopolitics into fast food terms,” Klepper joked. “He gives a summit speech like a third grader who got assigned China for his geography project: ‘In conclusion, China is a land of contrast, and I brought Panda Express for everyone!’”

Klepper acknowledged that Trump’s meeting with Xi could be seen as progress amid reported tensions over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory and the U.S. seeks to keep independent.

“I’m sure all the good will between Xi and Trump carried over into their closed-door meeting about Taiwan,” Klepper said, only to add, “I learned that Xi reportedly delivered a blunt threat to Trump about any American intervention.”

He mocked Xi’s reported remarks, saying:

“Tough talk, President Xi! Perhaps you’ve forgotten that you’re talking to America, the country that’s just about to start kicking Iran’s ass any day now. And if you want to step up to us with all this Thucydides crap, then why don’t Thucydides nuts?”

Klepper then turned to Trump’s demeanor during the summit, playing a clip of the president standing beside Xi and responding to a reporter’s question about the meeting with a delayed, “Good.”

“Holy s–t! What happened in there? That was like asking Tiger Woods how the drive home went,” Klepper joked. “What happened in the meeting that made him really not want to talk about Taiwan? He’s out there like, ‘Don’t you guys want to talk about anything else? Jeffrey Epstein? I got a lot of redactions. I got time!’”