to near historic lows<\/a>.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, Trump has taken government stakes in private companies<\/p>\n
The White House secured agreements giving the federal government stakes in more than 30 companies \u2014 including nuclear power producer Westinghouse, metals and element concerns and chipmaker Intel. It has ignored the criticism that this strategy aligns it more with centrally planned economies than capitalist ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn\u2019t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?\u201d Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and frequent Trump antagonist, wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
During a recent House committee hearing, Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jim Himes told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, \u201cI can think of no administration in the last 50 years that is quite as communist as the Trump administration.”<\/p>\n
The president insists more such agreements are coming. \u201cI will make deals like that for our Country all day long,\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n
The White House didn’t answer questions on whether it saw discrepancies between Trump talking about denouncing Democrats as communists while expressing fondness for Xi and having the government take large stakes in private companies.<\/p>\n
Short, the former Pence aide who is now chairman of the conservative advocacy group Advancing American Freedom, said he thinks Republicans are taking \u201cvery legitimate attack lines” by painting Democrats as being too far left.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
But he said the administration risks \u201cpicking winners and losers in the economy” with its private company stakes, as well as with Trump’s proposal to send $5,000 to every adult American if the GOP retains control of Congress after November, and his push for price controls on goods such as pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think those policies, you know, lead to enormous, enormous intervention from the government into the economy,” Short said. But he made it clear that he believes the measures don’t come close to making the U.S. into a socialist economy like China.<\/p>\n
Trump rushed to finish White House helipad in time for Xi<\/p>\n
Even as he criticizes Democrats for cozying up to communists, Trump has bragged about his close relationship with China’s leader, his chief global rival. When he was in Beijing in May, the president talked effusively about what \u201can amazing time” he had.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not been shy about underscoring that he was building a helicopter landing pad he calls a \u201cwork of art\u201d on the south lawn of the White House to impress Xi, while lamenting that his White House ballroom wouldn’t be completed in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you this: It\u2019s too bad we don\u2019t have the ballroom open,\u201d Trump said Friday.<\/p>\n
The president also has recalled visiting the Great Hall of the People while in China, and suggested the ballroom might become the \u201cGreat Hall of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump’s admiration for Xi is part of his fascination with strongmen, said Marc Selverstone, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia\u2019s Miller Center of Public Affairs. Trump has also boasted about his warm relationships with North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un, Viktor Orb\u00e1n in Hungary and Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cHis interest in strongmen who are communist and strongmen who are not communists,\u201d Selverstone said. \u201cThat\u2019s constant, and playing to them is not unfamiliar to Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump criticized Obama for welcoming Xi to the White House <\/p>\n
There is often some disconnect between the high and delicate diplomatic stakes of a summit during an election season \u2014 as evidenced by Trump himself the last time Xi came to Washington for a state visit.<\/p>\n
In 2015, as then-President Barack Obama was preparing to host Xi, Trump \u2014 in the midst of his first run for president \u2014 criticized the pomp.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cJust take them to McDonald\u2019s and go back to the negotiating table,\u201d Trump said then, during a rally in South Carolina. He later conceded on Fox News Channel that Xi might at least be worthy of getting “probably a double-size Big Mac.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he won the presidency, though, Trump’s tone has shifted. By 2018, he was even marveling at Xi’s position in communist China, remarking that \u201cHe\u2019s now president for life,” during a GOP fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n
Trump’s July speech was critical of China. But that didn’t last<\/p>\n
Trump briefly appeared to buck his soft spot for Xi in July during his national address when he announced the declassification of documents he said showed a pattern of China interfering in U.S. elections.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cOur elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen,\u201d Trump said, without criticizing Xi or calling for penalties against China.<\/p>\n
The documents ultimately didn\u2019t reveal much new information, or support Trump’s claims. And the president has since tried to downplay the alleged election meddling.<\/p>\n
“It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then,\u201d Trump said days after the speech.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Senior administration officials declined to comment on whether accusations of Chinese meddling in the 2020 election would come up during Trump\u2019s discussions with Xi. But it’s unlikely that the politics of the midterms will have much impact on the summit, said Ali Wyne, a senior research and advocacy adviser on U.S.-China relations at the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump was very quick, in the aftermath of the (July) speech, to focus his ire on the mainstream media, Democrats. He didn\u2019t condemn President Xi,\u201d Wyne said, further noting that, when it came to Beijing, Trump made it “clear that the U.S. relationship was still on track.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – President Donald Trump, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[90625,7536,9047,145,111621,153038,153040,23681,59373,59371,59372,61260,61261,61262,153039,82,84,83,6682,153037,93468,88437,88261],"class_list":["post-442726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-ali-wyne","tag-barack-obama","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-marc-short","tag-michael-pence","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32510-ap-online-general-election-news","tag-product-32520-ap-online-other-u-s-government-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-rand-paul","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-scott-bessent","tag-trump-xi-china-communists-election","tag-viktor-orban","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}