The media think Trump is playing chess. Xi Jinping knows he’s fencing

Published September 21, 2026 7:00am ET



When President Donald Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping for their high-stakes White House summit, the legacy media will call it chaos or “Trumposterous.” Critics always look at the president’s fluid style and claim he lacks a grand strategy.

They are wrong. What Washington bureaucrats call chaos is actually a highly disciplined, tactical choreography. Trump approaches the global stage like an elite master of fencing, specifically the weapon of epee.

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