TOI correspondent from Washington: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington DC to negotiate trade, technology, tariffs and the future of the global economy. Instead, he got the most elaborate housewarming party ever thrown by a man desperate to impress his guest.A gobsmacked America is cracking up at US President Donald Trump’s over-the-top reception for Xi, with folks wondering “where Kung flu” — a reference to the MAGA supremo’s needling nickname for Covid, for which he has long blamed China.One commentator compared Trump’s welcome of Xi to a nine-year-old showing off his bedroom — with legos, video games and bunk beds — to a friend, before transferring the analogy to the White House, where the US President showed off his gilded Oval office, his presidential hall of fame, and a helipad — which one wag noted the Chinese would have built in two days, if not two hours.Another joked that Trump sounded like “a Long Island mom trying to set her adult daughter up on a date.” A third transformed Trump’s airport welcome of Xi into an imaginary presidential ride-sharing service called “Uber Trump.” The joke: Why summon an ordinary driver when the president himself can pick you up?Not known for fawning over any one, astonished American commentators wondered if Trump had offered Xi a pair of slippers for a sleepover at the White House, thrown rose petals at the foot of his bed, and asked him whether he wanted the guest Wi-Fi password.As it turned out, Xi kept his distance, staying at the Waldorf Astoria, a few blocks from the White House, and not even at Blair House, which is right opposite the White House and typically hosts state guests. Aside: Xi stayed at Blair House during his 2015 visit; and the property that is now Waldorf Astoria was formerly a Trump hotel.The comedy began even before Xi had reached the ceremonial reception, with the image of Trump wincing at the noise from US bombers launching a thousand quips. “Trump picked him up at the airport? That is friendship. I don’t even pick my own kid up at the airport!” gagged Desi Lydic on the Daily Show, joking that Trump recoiling at the roar of a US bomber flying overhead was like a child startled by the noise of its own fart. “For a man who’s always screaming about China, Hairman Mao laid it on very thick today,” joked Jimmy Kimmel.There was also food. Fallon contrasted the elegant Chinese-influenced dishes at the dinner banquet with Trump’s preferred “two Big Mac with large fries and a diet coke,” while Kimmel warned that China sending pandas to the US was a bad idea because Trump may just eat them. “I’m not saying Trump is sucking up to him, but the Kennedy Center is now called the Xi Kennedy Center,” Fallon quipped.Across both late-night stages and social media, the jokes clustered around the same themes: the extravagant, almost childlike eagerness of the reception (airport pickup, red carpets, renovation tours, helipad pride); the contrast with Trump’s earlier hard-line China bluster; the superficiality of the pageantry versus unresolved issues; food contrasts (elegant Chinese-American fusion versus Trump’s fast-food preferences); and the panda gift as both charming and comically mismatched.The humor treated the summit less as high diplomacy and more as a high-production personal friendship performance, with Trump’s fawning providing the punchlines, including an observation from Seth Meyers that “not even Chinese citizens gush this much about Xi.” The short trade-truce extension and absence of any major breakthroughs only sharpened the focus on the optics, offering plenty of fire for satire.
