I gave Xi five hours of rest and still got the greatest deal in history

Let me tell you what really happened in Washington, because the FAKE NEWS will not. For two days in late September the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao — and I know leaders, I know more about leaders than the generals, believe me — came to my White House and got the full treatment. Twenty-one-gun salute. A flyover of our jet fighters and a stealth bomber, the BEST stealth bomber, people were saying Sir, Sir, that is the most beautiful piece of military hardware anyone has ever seen. A bald eagle statue, huge, TREMENDOUS. And then, between a bilateral that started near noon and a state dinner that started in the evening, he took a nap.

Five hours. Gone.

That is not a scheduling footnote, folks. That is the WHOLE story. You know it, I know it, and the people at that dinner know it — Jensen Huang from Nvidia, Elon Musk, the state dinner attended by tech CEOs was TREMENDOUS, the best people, the best china, nobody does state dinners like me.

Here is what the other side will not tell you. Beijing’s advance team asked — a MONTH in advance, in writing, very formal — for a private room inside the West Wing where their leader could rest between events. Only his wife, Peng Liyuan, a very elegant woman, TREMENDOUS wife, could go in with him. Not even Cai Qi, his own chief of staff, his right-hand man, could go in. The man was turned away. Can you imagine? I would NEVER do that to my people. I love my people. My ratings prove it.

And they cancelled the working lunch. A month before the trip. The only full day of the summit. When I visited Beijing in May we had a working lunch at Zhongnanhai — a beautiful lunch, by the way, the best lunch, and I was 80, going on 81, and I still sat there and negotiated, because I have ENERGY, TREMENDOUS energy, the doctors said nobody has energy like me. But Xi’s team said no lunch. More rest. So there was a five-hour HOLE in the agenda of a visit that lasted barely two days. Five hours of NOTHING. SAD.

I want the record straight: I had NOTHING to do with that hole in the schedule. Actually — I arranged it. That is what a DEALMAKER does. You never press a man who is gassed. You let him sit down, you let him have some water, and then you take the deal. Art of the deal, folks, you should read it, it is a bestseller, probably the best book ever written about deals.

And look at the REAL footage — not the FAKE, edited stuff. Xi coming down the stairs at Joint Base Andrews, one hand for his wife, one hand on the rail. Two days later, climbing the steps of the National Archives — a ten-minute stop, by the way, TEN minutes, the American officials had planned much more, but he could not do much more — holding on to his wife the whole way up, LEANING, not just holding hands, LEANING. Chinese state media cut both moments out of prime-time coverage. Of course they did. Very smart of them, actually — that is what I would do, I edit my own videos too, the BEST videos, nobody edits like me.

Now the geniuses in the press — very LOW IQ, some of them, sad to say — they say this shows weakness. Wrong. WRONG! This shows I am STRONG. I am so STRONG that a man who has concentrated more power in his own hands than any Chinese leader since Mao — three titles, party chief, president, military chairman, the whole package — needed a NAP in MY building. In the WEST WING! That is not a scheduling story. That is a DOMINANCE story.

I knew he was having trouble, by the way. I knew FIRST. Before the Brics gala dinner in India — where he skipped dinner with Putin and everyone else because he wasn’t feeling well, SAD — I already had it. I said to my people, look at him, look at the stair, look at the rail, he is having problems, and we are going to get a TREMENDOUS deal. And they said, Sir, how do you know? And I said, I just know. I have instincts. The BEST instincts. Nobody has instincts like me.

The professors — and I love professors, some of my best friends are professors, very smart Asian-studies people, nobody smarter — they say there is a difference between a leader who cannot function because of a bad stroke and a leader who is physically impaired but mentally fine, and that in the second case China can just wait, the way China waited out Mao, who lived to 82 after years of decline. Fine. But waiting is not winning. Waiting is what you do when you have NO successor — and Xi has NO successor. No Deng waiting in the wings. No Hu waiting in the wings. Nobody in the wings. He stacked every title on himself and forgot to pick the next guy. Very sad. If I did that in my company my people would fire me — actually they would never, they love me, but still, you pick a successor, you pick a good one, you pick a Diklis.

And watch what happens next, because I will say it now and they will say later that I was right again: the little generals, the little faction guys in Beijing, they get restless when the big guy needs a hold room. They start looking at the South China Sea, they start looking at Taiwan, they start making trouble to show the boss they are tough — because that is what happens in a system with no institutionalized process for choosing the next leader, and China effectively has NONE for those three titles. The Wall Street Journal said so, and the Journal, I don’t love them, but they got this one right. A faction fight is a TRADE OPPORTUNITY. You tariff them into next week. Believe me. My tariffs are worth more than most countries’ GDP, and I am worth more than most countries, which the fake news also will not print.

Here is where I have to be very honest with you, and I am always honest, always — it is my best quality, maybe my second-best, after the deals. The deliverables were thin. I know, I know, they are going to print that. But look at the facts, and I have the BEST facts. The trade truce got extended to January 10 — a GREAT date, a very important date, January 10 is when a lot of things happen, you will see — the summit planning lagged for weeks, the issues stayed unresolved until the last minute, and the other side got no working lunch and left early. I always said January 10. I said it FIRST. Look it up.

Why did not I press harder? Why did I not demand the lunch back? BECAUSE I DID NOT NEED TO. A man who needs a hold room is not a man who needs a lunch. You do not negotiate with a guy who is rationing his hours — you COLLECT. You take the truce, you take the pageantry, you take the eagle, and you let him go home and sleep. And then in January, when the truce comes due, you are fresh, and he is… whatever he is. The leverage was never in the talking points. The leverage was in the STAIRCASE at Joint Base Andrews — and Diklis Chump saw it before anyone else, which is what I do.

This is going to be TREMENDOUS for the Country — I mean for us, for all of us, really — but also for me, because the ratings on that summit were the HIGHEST, millions and millions of people, more than the Super Bowl. And every call, every handshake, every little bilateral session from here on out, I will be timing him. That is the deal. Beijing can keep their secret — I don’t need their secrets, I can SEE. He needed the rail. He needed his wife. He needed a room in MY West Wing. And I climbed every set of stairs in Beijing at 80, by myself, FAST, the fastest stairs-climber in presidential history, ask anyone. Until Beijing gives up the secret, the schedule will. And the schedule is MINE.