President Donald Trump on Thursday responded to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s comment about the “Thucydides Trap” during their state visit, in which Xi appeared to reference the political theory that a dominant power’s fear of a rising power could lead to war.
Trump claimed his counterpart was not saying that the U.S. is currently a “declining nation,” but that it was during former President Joe Biden’s term.
Kenny Holston/Pool/AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, May 14, 2026, in Beijing.
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Xi, during his opening remarks on Wednesday, according to a live translation, said, “The world has come to a new crossroads. Can China and the U.S. overcome the ‘Thucydides Trap’ and create a new paradigm of major country relations?”
In his post to Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said, “When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct.”
There was no apparent indication that Xi was referring to Biden in his statement.
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Trump later added, “In fact, President Xi congratulated me on so many tremendous successes in such a short period of time. Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline. On that, I fully agree with President Xi! But now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world, and hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!”
The “Thucydides Trap” reference in political science essentially means that countries on the decline should learn to accept countries on the rise or risk a dangerous collision course. Xi’s analogy appeared to say that China is on the rise and the U.S. is on the decline.
The term, coined by Harvard Professor Graham Allison, references when the Greek powers Athens and Sparta sparred in the Peloponnesian War. The name is a nod to ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who wrote, “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.”
