{"id":1033,"date":"2026-09-25T16:09:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/?p=1033"},"modified":"2026-09-25T16:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:09:24","slug":"trump-mocks-biden-with-autopen-display-during-xi-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/?p=1033","title":{"rendered":"Trump Mocks Biden With Autopen Display During Xi Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump used a portrait depicting an autopen to mock former President Joe Biden during a White House tour with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The joke drew criticism from former U.S. officials, conservatives and other observers who said Trump had disrespected a former president in front of a foreign leader.<\/p>\n

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Trump points out autopen portrait to Xi<\/h4>\n

President Donald Trump drew sharp criticism Thursday after using a White House portrait display to mock former President Joe Biden while showing Chinese President Xi Jinping around the building.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A video posted by the White House X account showed Trump and Xi walking through the Presidential Walk of Fame, a West Colonnade exhibit featuring gold-framed portraits of past presidents. Trump installed the display last September.<\/p>\n

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Biden\u2019s portrait has been replaced by an image of an autopen, a signature device that Trump and his allies have cited while arguing that Biden\u2019s aides used the machine to approve pardons and executive orders because Biden was mentally unfit. Biden has denied that claim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As he walked with Xi, Trump pointed toward the portraits on both sides of the autopen image and repeated his own name. \u201cTrump, Trump,\u201d he said before adding, \u201cThis is the autopen…It\u2019s Biden.\u201d Trump then patted Xi on the arm.<\/p>\n

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Critics call the exchange embarrassing<\/h4>\n

The people accompanying Trump and Xi laughed during the exchange. Reactions from others watching the video were far less amused, with critics objecting to Trump\u2019s decision to ridicule a former American president while hosting the leader of China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said the scene reflected poorly on the country and the White House. \u201cAs an American, I find this so embarrassing,\u201d McFaul wrote. \u201cHe calls it the people\u2019s house, but he does not treat it as the people\u2019s house.\u201d<\/p>\n

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McFaul acknowledged that Americans could have policy disagreements with Biden but said the former president still received the votes of 81 million people. \u201cTo treat him with such disrespect is appalling,\u201d McFaul said. \u201cTo force a foreign guest to participate in your ridicule of Biden is even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The criticism crossed political lines. Philip Klein, editor of National Review Online, a conservative opinion outlet, wrote: \u201cI hate this.\u201d He contrasted Biden\u2019s status as a former U.S. president with Xi\u2019s position as the leader of a major American adversary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Republican critics reject the Biden jab<\/h4>\n

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman, also condemned the episode. \u201cHe\u2019s a grotesque human being,\u201d Walsh wrote, describing the moment as \u201ca despicable cheap shot at an American president to make a communist dictator laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gregg Nunziata, a former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee who also served in Republican circles, offered a shorter reaction: \u201cHow embarrassing for us,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The display reflects the broader dispute over Biden\u2019s use of the autopen. Trump and his allies have argued that the device\u2019s use raises questions about whether Biden personally authorized official actions, including pardons and orders. Biden rejects the allegation that aides improperly acted in his place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The disagreement over those actions was presented during Thursday\u2019s tour as part of the White House\u2019s permanent presidential display. Trump\u2019s decision to draw Xi\u2019s attention to the altered portrait turned the political dispute into a public exchange with a foreign leader, prompting critics to focus less on the autopen claim than on the setting and the manner of the joke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump used a portrait depicting an autopen to mock former President Joe Biden during a White House tour with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The joke drew criticism from … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}