Senate

Trump ‘terribly weakened’ ahead of China visit: Top Armed Services Democrat

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by Max Rego - 05/10/26 1:05 PM ET

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by Max Rego - 05/10/26 1:05 PM ET

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Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said Sunday that President Trump is heading into his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a “weakened” position.

“President Trump is going into this meeting terribly weakened,” Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.”

“He has involved ourselves in a conflict with Iran. There’s a stalemate now. The Iranians are holding 20 percent of the world’s oil at risk,” he added, referring to the Iranian military’s restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump will visit Beijing for a summit with Xi on Thursday and Friday. The two leaders have not met in person since October, and a U.S. president has not visited China since Trump met with Xi in Beijing more than eight years ago.

The summit comes as the U.S. seeks a permanent end to hostilities with Iran. The Chinese government, which has close ties to the Islamic Republic, ordered companies to disregard U.S. sanctions on Chinese refineries earlier this week.

In announcing sanctions last month against Hengli Petrochemical Refinery, an independent teapot refinery based in China, the Treasury Department said the company is “one of Iran’s largest customers for crude oil and other petroleum products.”

Despite those and other sanctions targeting Chinese purchases of Iranian oil, Reed said that the most populous country on Earth “is doing quite well because of their alternate energy investments.”

While China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, it installed 360 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity in 2024 — more than half of global additions that year, according to the World Economic Forum.

The Rhode Island Democrat also noted that the U.S. military has moved personnel and equipment from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East during the conflict with Iran, which affects American “readiness” with respect to China.

Beijing has ramped up its military presence in recent months around Taiwan, an independent nation which China claims as its own territory.

The changing posture of the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific, along with high gas prices caused by the Iranian military’s restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, indicates that Trump is not entering his meeting with Xi in a position of strength, according to Reed.

“We’re seeing at home significant gas prices, significant increases in grocery prices and in all sorts of prices for the American home,” he told Bream. “And the American people are significantly concerned about this conflict with Iran. So that’s not a strong position to be in when you’re talking to an economic and a geopolitical rival.”

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