ANALYSIS — What started with Democrats warning about “empty promises and illusory wins” grew chaotic as U.S. and Chinese aides gestured animatedly as they zipped around a room at a South Korean military base. It all ended with President Donald Trump declaring victory on multiple issues as he cracked jokes with reporters on Air Force One.
The 79-year-old U.S. president on Thursday quipped about heavy turbulence on his flight home from a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan. He smiled as he gripped a door frame, joking that the choppy air would give critics fodder to claim “he’s got the shakes.” He told reporters the mini-summit produced an “outstanding group of decisions.”
“A lot of decisions were made too. There wasn’t too much left out there,” he said aboard the executive 747 airliner. “There’s a lot of … different things, many of them very important.”
