Quote · The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Changes Course After Xi Jinping's Warning
Where this was said
Lavrov and Trump's April Contradiction: Enabling vs. Not Enabling
At 17:49 · chapter starts 17:05
The segment builds a tight evidentiary case around Trump's inconsistency on China's role in the Iran conflict. First, Meiselas plays the Lavrov statement: Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov dismissed accusations about Russian and Chinese weapons to Iran as 'embarrassing fiction,' pointing out that the US supplies Ukraine for strikes on Russian territory — making Washington a direct war participant by its own logic [1] — Donald Trump "No, no. I guess we do the same thing, don't we, with other countries?" 17:49 . Then comes the damning April 23, 2026 clip: a reporter asks Trump if he's angry at China for sending weapons to Iran, and Trump replies without hesitation, 'No, no. I guess we do the same thing, don't we?' — acknowledging the equivalence and shrugging it off. Fast-forward to a later press conference, and Trump flatly claims he doesn't know that China is 'enabling' Iran, while simultaneously saying he 'trusts' Xi Jinping and Putin on their assurances. Meiselas's read is that the later press conference represents the moment Trump received the formal red-line warning from China — hence the conspicuous retreat from his earlier candor. The reversal is the tell: Trump went from 'we all do it' to 'I trust them, it's not major' precisely because China had made its bottom line unmistakably clear.
When a reporter pressed Netanyahu on whether China should reconsider providing Iran with missile manufacturing components, Netanyahu dodged entirely — 'I don't want to speak for China.' Even the Israeli prime minister wouldn't pick a fight with Beijing.
