President Donald Trump delivered the longest-ever State of the Union (SOTU) speech on Tuesday night, but his marathon performance had no room for China, other than a humorous aside he made about unreliable Chinese military hardware during his remarks on Venezuela.
Trump’s dig at China came when he was saluting the astounding competence and valor of the “really great heroes” who executed the raid to capture narco-terrorist dictator Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela.
Trump singled out Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, who “planned the mission and was the flight lead in the cockpit of the first helicopter,” for special praise.
“Eric steered the Chinook under the cover of night and descended swiftly upon Maduro’s heavily protected military fortress. This was a major military installation, protected by thousands of soldiers and guarded by Russian and Chinese military technology,” the president said.
“How did that work out? Not too good,” he added impishly.
That was it for references to America’s biggest geopolitical rival – a significant change from Trump’s 2025 address to a joint session of Congress, which included a few slams at China’s unfair trade policies, a promise to use tariffs to bring American factories from China back to the United States, and a vow to keep China from taking control of the Panama Canal.
The government of Panama annulled several key port contracts held by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison the day before Trump delivered his 2026 SOTU, so Trump could have taken a victory lap if he had wanted to. He might also have mentioned his efforts to get China included in a new trilateral nuclear arms control treaty with the United States and Russia – an effort which recently included disclosing the existence of a secret Chinese nuclear bomb test.
It seems likely that in addition to having many other fish to fry in the vast and sizzling-hot iron skillet of his marathon State of the Union address, Trump chose not to antagonize China in the midst of current trade negotiations.
Bloomberg News noted on Wednesday that Trump’s speech was the first time since 2005 that China has gone unmentioned in a State of the Union address.
“It’s not clear why Trump didn’t address the US’s economic ties with China, but the timing of the omission is notable. He is planning to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in late March, the first trip by an American president since Trump’s last visit in 2017,” the report observed.
Bloomberg News speculated that the recent Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s tariffs – which the president did mention during SOTU – might have prompted Trump to step a bit lightly around China on Tuesday night, as he will face Xi with less leverage on trade than he anticipated.
“Trump doesn’t want to pick a fight with China in an election year. Stability in U.S.-China relations is a priority for the president at least this year and potentially for the rest of his term,” Teneo managing director Gabriel Wildau told CNBC on Wednesday.
Asia Group partner George Chen noted that China’s Foreign Ministry has yet to nail down the exact dates for Trump’s planned visit to Beijing in late March, so Trump might have decided to “stay cautious” for the moment, to ensure his meeting with dictator Xi Jinping takes place.
APAC Advisors CEO Steven Okun said a “deal on tariffs with China, end of March or early April,” could lower U.S. consumer prices and give Trump’s messaging on “affordability” a timely bump ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
CNBC noted that Chinese state media returned Trump’s benign neglect by staying fairly quiet about SOTU, aside from a few social media posts highlighting Democrat opposition to Trump’s remarks.
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