Trump was treated like a ‘chump’ by foreign dictators who took advantage of him, former top aide says

Former Trump National Security Adviser HR McMaster has written in a new book that the then-president was treated like a “chump” by a string of authoritarian leaders.

McMaster, a lieutenant general, writes about an almost two-week-long trip to Asia in his memoir At War With Ourselves, saying that China was the “most consequential” destination.

On their way to Beijing, McMaster cautioned Donald Trump that Chinese President Xi Jinping would attempt to trick the then-president into saying something that was positive for China but would in effect be bad for the US and its allies.

“The CCP’s favorite phrase, ‘win-win,’ actually meant that China won twice,” McMaster wrote that he told Trump. While Trump appeared to listen at the time, he later said he agreed with Xi that military exercises in South Korea were “provocative” and a “waste of money.” He also suggested that China could have a claim to the Senkaku Islands, which belong to Japan, a US ally.

As his stomach sank, McMaster wrote in a note to then-Chief of Staff John Kelly, a general, that Xi “ate our lunch,” according to The New York Times.

The national security adviser writes in the memoir that Trump was often treated like a “chump” by authoritarian leaders.

To get on Trump’s good side, some flattery and a bit of pomp and circumstance appeared to be all that was needed from leaders such as Xi, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

McMaster notes that in 2018, he found Trump writing a note to Putin on top of a New York Post article in which he said he was disappointed at how the US political system was “eating itself up” but in which he praised Trump, calling him a great communicator.

“I have no disappointment at all. Moreover, on a