From§Each

The running theme

Trump Welcomes Communism

Trump told a Dallas convention the country turns communist if the Democrats win. Fourteen days later he stood on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews and personally welcomed the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.

Every president meets the Chinese leader. Not every president spends the fortnight before calling the opposition communists, and the mayor of New York one by name. A ledger of the word and what it is worth.

  1. 23 Sep 2026
    Greeted Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, personally, with Melania Trump — what the AP called a rare planeside welcomeFourteen days earlier, to the Republican midterm convention in Dallas: "It's going to be a communist country if they win." Xi is General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. We looked for a dated quote from 2025 or 2026 in which he calls the Chinese government communist and did not find one. The word is for Americans.PBS NewsHour
  2. 23 Sep 2026
    Invited Putin to the G20 summit the United States is hosting at Trump National Doral, the president's own golf clubRussia is a full G20 member and has never been suspended from it. South Africa, also a full member, was disinvited in November over its treatment of Afrikaners. Putin is subject to an ICC arrest warrant. The invitation was announced by the Secretary of State, not by the president.The Irish Times
  3. 21 Sep 2026
    Sat with that mayor at Gracie Mansion — the third meeting in twelve months — and said he wanted him to be a great mayorThree days earlier he had banned CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO from the White House by social-media post. The mayor told reporters he had informed the president that all media would be welcome at his.Office of the Mayor of New York
  4. 18 Sep 2026
    Banned CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO from the White House in a social-media post, "effective immediately," and deactivated their hard passes over the weekendA federal court restored the passes today. The letters cited "standards of professionalism and decorum"; the court called that "so vague it hardly does the trick," found the security rationale unsupported, and noted the government had renewed one reporter's pass months after the reporting it now objected to. Bond: one dollar.Judge Timothy J. Kelly, D.D.C.
  5. 25 Feb 2026
    Called the mayor of New York a communist from the rostrum at the State of the Union"The new communist mayor of New York City, I think he's a nice guy, actually. I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy." Mamdani is a democratic socialist, says so on the record, and PolitiFact checked it.City & State New York
  6. 6 Oct 2025
    Issued Pentagon press rules that about thirty news organisations refused to sign, handing back their credentials rather than agree — Fox News and Newsmax among themOne outlet signed. A federal judge struck the policy down: its purpose was "to weed out disfavored journalists — those who were not, in the Department's view, 'on board and willing to serve' — and replace them with news entities that are. That is viewpoint discrimination, full stop."Judge Paul L. Friedman, D.D.C.
  7. 16 Jun 2025
    Told the G7 at Kananaskis that removing Russia had been a mistake: "I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in"Nobody removed Russia. The G7 suspended their own participation on 24 March 2014 over Crimea; the Hague Declaration has no expulsion clause because the G8 had none. He blamed "a person named Trudeau," who was not prime minister in March 2014. Stephen Harper was.PBS NewsHour
  8. 25 Feb 2025
    Took selection of the White House press pool from the correspondents' association, which had run it for about a centuryThe association, the same day: "This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps." In April the slot held by the independent wire services was dropped from the rotation.White House Correspondents' Association
  • Every president meets the Chinese leader. Nixon went to Beijing, Biden met Xi at Woodside, and this president was received in Beijing himself in May. A state visit is not the story here; the word is. Wikipedia
  • Days before inviting Putin to Miami he signed the Graham Act, sanctioning Putin personally along with Russian banks, energy and the shadow fleet, and authorising tariffs up to 100 percent on the largest buyers of Russian oil. The Senate passed it 86 to 11. NBC News
  • Almost every attempt on this list to pick the press has been enjoined, reversed or abandoned, several within days. The record is of repeated attempts mostly stopped by courts — not of a sealed channel. The one government win that has held is the Pentagon escort requirement. US Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
  • The White House did not take over the briefing-room seating chart. That was reported as a plan in March 2025 and did not happen; the chart in force was issued by the correspondents' association under a committee chaired by Fox News's Jacqui Heinrich. White House Correspondents' Association

The ledger as of 24 September 2026. It accumulates; nothing is removed from it, and a retreat is entered beside the thing it retreats from.