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Tribune News Service

President Donald Trump said he doubted South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg could represent the United States at summits with world leaders such as President Xi Jinping.
The 2020 presidential candidate responded with a Chinese proverb.

At a rally in Panama City, Florida on Wednesday, Trump sarcastically joked that Buttigieg would do “great” in representing the United States when meeting foreign leaders.
“He’s got a great chance, doesn’t he? He’ll be great,” Trump said of the 37-year-old. “He’ll be great representing us against President Xi of China. That’ll be great.
“I want to be in that room, I wanna watch that one,” Trump quipped.
While speaking with reporters at a campaign stop in California on Thursday, Buttigieg said he wasn’t worried about Trump’s “name-calling and the games he plays”.
Instead, he pointed to an oft-quoted Chinese proverb to respond to the president’s recent attack.
“I was thinking of a Chinese proverb that goes ‘When the wind changes, some people build walls, some people build windmills,’” Buttigieg said. “You got to recognise we need something completely different than what we have in this White House.”




In touching on both walls and windmills, the saying hit on two policy areas Trump has discussed.
Immigration has been a main policy focus for Trump since the launch of his 2016 campaign, especially building a wall along the US-Mexico border. Trump has also repeatedly criticised wind farms, claiming the noise they make can cause cancer.
Trump also mocked Buttigieg’s name at his rally.
“We have Boot-edge-edge. Boot edge-edge. They say ‘edge-edge,’” Trump said, referring to the Indiana Mayor’s popular slogan in his campaign headquarters and on some of his gear.

In his response, Buttigieg also criticised Trump’s strategy on trade as the Chinese returned to Washington on Thursday for more high-stakes negotiations and on interacting with foreign leaders, saying such talks are “usually a personal high-wire act with no safety net and that’s no way to run a country”.
“It’s certainly no way to engage with one of the major powers in the world. America deserves better,” he said.


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Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg at a campaign event in West Hollywood. Photo: AP

U.S. President Donald Trump, center, gestures while arriving to welcome the 2018 Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series Champion Boston Red Sox to the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. on Thursday, May 9, 2019. The Boston Red Sox visited the White House on Thursday to celebrate last year's World Series victory and take a photo with President Donald Trump -- but prominent players of color rejected the invitation, leaving the team's delegation almost entirely white. Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg campaigns with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 9, 2019. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg addresses supporters at a campaign event Thursday, May 9, 2019, in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

News

World

United States & Canada

Democratic presidential hopeful was responding to Trump suggesting he lacked the skills to represent the US in talks with President Xi Jinping


Democratic presidential hopeful was responding to Trump suggesting he lacked the skills to represent the US in talks with President Xi Jinping.


Donald Trump

Xi Jinping

Diplomacy