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Republican presidential candidate former US President Donald Trump (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R).
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Washington: Former US president Donald Trump has said that Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote him a beautiful note after the Republican presidential nominee suffered a gunshot wound to his ear during an assassination attempt.
Trump said this at an election rally on Saturday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, exactly a week after a young shooter tried to assassinate him by hitting a bullet in his head. Trump escaped miraculously as it hit part of his right ear. His former doctor said he was doing good.
“I got along very well with President Xi, who's a great guy. He wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened, and he wrote,” Trump, 78, said, adding that he received such notes from other leaders as well.
The ex-president did not specify which other leaders had contacted him.
“A lot of them didn't like what I was doing to them, but they also knew it was about time. The jig was up, right? It was about time. But they wrote to me, almost all of them, wrote me notes. It was nice. Now I have a good relationship with all of them. That's a good thing,” he said in his first campaign rally since surviving an assassination attempt.
He was shot in the ear less than 10 minutes into his speech, prompting him to be escorted off stage. One attendee and the shooter died during the attack while two others were injured.
Trump has long boasted of having a warm relationship with Xi.
In 2020, while serving as president, Trump said that he and the Chinese president “love each other,” despite accusing the country of engaging in “predatory practices” in its trade relationship with the US, as President Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese exports and sharply criticized the country for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump also said he also gets along with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.
“A lot of times the press would say, he gets along with Kim Jong Un, North Korea he's a lot of nuclear weapons. I got along with him, great. You were never in danger with me as your president. It's a good thing to get along, not a bad thing,” he said.
At the same time, Trump said that he would be tough on China as he mentioned in the letter he received from Xi.
“I took on China like no administration in history, bringing hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our treasury when no other president had gotten 10 cents. China never gave us 10 cents. They got hundreds of billions of dollars from China,” he said.
Trump described Xi as a brilliant man who controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. “He is a fierce person,” he said.
“When I'm back in the White House, the way they will sell their product in America is to build it in America. They have to build it in America, and they have to use you people to build it...We will build American, buy American. We're going to hire an American. We're going to get the auto industry back,” he said.
“I will revoke China's most favourite nation's trade (status). They've had it for years. We had it revoked, and then we had that stupid election. That ridiculous election that everybody knows was ridiculous. But I will revoke it,” he said.