News/Commentary

President Xi gets a good chuckle out of ‘Biden Autopen’ portrait in the WH

September 25, 2026 | | Print Article

Love him or hate him, it would be hard to argue that President Donald Trump doesn’t have a real sense of humor and that humor was on full display during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s official visit to the United States.

Trump was giving Xi a personal tour of the White House and drew a rare chuckle from the Chinese leader when he pointed to a framed “autopen” photo displayed in place of former President Joe Biden’s portrait.

“And this is the autopen,” Trump said while pointing out portraits of American presidents, giving Xi a tap on the arm to indicate the humor behind the stunt.

Predictably, the media and political class expressed outrage over Trump’s lack of decorum and “appalling” antics — clinging tightly to the rules of etiquette that built a bloated, self-serving federal bureaucracy in the first place.

Yet, that is precisely why so many voters back Trump. He refuses to put on the smooth, fake polish of a typical politician who morphs into whatever the moment demands, truth be damned.

Many people, including Elon Musk, clearly saw the humor in Trump’s stunt. After all, the rest of the world could see Biden’s cognitive decline — he was essentially a placeholder president, leaving the real power to the unelected machine operating in the background.

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Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:

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Tom Tillison
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