This week, President Donald Trump is due visiting China after he had postponed the flight in March because of the war in Iran. He will meet China’s paramount leader in Beijing, Xi Jinping, and this is the first visit of a US President in China in 9 years. There are many important discussion points on the agenda, but I’m quite sure that Donald Trump’s first claim will be, I WON THE WAR!

The war was well-prepared (Congress was involved, the propaganda machine working well so that the public endorsed it, even an attempt for a powerful UN Security Council resolution was launched). But G.W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell were insufficiently informed about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, the alleged reason for the assault. They did not exist, at least never were found.

Long time ago, one of my favourite jokes about former President George W. Bush who send the United States together with a coalition of the willing (sans Germany and France) into the Iraq War (it happened that I was in nearby Kuwait at that time) went,

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A tragic fire on Monday destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. Both of his books have been lost.

“Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president was devastated, as he had not finished coloring the second one.”

That joke was topped when Bush’s memoir, Decision Points, was published in 2020.

“Bush wrote a book!“

Donald Trump’s expected claim when descending the gangway in Beijing later this week, I WON THE WAR!, is another one.

11 May 2026 @ 16:59 UTC+2.

Last modified May 11, 2026.