GOP Sen. Thom Tillis on Trump-Xi visit: "It's a WTF moment"

Washington — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis questioned President Trump's judgment in hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state dinner at the White House this week, saying he's "worried about the trend of spending more time with despots and less time with democratic leaders of nations." 

"It's a WTF moment," the retiring North Carolina senator said in an interview with "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil on Thursday about Mr. Trump's red-carpet rollout for Xi compared to the reception that some U.S. allies like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have received. 

"It's not that Xi Jinping is coming here to learn how to become a democratic, capitalist nation. Xi Jinping is trying to understand how his opposition will ultimately embrace their worldview," he said. 

Tillis called the visit "bad timing," listing off China's human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, espionage capabilities, alleged access to U.S. voter data and reports that Iran has used information from China to target U.S. military assets in the region. Tillis also questioned why the administration has held up an arms shipment to Taiwan. 

"If we want to build a relationship, a productive relationship with Xi Jinping and China, we also have to hold him accountable for things that are just simply unacceptable," Tillis said.

Shortly after returning to office last year, Mr. Trump imposed heavy tariffs on Chinese goods, leading to a trade war that briefly caused both countries to hike duties on each other's goods to more than 100%. The U.S. and China struck a tariff truce later in 2025, and since then, Mr. Trump has emphasized that he hopes to have a more productive relationship with China. During a White House arrival ceremony earlier Thursday, he said he and Xi had forged a "truly great friendship."

Tillis pointed to Mr. Trump's campaign promise of vowing to go hard on China, and questioned whether there was "confidential" information that could explain the switch-up. 

"The reality is, he was tough on China," he said, later adding, "I just don't know what has changed. Whatever has changed had to have been at a confidential level, because I haven't seen any public basis for the sea change that we see right now in our posture towards China."