Andreas Kluth, Columnist

Xi Teaching Trump Thucydides? Good Luck

May 18, 2026 at 9:00 AM UTC

Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US diplomacy, national security and geopolitics. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist.

One small step into the past.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

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Xi Jinping has been fascinated by, if not obsessed with, the so-called Thucydides trap since at least 2014. So it was hardly surprising that the Chinese leader, who likes to strike intellectual chords to mark large occasions, brought it up again when hosting Donald Trump last week.

“Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap and establish a new paradigm for relations between great powers?”, he asked the American president. Whether Trump understood the reference is unclear.