Donald Trump rolled out everything he had for Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
This marked Jinping’s first visit to the White House in over a decade. Therefore, Trump pulled out all the bells and whistles to make a good impression. There was a red carpet, a military flyover and a greeting on the tarmac.
Then, at the end of a black-tie dinner, Trump brought out the surprise tied to a moment he can’t escape.
Two uniformed service members pulled a gold cloth off something tall in the corner of the East Room. Footage shows the president beaming as if he were unveiling a masterpiece while the room applauded.
The gift presented to Xi was a polished, bronze version of the very creature that once had Trump recoiling on camera.
The moment came Thursday, Sept. 24, at the state dinner for Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan. The dinner capped the Chinese leader’s first White House visit in more than a decade. Trump spent the day gushing about what he called a “truly great friendship” with Xi. By dinner, he was telling the room the two countries had “never gotten along better.”
Then he told the guests he had a present, one he said he and Melania had personally helped design. It was a bald eagle.
This one was not alive, thankfully. The bronze sculpture stands roughly three feet tall, with its wings flung wide as it sets down on a twisting branch.
Trump credited “an extraordinary American artist, one of the greatest in the world,” although he didn’t name the sculptor. He added that the piece was “designed in personal collaboration with Melania and myself.”
“The bald eagle is a national symbol of the United States and an embodiment of the free and soaring spirit of America,” he said. “And we hope it will find a nice place, a wonderful place, in Beijing.”
Some viewers on social media zoomed in on the base and insisted the eagle was clutching a snake. “Is the eagle holding a snake?” one person asked.
That didn’t stop the jokes as one person said, “Trump always knows how to piss people off.”
One person pointed out that Xi was born in 1953, the Year of the Snake. They argued that whoever picked the gift was either “completely ignorant of Chinese culture” or had worse intentions. X eventually added a community note clarifying that the eagle is landing on a branch and isn’t attacking anything.
If the gift felt familiar, it’s because it’s a nod to a moment he doesn’t like to mention. “Guess we now know what happened to that eagle,” one person added.
In 2015, Time photographed Trump as the runner-up for its Person of the Year. The honor went to Stateswoman and former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel. The shoot took place in his Trump Tower office and included a live bald eagle named Uncle Sam.
When the clip resurfaced earlier this year, one viewer joked the bird “almost knocked the wig off.”
Footage shows the eagle perched on Trump’s forearm, repeatedly angling its beak toward his face.
That prompted Trump to ask, “How does my hair look?” Later, when he reached for something near the bird’s stand, Uncle Sam flapped and lunged.
The president backed away as the handler stepped in. He called the eagle “seriously dangerous, but beautiful.” Many who watched the clip thought, “Are you kidding me? and “It was all good til the eagle messed with ‘the ‘do.'”
It also came back just two months after Trump shared a photo on Truth Social of what he claimed was a bald eagle killed by windmills. A community note pointed out the bird was actually a falcon killed in Israel in 2017.
The Chinese president now has a bronze version of the bird to take home. Whether it ends up in that “wonderful place” in Beijing or in a storage closet, Atlanta may have come out of this summit with the better gift. Its two new residents are furry, and they won’t lunge at anybody.
Xi’s side of the exchange landed a lot closer to home for Atlanta. He announced that two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will arrive at Zoo Atlanta “in a few days,” and he called them an “envoy of friendship,” according to The Hill. The zoo hasn’t had pandas since its last ones returned to China in 2024.
One person wasn’t impressed with the trade: “Yes Trump clearly got the better of Xi. A tacky gold plated statuette of a bird traded for two live pandas, not one but two! A true genius.”
“We get two whole pandas and they only get a small statue of an eagle???” another joked.
The bald eagle gift exchange has become Trump’s go-to. Xi is only the latest world leader to get one, according to The New York Times.
Last year, Trump sent a bald eagle sculpture to Polish President Karol Nawrocki as an inauguration gift. Scottish First Minister John Swinney received an eagle figurine of his own during one of Trump’s visits to Scotland.
President Trump gave Xi Jinping a gift: a statue of an eagle grasping a snake.
— Iwona C (@IwonaC735474) September 25, 2026
🐍 🦅
😎🍿 pic.twitter.com/qln5yqn5UQ
