‘He’s like an amateur spy’: Donald Trump appears to get caught snooping in Xi Jinping’s private notebook but it’s not what it looks like

A video that seems to show U.S. President Donald Trump sneaking a peek at Xi Jinping’s notebook during his trip to China has gone viral online. 

Trump’s China visit could certainly be going better and this latest incident is just another mark against the U.S. president it would seem. In the video the Chinese president can be seen getting up from his seat next to Trump at what looks to be a banquet of some sort. A notebook left on the table in front of Jinping’s empty seat catches Trump’s attention and he quickly pulls it towards him before flicking through the pages.

The video has been the subject of much discussion online as people assumed that Trump was nosing through somebody else’s private notebook and he wasn’t exactly being subtle about it. Some on X humorously compared it to a student trying to cheat during an exam, “Was Trump like this when he took exams at Wharton or New York Military Academy?” asked one.

Others labeled the U.S. president a national embarrassment for conducting himself in such a way with some calling it “a massive breach of etiquette.” But then again, when has Trump ever cared about etiquette anyways. Another X account posted, “He wouldn’t understand Chinese anyway, but he still managed to embarrass himself.”

Was Trump really looking at Jinping’s private notebook?

While it may look like the U.S. president was trying his hand at a bit of espionage it might not be what it looks like. Instead, it seems a little more likely that Trump was actually looking at material related to the event he and Xi Jinping were attending, perhaps a menu of some sort, or other such material like speech notes. The presidential seal on the front of the notebook certainly suggests that it was intended for Trump.

Of course, that’s not quite as juicy as the idea of Donald Trump snooping through the private notes of another world leader and so the more plausible explanation has quickly been buried underneath more sensationalist posts claiming that is what happened. It’s unlikely that the Chinese president would ever leave anything he wouldn’t be fine with Trump seeing out in the open like that so we can make a pretty safe bet that it wasn’t anything private.

Whatever the case, it just goes to show how much scrutiny Trump is under while visiting China. Every move is analyzed, criticized, picked apart. Many have lost faith in the U.S. president’s ability to lead and so he’s essentially under a magnifying glass right now. While some argued in defense of Trump many have claimed that his actions were undignified either way.