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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has described China’s massive military parade in Beijing as “very, very impressive,” while also complaining that the United States was not acknowledged in President Xi Jinping’s speech.
The parade, staged to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, was the largest in China’s history.
It featured long-range hypersonic missiles, underwater drones, stealth aircraft, and even robotic “wolves” in a carefully choreographed display of military strength.
Xi presided over the event in Tiananmen Square, flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in what many observers saw as a show of solidarity among powers challenging the US-led international order.
Speaking at the White House during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki today, President Trump said: “I thought it was very, very impressive. But I understood the reason they were doing it. And they were hoping I was watching, and I was watching.”
'They were hoping I was watching.'
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 3, 2025
Donald Trump calls China's military parade 'very impressive' but says Xi Jinping should have mentioned the United States in his speech.https://t.co/TC2ROCL7wW
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/ikqQGvIY9G
Trump added that he has “very good” relationships with Xi, Putin, and Kim, but said the next two weeks would show “how good” those ties really are.
However, he voiced irritation that Xi did not mention the United States’ role in the Second World War, particularly in defeating Japan.
“President Xi is a friend of mine, but I thought that the United States should have been mentioned last night during that speech, because we helped China,” Trump said.
He later posted on Truth Social that America should be recognised for “the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that the United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its freedom.”
China has pitched the parade as a commemoration of victory and a celebration of its rising global influence.
But Western nations largely shunned the event, while Xi used his address to warn that the world faces a choice between “peace and war.”
When asked if he was upset at not being invited, Trump said: “It wouldn’t have been my place to be there.”
Separately, in a radio interview yesterday, Trump said he was not concerned about the alliance forming between Russia and China.
He told the Scott Jennings radio show that America has “the most powerful military forces in the world” and that “they would never use their military forces against us”.
“Believe me, that would be the worst thing they could ever do,” he said.
Trump also addressed the Russia-Ukraine war alongside Polish President Nawrocki on Wednesday at the White House.
Following a military flyover, Trump offered to send more US troops to Poland.
Talks were expected to focus on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, where Trump’s peacemaking efforts have been struggling to get traction.
Trump called it a “stupid war” and said he thought ending it would have been “much easier” for him.
“It’s going to get done,” he vowed to reporters in the Oval Office, with Nawrocki at his side.
Nawrocki, a nationalist and fervent Trump supporter, was in Washington for his first foreign visit as president after having visited the US leader to seek his backing during the Polish election campaign.
Trump gave him a warm welcome, including an offer to boost the US military footprint in Poland.
“We’ll put more there if they want,” he said in the Oval Office.
“We’re with Poland all the way and we’ll help Poland protect itself.”
Nawrocki praised the US troop presence and said it was “the first time in history” that Poland had been happy to host foreign troops, while stressing that Warsaw aims to keep increasing its own military spending within the NATO alliance.
The White House said a flyover by F-16 and F-35 jets during Nawrocki’s arrival commemorated the death of a Polish F-16 jet pilot killed last week while preparing for an air show.
Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP that the flyover, which featured a so-called “missing-man formation,” was staged to “honor the memory of a brave Polish fighter pilot, whose life was tragically taken too soon, and capture the special relationship between our two countries.”
While Trump and Nawrocki see eye-to-eye politically, Poland is closely watching the US leader’s peace efforts in neighboring Ukraine, which Warsaw has largely been frozen out of.
Additional reporting from AFP
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