President Donald Trump on Saturday praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s move to abolish term limits and suggested America might “give that a shot someday.”
CNN obtained a recording of Trump’s remarks and played a portion of the audio on air. The President was speaking at a lunch for Republican donors at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“China’s great, and Xi is a great gentleman,” Trump is heard saying on the recording.
“He’s now president for life,” the President added, to laughter and cheering.
“President for life,” Trump continued. “No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
China’s parliament on Monday will approve the removal of presidential term limits from the country’s constitution. The White House did not respond Saturday to TPM’s request for comment on Trump’s remark.
Elsewhere in the speech, according to CNN, the President wondered aloud: “Is Hillary a happy person? Do you think she’s happy?”
“When she goes home at night, does she say, ‘What a great life?’” Trump asked his audience. “I don’t think so. You never know. I hope she’s happy.”
According to the report, the President also called former President George W. Bush “a real genius” for invading Iraq, which he said was the “the single worst decision ever made” and comparable to “throwing a big fat brick into a hornet’s nest.”
“That was Bush. Another real genius. That was Bush,” Trump said, according to CNN. “That turned out to be wonderful intelligence. You know? Great intelligence agency there.”
