WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump scored major personal wins during the just-concluded visit from his “friend,” the dictator of the world’s largest totalitarian country: showing off all his gold decorations in the Oval Office, giving him a tour of his new helipad on the South Lawn and even mocking his predecessor, Joe Biden.

As to the achievements for the United States more broadly — those remain unclear, apart from a pair of pandas that Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced would soon be sent to a zoo in Atlanta as a gift.

Late Friday morning, Trump — who lies pretty much every day about pretty much everything — told reporters: “We had a great meeting. We had a really great meeting. Great for the farmers. Great for everybody.”

The White House, though, did not respond to HuffPost queries asking for concrete accomplishments from Xi’s 42-hour stay in Washington.

American farmers started suffering during Trump’s first term, when he began his trade war against China, and more recently have been hit by the soaring cost of diesel fuel, which drives much of the equipment they rely on, thanks to Trump’s war of choice against Iran.

“The summit’s substantive results thus far appear to be meager,” said Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and now with the Brookings Institution. “And I have to wonder whether Xi did not find all of the military flyovers and pomp a little bit desperate.”

Trump prior to Xi’s arrival Wednesday evening had already said that he wasn’t bothered by reports that China was helping Iran target U.S. troops in the Middle East, claiming that the U.S. does similar things against China. On the first full day of Xi’s visit, Trump announced on his social media platform that no restrictions on AI were necessary at all, dashing the hopes of many observers who thought the summit could be used to limit the technology’s existential risks. As to Taiwan, the pro-United States island that China considers its own, Trump had already been holding up congressionally authorized weapons shipments.

The visit wrapped up Friday with Trump giving Xi a tour of the National Archives, home to America’s founding documents, including the U.S. Constitution — which guarantees freedoms that do not exist in China and which contains checks on autocratic behaviors that Trump violates regularly.

Trump, who has long shown a preference for autocrats over democratically elected leaders, afforded Xi honors that no foreign head of state has received in over half a century. Not only did Xi get a state dinner, the United States’ highest diplomatic sign of respect, but Trump trekked out to Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland to greet Xi at the foot of his jet upon arrival. That courtesy has been reserved solely for visiting popes since the 1960s.

Trump continued praising Xi lavishly over the course of the visit, while Xi responded in standard, optimistic yet non-committal diplomatic expressions. At one point, Xi even warned of the Thucydides Trap, a historical reference to Ancient Greece and the conflicts inherent between rising and falling powers. Trump was seated, appearing bored, as Xi spoke, and did not seem to appreciate the implicit insult.

Tom Nichols, a former professor at the U.S. Naval War College, said he doubts Trump had any idea what Xi was talking about. “Reference to something in a book? No way,” he said.

In his remarks on both Thursday and Friday, Xi suggested his view was that the ongoing dialogue between him and Trump was a good outcome in and of itself as he praised what he called “strategic stability” between the two countries. “The president and I are like two people that are charting the course for the great ship of China-U.S. relations,” Xi said Friday morning at the White House.

Xi said there would be two further opportunities to speak with Trump in the coming months: first at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference in China in late November, and then at the G20 conference of the world’s largest economies, which Trump is hosting at his financially troubled golf resort adjacent to the Miami airport in December.

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