President Donald Trump winced during a military flyover while standing beside Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the moment quickly spread as a meme across social media. As reported by The Independent, the incident took place on Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where the two leaders took part in a red-carpet ceremony ahead of a summit.
As the two men stood side by side on the tarmac, a pair of B-1 bombers roared overhead. Trump, 80, had his gloved hand raised to his brow in a salute when he glanced upward, closed his eyes, and winced, while Xi appeared unresponsive to the noise.
The B-1B Lancer serves as the backbone of the U.S. long-range bomber force and is powered by four General Electric turbofan engines with afterburners, each providing more than 30,000 pounds of thrust, according to Air Force Global Strike Command. The aircraft has been a key part of the Air Force inventory since the 1980s.
The internet turned the wince into a meme almost instantly
Commenters on social media quickly seized on what they described as an over-the-top reaction to the aircraft, with many contrasting Trump’s wince with Xi’s composure. One user on X wrote, “Hang it in the Louvre,” a phrase typically reserved for visual masterpieces.
Another user superimposed Natalie Harp, the aide whose handwritten letters to Trump drew attention in August, by his side as he winced. In the edited photo, she is holding a large pile of bags, a red tie, and a MAGA hat.
Other memes framed Xi as having outshone Trump, including one depicting the Chinese leader with a pronounced jawline alongside the caption “mogged,” a slang term for being outshown. Another showed Trump telling a pilot to scare Xi with the flyover, followed by an image of Trump himself looking startled with his mouth open.
Some users pointed to an AI-style image previously seen on Truth Social that portrays Trump in a military uniform with a stern expression, contrasting it with the wince. Another meme showed Secretary of State Marco Rubio whispering to the president in a reference to the photo of George W. Bush being told about the 9/11 attacks, saying, “Sir, Xi didn’t flinch at all.”
Published: Sep 24, 2026 06:15 pm