President Donald Trump told Fox News he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to release Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old Hong Kong media mogul serving a 20-year prison sentence, and that Xi's answer offered little hope. "I brought up Jimmy Lai. I would say the response to that was not positive," Trump said in an interview with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier airing Friday.

The exchange took place during Trump's summit with Xi in Beijing, where the two leaders covered trade, Taiwan, Iran, and a handful of individual prisoner cases. On the question of Lai, a British citizen, pro-democracy newspaper founder, and outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party, Trump said he was blunt about what he wanted.

"I said, well, I would appreciate it if you would release him. He's gotten old and he's probably not feeling too well, it would be nice."

Xi, Trump reported, described the Lai case as "sort of his worst nightmare." Trump did not sugarcoat the result. "I did not feel optimistic. I have to be honest with you about that one," he said.

A 78-year-old man behind bars since 2020

Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned since 2020. His pro-democracy newspaper regularly criticized the Communist Party, and Chinese authorities have characterized his publication as an effort to undermine the government. He was found guilty of sedition and conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces under Hong Kong's national security law and sentenced to 20 years. He remains in a Hong Kong prison under what have been described as harsh conditions.

Lai's case has become a rallying point for press-freedom advocates, religious conservatives, and human-rights groups worldwide. The Washington Examiner reported that Trump framed his advocacy for Lai as part of a broader effort to defend persecuted Christians and political prisoners abroad, linking it to his first-term record of securing the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson from Turkey.

That broader effort extended beyond Lai at the Beijing summit. Trump said he also raised the case of Ezra Jin, also known as Jin Mingri, the founder of Beijing's underground Zion Church, who was detained during a crackdown and accused of "illegal use of information networks." On that front, the response from Xi was markedly different. Breitbart reported Trump said Xi would "strongly consider" releasing the pastor. "He's going to strongly consider the pastor," Trump said, adding of Lai: "I did bring him up, it's a tougher one for him, it's a tougher one."

Lai's daughter: 'More hopeful than I've ever been'

The day before Trump's interview aired, Claire Lai, Jimmy Lai's daughter, appeared on Fox News' "The Will Cain Show" and expressed cautious optimism. Her words carried the weight of someone who has spent years watching her father age inside a foreign prison cell.

"I'm more hopeful than I've ever been that he is the president and this is the administration that will free my father, and we are just so extremely grateful."

Claire Lai called Trump the "liberator-in-chief." That phrase captures the expectation many religious and human-rights advocates have placed on this administration, an expectation that now runs headlong into the reality of Xi Jinping's refusal to budge.

The case resonates with Christians who have watched violent persecution of believers around the world accelerate in recent years, from West Africa to East Asia. Lai, a Catholic convert, represents a specific kind of prisoner of conscience: someone punished not for violence but for publishing words the regime found intolerable.

Trump contrasts his approach with Biden's

Trump used the interview to draw a sharp line between his own hostage-recovery record and that of his predecessor. He claimed to have secured the release of "hundreds" of people from foreign custody and took direct aim at the cost of the Biden administration's approach.

"I've gotten hundreds of people out, and, by the way, I don't pay a lot of money. I don't pay any money, like Biden, where they give $6 billion all the time to get people out."

The $6 billion figure appears to reference the Biden-era prisoner exchange with Iran, which drew fierce criticism from Republicans who argued it rewarded a hostile regime. Trump's framing positions himself as a leader who uses leverage and personal relationships rather than cash transfers, a distinction that matters to voters who believe the previous administration's foreign policy was marked by weakness and concession.

The New York Post reported that Trump pointed to past successes including Brunson's release as evidence of his track record. Claire Lai's praise suggests the family, at least, believes personal diplomacy still offers the best path forward, even after Xi's cold response.

For many conservative and Christian voters who supported Trump in part because of concerns about how the previous administration treated people of faith, the willingness to raise these cases at the highest level of diplomacy carries real weight.

The wider summit: Taiwan, Iran, and 'clashes'

The Lai discussion unfolded within a summit that covered far more ground. Xi warned Trump that Taiwan could cause "clashes and even conflicts" between the United States and China, language that, while diplomatic in form, carries unmistakable menace given Beijing's military buildup in the region. Trump, for his part, described a "fantastic future" for U.S.-China relations and called Xi a "great leader."

Xi also reportedly offered to help the United States broker a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That offer, if genuine, would represent a significant diplomatic opening, though one freighted with the obvious question of what Beijing would expect in return.

The Washington Free Beacon noted that a win on the prisoner cases would particularly please Trump's evangelical and Catholic supporters, who have long pressed for American presidents to use their leverage on behalf of persecuted believers. The fact that Trump raised both Lai and pastor Ezra Jin directly with Xi suggests he understands that constituency and takes its priorities seriously.

Trump departed Beijing and returned to Washington, D.C., on Friday. A photo caption from the summit placed the two leaders shaking hands at the Great Hall of the People on May 14, 2026.

What remains unanswered

Several questions hang over the story. Xi's actual words, beyond Trump's characterization, remain unknown. The specific conditions Lai faces in his Hong Kong prison have been described as harsh but not detailed publicly. And while Trump said Xi would "strongly consider" releasing pastor Ezra Jin, no timeline or commitment has been reported.

There is also the fundamental question of leverage. Trump has used tariffs, trade deals, and personal rapport to press Beijing on a range of issues. Whether any of those tools can pry loose a man whom Xi himself reportedly described as his "worst nightmare" is far from clear.

The broader pattern of violence and imprisonment targeting Christians globally means the Lai case does not exist in isolation. It sits alongside dozens of cases where believers and dissidents languish in foreign custody while Western governments weigh how hard to push.

Trump, to his credit, pushed. He raised the name. He made the ask. And he was honest about the answer he got. That combination, advocacy paired with candor, is more than many of his predecessors offered.

Whether honesty about Xi's refusal translates into a changed strategy, increased pressure, or simply a diplomatic dead end will determine whether Claire Lai's hope was well placed. For now, her father remains in a Hong Kong cell, 78 years old, serving a sentence imposed by a regime that treats free speech as sedition.

A president willing to ask is better than one who never brings it up. But asking is not the same as delivering, and Jimmy Lai is running out of time for the difference to matter.