JUST THE FACT THAT HE MENTIONED THIS

Seriously this is major comms IMHO - "you could never find an actor like that in all of Hollywood", spoken of Xi, tacitly suggests that, conversely, you CAN find Hollywood actors like OTHER world leaders!

Why else even MENTION it?

Just like the famous remark "When I was elected president I had only been to Washington 17 times." Why mention that number??

Seventeen sounds like a lot of times to visit one city if you don't live nearby or have business there. If he meant "only a FEW", there'd be no reason not to just say that; why state such a large number of times?

Also, how would you KNOW it was exactly this weird number, 17 times?!?!? What incredibly busy person counts—and remembers—with that degree of precision—the number of times they go to random cities?

So, logically, we are left to conclude the number 17 has some other meaning. Wonder what on earth it could be :)