Really?! Unsurprising, but that makes the entire thing even worse.

Hmm, could be. Although the meme did take off way more with Xi than it ever did with Obama. And other comparisons were made with Eeyore and Piglet, which iirc were mostly due to facial expressions and choice of clothing (it was a shorter lady wearing pink I believe).

But I hadn't thought of that connection yet. I figured it was mostly physical resemblance (posture and size).