The Latest: Trump hails ‘truly great friendship’ with China’s Xi Jinping as summit begins
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have no shortage of difficult issues to cover when they sit down for talks Thursday at the White House. The leaders are tackling issues like trade irritants, artificial intelligence safeguards and the war in Iran. Trump wants China to use its influence with Iran, while Xi seeks a halt to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. A fragile trade truce had been set to expire in November, but the two countries agreed Wednesday to extend it for two months.
Also, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s ban on three news outlets from the White House grounds, ordering early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored. The ruling hands the outlets at least a temporary reprieve in what has been an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.
Here's the latest:
The flyover consisted of a B-2 bomber and four fighter jets soaring over the White House.
In the late morning, Trump and Xi participated in a military review in the Rose Garden.
With military band members positioned on the roof of the West Wing, the two leaders and their spouses watched as other musicians dressed in colonial wear and white wigs played.
The military review is a customary feature of state visits at the White House, but it’s usually done on the South Lawn.
Before they stepped out onto the Rose Garden for the review, Trump and Xi walked along the colonnade in front of the presidential “walk of fame,” where portraits of all U.S. presidents are displayed. Trump pointed to his own portrait.
The Chinese president announced that as a measure of good faith, China would send two pandas to Zoo Atlanta after Beijing reclaimed four pandas in 2024 as diplomatic tensions between China and the U.S. intensified.
China and the zoo first announced in April that two pandas, male Ping Ping and female Fu Shuang, would be coming to the U.S. as part of a giant panda conservation agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.
Xi confirmed that “Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people” in “a few days.”
He called the panda loan programs with the U.S. “an envoy of friendship.”
Both pandas were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.
Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun returned from Zoo Atlanta to China in 2024. The National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China in 2023, and other American zoos have sent pandas back to China as loan agreements lapsed.
Xi said in his remarks in the White House that he hopes “Chinese companies are treated fairly here in the United States” while China keeps its door wide open and welcomes U.S. companies that want to invest in China and do business there.
Chinese investments are faced with increasing national security scrutiny in the U.S.
The “Kushner” sign on one of the seats turned out not to be for Jared, but for his daughter, Arabella.
The president’s 15-year-old granddaughter was seated between mom Ivanka Trump and Rubio, the secretary of state, when the U.S. and Chinese presidents delivered their opening remarks.
It’s rare that a presidential granddaughter gets such prominent seating at a White House state visit event.
Nearly a decade ago, Arabella sang for Xi in Mandarin when the Chinese leader visited Mar-a-Lago.
Xi says the two countries “must hold the line of no conflict and no confrontation.”
“We can certainly find the right path for two great countries to get along on this planet we both call home,” Xi said.
The Chinese president said he and Trump have established a “personal rapport” over the years and encourage their governments to communicate.
But Xi said those talks can be improved.
“We should strengthen communication,” he said. “China and the United States are different in national condition, but through candid, in-depth, and continued dialogue, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground, while shelving differences and build up mutual trust.”
Xi said he and Trump have pushed better communication among their lieutenants “in charge of foreign affairs, economic matters, financial cooperation and law enforcement and people-to-people exchanges.”
He added later that the nations’ militaries can “maintain regular dialogue” as part of an overall relationship that involves “healthy” competition that is “kept within bounds.”
Xi touched on artificial intelligence in his opening remarks, saying the two superpowers have a responsibility to ensure that humans always operate AI.
“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that a development of AI is always under human control and serves the well being of the people,” the Chinese leader said.
The two countries’ finance ministers earlier this week met, with the U.S. proposing a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents between the two nations.
The Chinese leader, in his opening remarks, said he was visiting the U.S. to “carry on our friendship, expand cooperation and promote well-being of both our peoples.”
Both are great countries with great people, Xi said through an interpreter.
“I’m very glad to pay a state visit to your beautiful country, the United States of America,” Xi said. “Thank you President Trump and Mrs. Trump for the warm hospitality that you have extended to me and my wife.”
The U.S. president said World War II offers an apt lesson on how the world’s two super powers can work together.
“Brave American pilots volunteered to come to China and fight for the very survival of the legendary country,” he said, referring to the Flying Tigers air corps that helped defend China against Japanese invasion.
“They were just unbelievable,” Trump said.
He added that it was U.S. Marines’ interactions with Chinese citizens that inspired them “to adopt a Chines phrase that they still use today: “gung ho.”
Trump said Marines use the expression to denote “great enthusiasm” but that in Chinese “it literally means ‘working together.’”
Trump promised to work with Xi “as our people worked together to win that war.”
Trump noted that Xi’s state visit comes in the year the U.S. is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding.
The U.S. president said he and Xi will visit the National Archives on Friday to “see some of the greatest treasures of that proud history, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”
The U.S. president said it was a “great privilege” to visit Beijing earlier this year and said Xi showed “spectacular and very beautiful hospitality.”
He said he and the first lady “are honored to host you” in “the beautiful White House.”
The U.S. president noted that he and the Chinese leader have met all over the world, including in China and in Palm Beach, Florida, at the president’s club.
But this is actually the first time the two are meeting at the White House proper, Trump noted.
“We have spent time together all over the world,” he said.
During those visits, Xi and Trump have “forged a friendship, a truly great friendship, actually.”
Trump noted that a lot has changed at the White House since Xi was last there for an Obama-hosted state visit — a nod to his renovation projects.
Her husband is Jared Kushner, one of the president’s two main diplomatic envoys. Their daughter, Arabella, sang for Xi when the Chinese leader visited Mar-a-Lago during Trump’s first term in office.
Others in attendance, according to the seating chart in the Grand Foyer, where Trump and Xi are delivering opening remarks: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China.
Just after 10 a.m. ET, the official state visit by China’s Xi Jinping was underway.
To the blare of trumpets, Trump and first lady Melania Trump walked out of the White House residence onto the South Lawn, where they were to greet Xi and Madame Peng.
China’s leader and his spouse then walked out of a black vehicle, where they warmly shook hands with the Trumps. Then the four posed for the cameras.
“Down with Xi Jinping,” chanted those condemning Beijing’s brutal policy in Tibet. They also chanted “shame on Xi Jinping.”
Another group has gathered about a block away with banners welcoming the Chinese leader.
The two camps are separated and there has been no direct clash.
The presidents of the U.S. and China are scheduled to deliver remarks Thursday morning at the White House and again in the evening as part of a state dinner.
The schedule does not include a news conference and it’s unclear whether Trump and Xi will take questions from either American or Chinese reporters.
In a 2015 meeting, Xi and President Barack Obama held a joint news conference as part of a White House summit. In the Rose Garden, which Trump has since turned into a patio, each president made opening remarks. Then they each answered one question from a U.S. reporter and another from a Chinese reporter before taking additional, nation-specific questions.
The Trump-Xi summit comes as U.S. networks are boycotting White House pool coverage in protest of Trump stripping credentials from MS Now, Politico and CNN.
That’s a few hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s ban of the three news outlets from the White House and ordered early Thursday that their access must be restored.
The back-and-forth is the latest in an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.
The U.S. president offered enthusiastic praise for China’s first couple — but with a social faux pas.
“I met President Xi at the plane (Airport!) yesterday and he looks strong, vibrant, and fit — Better than ever. Madam Xi, of course, BEAUTIFUL!” he posted on Truth Social.
The latter reference was to President Xi Jinping’s wife, Peng Liyuan.
She is properly recognized as Madame Peng. She is correctly listed that way by the White House in its public itinerary for the Trump-Xi meetings and state dinner.
Officials typically take great care in international meetings to honor the titles and protocols of other delegations.
In one visit with Queen Elizabeth II, Trump flouted royal protocol by walking ahead of the late British monarch. In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama continued speaking at a Buckingham Palace banquet as the queen’s band played “God Save the Queen.”
Analysts welcomed the extension of the trade truce U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Wednesday but said it left unresolved many of the issues that divide the United States and China.
“Agreeing to the extension is positive, but agreement to merely avoid an all-out tariff war for a few months is not a cause for celebration and is probably the minimum necessary to call the summit a success,” said Jeff Moon, a former U.S. diplomat and trade official specializing in China.
“The summit will be heavy on pomp and circumstance and light on substance, so the question is whether (extending the trade truce) will be the principal summit deliverable (or) whether the leaders will also tackle more ambitious goals as well,’’ said Moon, who now runs the China Moon Strategies consultancy.
In his Truth Social post Thursday on AI, Trump again referred to “Super Intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence.”
Trump used his new preferred term earlier this week at the United Nations, and he’s ordered U.S. diplomats to follow suit.
The U.S. president has said Americans’ widespread skepticism about AI is unfounded, and he’s trying to put the technology and its future in a better light.
It’s the latest example of how much Trump, a former reality TV star, cares about branding.
When Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill was lagging in 2025, he dubbed it “The Big Beautiful Bill.” His investment accounts for U.S. newborns are called “Trump Accounts.” In private business, Trump has put his name on everything from buildings and golf courses to steaks, shoes and Bibles.
The U.S. president and Chinese president have both taken a hands-off view of artificial intelligence. Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday that AI would be a “big topic of discussion” when the two presidents meet later at the White House.
“But I want to leave it exactly where it is,” Trump said, adding “that is China’s position also.”
Trump said the U.S. Department of Justice is “our guardrail.”
Trump has said any AI regulation should be handled by the federal government, but he hasn’t pushed Congress for any major action on the matter. And he’s opposed state government regulatory moves.
The ritzy black-tie event honoring Xi will be held in the White House East Room, featuring décor that “draws on the color red’s longstanding cultural significance throughout Chinese history,” first lady Melania Trump said as she released key details.
Tables will sport rich red linens and be set using the Reagan-era china service, with its alternating gold and red bands. Urns will overflow with red blossoms.
Dinner will begin with a toast honoring the historic “Toast to Peace” between President Richard Nixon and China’s Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing in 1972.
The menu includes sesame-crusted sea bass served with braised bok choy and roasted eggplant, and White House honey ice cream for dessert.
American tenor Christopher Macchio, who sings at Trump events, will lead the after-dinner entertainment. Musicians from the U.S. military will also perform.
China’s commerce ministry said Thursday that Beijing will maintain close communication with the U.S. following their first dialogue on artificial intelligence.
The ministry’s comments at a regular news conference came after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held economic and trade talks in New York. The ministry did not give out further details about the AI dialogue. However, Bessent said earlier that the U.S. proposed a notification mechanism between the two countries for national security-related AI incidents.
The two countries on Wednesday also agreed to extend their trade truce set to expire on Nov. 10.
A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s ban of three news outlets from the White House grounds, ordering early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored.
The ruling hands the outlets at least a temporary reprieve in what has been an extraordinary showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.
Trump first announced he was banning the outlets Friday, assailing what he called “fake news,” and only later arguing that their reporting was a risk to national security. The outlets argued in a joint lawsuit that the ban was a blatant violation of the First Amendment because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.
In his late-night ruling, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the three outlets’ access. He said they had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days, and were likely to succeed in showing that their press passes were revoked without due process.
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have no shortage of difficult issues to cover when they sit down for talks Thursday at the White House.
China has resisted the Trump administration’s urgings — and economic threats — to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the nearly seven-month war. Xi wants to see Trump permanently halt arms sales to Taiwan and loosen export restrictions on cutting-edge advanced chips. And the two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend a one-year trade truce set to expire Nov. 10 for two months, kicking the can on finding a more durable agreement.
All the while, both leaders seem to believe time is on their side as they look to outmaneuver the other in what's expected to be the world’s most significant economic and national security competition for years to come.
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