Trump rolls out red carpet for Xi's Washington summit as trade truce extended

President Trump stood on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday evening as an Air China plane touched down carrying Xi Jinping. Two B-1 supersonic bombers roared overhead. The Army Air Force Band played the national anthem. A hundred-foot red carpet stretched across the concrete, flanked by color guards standing at attention. When Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan descended the stairs, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were there to greet them personally—a gesture so rare that it had not happened since President John F. Kennedy welcomed British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1962. The two couples shook hands, exchanged brief words, and walked side by side down the carpet for photographs before departing in separate motorcades toward Washington.

The ceremony was deliberate theater, and Melania Trump had orchestrated much of it. She told Fox News that her husband chose to meet Xi at the airport himself because "they have a great relationship." The visit itself—Xi's first to Washington since 2015—would stretch across three days and include a state dinner, closed-door meetings, and tours of American cultural institutions. But beneath the pageantry lay serious business. On the same day as Xi's arrival, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington and Beijing had agreed to extend their existing trade truce through January. The original agreement, which had lowered American tariffs on some goods in exchange for Chinese concessions on rare earth minerals, had been set to expire on November 10. Bessent said he had met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng to discuss whether a more substantial trade deal might eventually be possible between the two nations.

Xi arrived with a delegation that included Cai Qi, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee and widely regarded as his closest aide, along with Vice Premier He Lifeng, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and other officials and ambassadors. In a statement carried by China's state news agency Xinhua, Xi framed the visit as an opportunity for partnership rather than rivalry. "The two countries should be partners rather than rivals," he said, adding that the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" and making "America great again" could coexist and reinforce each other. He expressed confidence that the summit would produce "fruitful results."

The agenda was crowded with potential flashpoints. Trade and tariffs topped the list—Trump aimed to negotiate lower Chinese tariffs on American products, increase Chinese purchases of rare earth minerals, and boost exports of American agricultural goods. But there was skepticism about whether Beijing would follow through. China had already reneged on earlier promises to buy more American farm products and increase rare earth mineral sales to the United States. Beyond trade lay thornier issues: artificial intelligence, where both nations were racing for dominance; the war in Iran; and Taiwan, where a congressionally approved $14 billion arms sale hung in the balance. David Firestein of the Bush China Foundation suggested that Xi would likely press Trump to stall or abandon the Taiwan arms deal and to deepen economic integration between the two countries. Yet Firestein also noted that the relationship seemed more stable than it had been in 2025, with less volatility despite the persistent underlying tensions.

The warming of US-China relations reflected a broader shift in American public opinion. A recent poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that only 41 percent of Americans now viewed China's territorial ambitions as a threat to the United States—down from 52 percent in 2022. More than half of Americans, 57 percent, believed the US should cooperate and engage with Beijing. That support cut across party lines: 57 percent of non-MAGA Republicans favored cooperation, as did most Democrats, both moderate and liberal. Yet Trump's core supporters told a different story. Sixty-three percent of his loyal base wanted to limit US relations with China, putting them at odds with the red-carpet welcome their president had just extended.

The visit would include a lavish state dinner on Thursday, where leaders of major US artificial intelligence companies were scheduled to attend. Trump had dismissed warnings about AI dangers from within the industry as a "hoax," and both nations were eager to demonstrate their technological prowess. Melania Trump had also arranged a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art to highlight cultural connections between the two countries. The summit would conclude on Friday at the National Archives, where the two couples would view historical records significant to the American-Chinese relationship. What emerged from those three days—whether the extended trade truce would hold, whether broader agreements might take shape, whether the underlying tensions over Taiwan and technology could be managed—remained to be seen.