Trump Hosts Xi at Tech-Billionaire State Dinner — SkimNews
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- Trump hosted Xi Jinping at a White House state dinner Thursday night featuring a tech-heavy guest list, capping a day of bilateral talks even as the leaders acknowledged sharp disagreements over Taiwan, trade, AI, and Iran
- Xi Jinping's visit was his first to Washington in more than a decade and marked the second Trump-Xi summit of 2025 between the world's two largest economies
- Trump toasted that he and Xi 'represent different systems' but 'we've never gotten along better,' pledging to 'build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations'
- Xi framed China's 'great national rejuvenation' and Trump's 'Make America great again' pledge as 'mutually reinforcing,' signaling alignment despite structural tensions
- The guest list included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault — placing AI industry leaders directly in the room during AI-policy talks
- Trump personally greeted Xi and his wife at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, an unusual break from protocol that typically has presidents waiting at the White House for arriving guests
- Trump toured Xi through White House updates including Marine One's new helipad and his under-construction ballroom, using the visit to showcase infrastructure projects he has championed in Washington
Why it matters: The tech-billionaire seating chart places AI executives — Altman, Huang, Musk, Bezos — in the same room where AI policy was discussed, elevating AI from industry concern to direct leader-level diplomacy and signaling that semiconductor and AI governance are now central to the US-China relationship alongside Taiwan and trade.
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