Donald Trump breaks presidential protocol to welcome Xi Jinping in Washington state visit
US President Donald Trump is breaking diplomatic protocol by greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews ahead of three days of talks on trade, electric vehicles, and technology.
Rare protocol on the tarmac
US President Donald Trump will break standard diplomatic protocol on Wednesday night by traveling to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping on the tarmac. Foreign heads of state visiting Washington are typically met by lower-ranking officials before traveling to the White House, making direct presidential airport receptions rare in modern diplomatic practice. Similar airfield greetings occurred when Dwight Eisenhower received Nikita Khrushchev in 1959, John F. Kennedy met Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961, and Ronald Reagan greeted Pope John Paul II in 1987. Trump previously met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the tarmac in Anchorage in 2025 before talks regarding the war in Ukraine. The Washington summit marks Xi's first state visit to the United States since 2015, with the Chinese leader traveling alongside his wife, Peng Liyuan. Trump intends the airport reception to match the red-carpet honors he received during his visits to Beijing in November 2017 and May 2026.
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at SOAS University of London, described the mutual diplomatic aims in remarks to Newsweek.
Both want the visit to look like a huge success.
Trade truce and industrial disputes
The three-day bilateral visit centers on economic negotiations as a one-year trade war truce agreed on 30 October 2025 approaches its expiration on 10 November 2026. Both governments enter talks attempting to balance competing leverage, with Washington holding critical advantages in advanced microchips while Beijing controls the supply chain for rare earth elements. Automotive trade has emerged as another contentious topic following Trump's 11 September interview on Fox News, where he proposed allowing Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers to operate factories in the United States if they exclusively hire American workers. That proposal prompted resistance on 21 September from 27 Democratic lawmakers, who urged the administration in a joint letter to maintain complete bans on Chinese automotive imports, local assembly plants, and connected vehicle software. The summit also follows diplomatic activity in New York, where Xi bypassed the United Nations General Assembly while Trump addressed delegates before returning to Washington.
- Xi Jinping makes his first state visit to Washington.
- Donald Trump visits Beijing during his first presidential term.
- Xi Jinping meets Joe Biden on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco.
- Trump and Xi agree to a one-year trade war truce at the APEC summit in South Korea.
- Trump visits Beijing for bilateral negotiations.
- Trump expresses openness on Fox News to US-based Chinese electric vehicle plants.
- Democratic lawmakers urge Trump to maintain full bans on Chinese electric vehicles.
- Xi Jinping arrives at Joint Base Andrews to begin a three-day state visit.
- The one-year bilateral trade truce reaches its scheduled expiration.
White House ceremonies and technology leaders
The formal itinerary begins in full on Thursday with an official White House welcoming ceremony featuring nearly 500 military personnel and an aerial flyover. Peng Liyuan and First Lady Melania Trump will tour the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art during the daytime program. On Thursday evening, the White House will host a state dinner, the second held during Trump's second term following a state banquet for King Charles III. The guest list brings together top executives from the technology and banking sectors, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. Xi arrived with a delegation of Chinese business leaders for the meetings, which will focus on bilateral commerce, artificial intelligence development, and strategic stability surrounding Taiwan. The summit takes place several weeks before US midterm elections, with the administration seeking concrete commercial agreements to present to domestic voters.
