Trump greets Xi with bombers as a trade truce buys more time

By Tom Beckwith · Reporting from Washington · September 24, 2026

Nations have interests, not friendships. That old rule of statecraft seems to have slipped the mind of the White House. Diplomacy is not a dinner party. Statecraft does not run on personal rapport.

A 100-foot red carpet and a 21-person honor guard greeted China's President Xi Jinping. Donald Trump also provided a battery salute and a flyover by two B-1 bombers. The BBC reports this is the first personal airfield welcome by a president since 1962.

Melania Trump said the president acted because the pair have a great relationship. It is a charmingly domestic explanation for a major geopolitical theater. The actual business was handled by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Bessent announced that the US and China agreed to extend their trade truce. DW and the BBC reported that the Busan Agreement has been extended through January 2. It was originally scheduled to expire on November 10.

Bessent told Fox News he does not know if a bigger deal can be done. He is managing a ledger rather than solving a structural rivalry. This is the cold calculus of a veteran market player.

The United States economy stood at $30,769,700,000,000 in 2025. China's economy measured $19,498,039,388,042.6 in the same year. These behemoths cannot be charmed into alignment with dinners attended by Jensen Huang and Elon Musk.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the engagement. He told reporters that the US and China are the two largest economies. Rubio called the idea of not interacting at the highest levels irresponsible.

The defense fails because it mistakes high-level talks for effective leverage. China has already reneged on promises to buy more American agricultural products. It has also failed to sell more rare earth minerals to the US.

Senator Roger Wicker criticized the lavish welcome. He argued that Trump should not have invited the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Wicker described the Chinese leader as a brutal and oppressive dictator.

This mirrors the First visit of Donald Trump to China. This dynamic echoes Donald Trump's first visit to China in 2017. The extended Busan Agreement will expire in January 2027.

This leaves the administration under the shadow of Executive Order 14257. The mechanism swaps institutional friction for direct leader-to-leader summits. Five years out, the bill always comes due.

Credibility is earned in the boring years. A Chicago Council on Global Affairs poll found 57% of Americans favor cooperation. However, 63% of Maga Republicans favor limiting relations.

The White House tried to paper over this tension with a 30-metre red carpet. The underlying ledger remains unchanged. China's territorial ambitions and industrial policies have not been altered by a tour.

The administration has traded strategic coherence for a two-month trade truce. This move solves nothing and pleases almost no one.

Trump greets Xi with bombers as a trade truce buys more time

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