Trump hosts Xi at White House dinner as tech titans crowd the spotlight

Donald Trump hosted Xi Jinping at a White House state dinner attended by top tech and business leaders. The carefully staged evening signalled personal warmth even as tensions over trade, Taiwan and AI persisted.Washington,Sep 25, 2026 06:08 ISTUS President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state dinner at the White House on Thursday, with the guest list, seating, fashion and menu drawing as much attention as the diplomacy around the visit. The event brought together billionaires, business leaders and Washington powerbrokers, even as Trump and Xi face tensions over Taiwan, trade and artificial intelligence.Trump used the occasion to signal warmth towards Xi, publicly focusing on White House updates and the personal side of the visit. He had already taken the unusual step of greeting Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Wednesday when they arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, instead of waiting to welcome them at the White House.As guests arrived, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman signed autographs, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wore a tuxedo instead of his usual black leather jacket, and LVMH chief Bernard Arnault walked through black security fencing to enter the White House. Trump said during this week's UN General Assembly session, "Everyone wants to be there. It's the hottest ticket in town." Asked on Monday night who would attend, he replied, "sort of everybody," adding, "I would say you have the entire tech world, the entire banking world and a lot more." The guest list was to include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Google's Sundar Pichai, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell.During Thursday's arrival ceremony, Trump and Xi reviewed troops as trumpets played, with the US president saying, "From the time of my first election in 2016 President Xi and I have forged a friendship." Edgard Kagan, senior adviser and chair in China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the dinner was expected to showcase "the positive vibes surrounding the visit" and show that "the president is very focused on signalling warmth and a close personal connection with Xi." First lady Melania Trump's menu started with yellow squash veloute with wild mushrooms, fresh herbs, crispy pancetta and scallion oil. It was followed by sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, roasted garden eggplant and sauce verte. Dessert was vanilla cremeux with sour cherry confit and walnut frangipane, along with ice cream made with honey from the White House. The dinner also followed Xi's own state dinner for Trump in Beijing in May, held under grand chandeliers at the Great Hall of the People and attended by several technology leaders, including Tim Cook and Musk. Trump has since referred to the ballroom he is building at the White House as the "Great Hall of the United States". "This is a very large hall," Trump recently said of the Great Hall of the People, before adding, "But we're gonna top it." The display also marked a contrast with his earlier criticism of such events. In 2015, as then-President Barack Obama prepared to host Xi, Trump said at a rally in South Carolina, "Just take them to McDonald's and go back to the negotiating table." He later told Fox News that Xi might at least be worthy of getting "probably a double-size Big Mac."Xi had first visited Trump in 2017, when the White House said the Chinese wanted the meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, which was seen as a more relaxed setting than a formal summit in Washington. Even without full state-visit pageantry, Trump later recalled a dramatic moment from that meeting, saying he told Xi over "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen" that the US had struck Syria. Trump said he told Xi US forces had "just fired 59 missiles" and that China's president "was eating his cake. And he was silent." Thursday's state dinner, built around symbolism, high-profile guests and ceremony, underlined how the White House was using the visit to project both personal warmth and political importance. With PTI Inputs- Ends