Donald Trump and First Lady Melania welcomed Xi Jinping and his wife for a lavish state dinner at the White House last night.
The US president said he has ‘never gotten along better’ with his Chinese counterpart and invited guests to tour the building site of his new $400 million ballroom.
Veering from his scripted remarks, he joked: ‘Anybody who wants to walk into a construction site that’s nice and clean and sparkling, it’s our honour to have you do so.’
At the end of his speech, Trump presented Xi with a gift of a custom-made statue of a bald eagle – the national symbol of the United States.
He said the present was designed ‘in personal collaboration with Melania and myself’ and embodies ‘the free and soaring spirit of America’.
Xi did not publicly present Trump with a gift in return during the dinner, but he announced earlier that two giant pandas will be heading to a US zoo as an ‘envoy of friendship’.
The event featured a cavalcade of billionaires, Washington powerbrokers, business leaders and the type of festivities that most excite Trump, who has a reputation for revelling in hosting parties.
‘President Xi and I both understand we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we’ve never gotten along better,’ Trump said during his toast.
He added that ‘together, we can continue to build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations’.
Xi noted in his own toast that ‘President Trump has pledged to make America great again’ and that ‘China is committed to achieving great national rejuvenation’.
Trump has done his best to impress Xi during China’s leader’s during Xi’s three-day visit to Washington and praised their close personal relationship — even as he has decried top Democratic candidates as ‘communists’ ahead of the November midterm elections.
The banquet was attended by several US tech titans, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Sam Altman of OpenAI.
Trump said in a social media post earlier on Thursday that artificial intelligence — ‘superintelligence’ as he is trying to rebrand it — was high on the agenda.
The president has been dismissive of calls for greater regulation amid growing global anxiety that the technology will kill jobs or potentially even wipe out humanity.
‘I want to leave it exactly where it is,’ Trump wrote. ‘That is China’s position also.’
But Xi, in his opening comments, said that the two countries had ‘the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people’.
The two countries’ finance ministers met earlier this week, with the US proposing a new ‘notification mechanism’ for AI incidents between the two nations.
The first lady helped craft the evening’s menu, which was served on the red china from Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
It featured a first course of yellow squash velouté with wild mushrooms, fresh herbs, crispy pancetta and drizzled scallion oil.
After that, guests got sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, roasted garden eggplant and a sauce verte.
Trump has sought to one-up Xi after Beijing
The dinner came after the president took the unusual step of personally greeting Xi and his wife on Wednesday as they arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
Normally, presidents wait for their state visit guests to arrive at the White House itself before offering a formal welcome.
During his own visit to Beijing in May, Xi hosted Trump for a state dinner that unfolded beneath grand chandeliers in the Great Hall of the People.That event also included many tech luminaries, such as Cook and Musk.
It was all a stark departure from 2015, when then-President Barack Obama was preparing to host Xi for a state visit and Trump — in the midst of his first presidential run — criticised all the hubbub.
‘Just take them to McDonald’s and go back to the negotiating table,’ Trump said then, during a rally in South Carolina.
He later conceded on Fox News Channel that Xi might at least be worthy of getting ‘probably a double-size Big Mac’.
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