Donald Trump walked away with little to show for all his extravagant efforts to entertain Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The entire readout of the three-day gathering, including Trump greeting Xi on the tarmac, a lavish welcome ceremony, State Dinner, and tea on Friday morning, was just 19 words.
“President Trump and President Xi discussed the economy, trade, Super Intelligence, and cooperation on numerous issues of shared importance,” a senior U.S. official told the Daily Beast.
It notably left out any specific mention of the president’s war with Iran or Americans detained in China.
Trump also posted about the meeting on Truth Social, but it was remarkably short for someone who has gone on lengthy social media rants about numerous other topics, and it revealed no specific accomplishments from the meeting.
“President Xi and Madam Peng have just left D.C., heading for China. The meeting was one of Friendship, Strength, and Success, for both China and the U.S.A. We will be meeting again in November, in China, and then at the G20 in December, in Miami, Florida. Much has been, and will be, accomplished. I look forward to our next meeting!” he wrote.
In an earlier post on Friday, Trump also claimed he had a “very productive meeting” with Xi and that “tremendous things will happen.” But he then went on to celebrate the Chinese dictator liking his attempt to change the name of artificial intelligence.
“Like almost everyone else, he seemed to like calling the poorly and inaccurately named Artificial Intelligence to a far more accurate and important name, SUPER INTELLIGENCE. That would be ‘SUPER!’ Everyone last night agreed, also,” Trump bragged.
Trump welcomed the communist leader to the White House this week with a lot of pomp and circumstance.
First, he became the first U.S. president in more than 60 years to greet a foreign leader on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. Members of the U.S. military were literally on their hands and knees rolling out the red carpet for his arrival on Wednesday.
The welcome included a flyover that left the 80-year-old president visibly wincing as he stood next to Xi, who kept a stoic expression.
The president and first lady also hosted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, for a lavish welcome ceremony before the two leaders held meetings on Thursday. The day wrapped up with a black-tie State Dinner.
While the visit fell short of tangible economic and national security objectives, Xi announced that China planned to send two pandas to the zoo in Atlanta soon, calling the black and white animals “envoys of friendship.”
China’s practice of sending pandas to countries is often referred to as “panda diplomacy” and has long been used as a tool for positive diplomatic outreach worldwide.
The two world leaders will likely have two more chances to meet again this year. China is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen in November.
The U.S. will then host the G20 summit in December at Trump’s golf club in December, where the president has also invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend.
