The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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Trump is rolling out the red carpet for Xi — wait until you see who made the dinner list

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BS BULLETIN:

  • President Donald Trump plans to personally greet Chinese President Xi Jinping when he lands at Joint Base Andrews next week — an unusual presidential gesture.
  • Xi’s state visit will include a military review, private talks and a White House state dinner.
  • Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and some of America’s biggest tech executives have scored invitations to what Trump calls a very tough ticket.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is coming to Washington next week, and President Donald Trump isn’t exactly leaving the welcome mat at the White House door.

Trump plans to personally meet Xi when the Chinese leader’s plane lands Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, senior administration officials said Friday.

That’s unusual.

American presidents generally receive visiting foreign leaders at the White House rather than heading to the airport to greet them.

And the welcome is only getting started.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump will formally receive Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the White House Thursday.

Trump and Xi are then scheduled to participate in a military review in the Rose Garden before holding private talks.

That evening comes what may be the hottest dinner reservation in Washington.

Trump and the first lady will host Xi and his delegation for a state dinner in the East Room.

“Thousands of people would love to be at that dinner,” Trump told reporters Friday.

“This is a very tough ticket for me.”

Trump said the demand is so high that even some of his friends aren’t getting through the door.

“I’ve told a lot of very good friends of mine, ‘you just can’t come,’” he said.

Some very recognizable names apparently did make the cut.

The White House says the guest list includes Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Michael Dell and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser.

Tim Cook, who recently stepped down as Apple’s CEO, is also expected to attend.

That guest list isn’t merely celebrity window dressing.

Artificial intelligence is expected to be one of the subjects Trump and Xi discuss.

Trade and China’s supply of rare-earth minerals — critical ingredients in everything from electronics to weapons systems — are also on the agenda.

Senior U.S. officials said Washington and Beijing could potentially ease some tariffs involving nonstrategic goods, although they offered few specifics.

The administration isn’t expected to loosen U.S. export controls in exchange for increased Chinese flows of rare-earth minerals.

Xi’s visit will continue Friday with another unusual bit of presidential hospitality.

Xi and Peng are scheduled to return to the White House for private tea with the Trumps.

The president and first lady will then accompany the Chinese couple to the National Archives, where Xi will see some of America’s founding documents during the nation’s 250th anniversary year.

The elaborate itinerary underscores the importance Trump is placing on the visit.

But there’s something else rather remarkable about the scene Washington is preparing for Thursday night.

The leaders of the United States and China will sit down together while some of the most powerful people in American technology — Musk, Bezos, Altman, Huang and Pichai among them — are gathered under the same roof.

And apparently Trump still has people begging for tickets.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

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