Trump to Host Xi Jinping Amidst Complex AI and Trade Tensions

Less than 24 hours after declaring that the U.S. is “leading China by alot” in the race to develop cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence models, President Donald Trump will roll out a literal red carpet for the man most invested in changing that.

The president is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife for a state visit on Wednesday and Thursday — Xi’s first since he made a similar trip during the Obama administration almost a decade ago.

It follows a state visit to Beijing by Trump in May, during which the president hailed the “special relationship” between the United States and China and said he’d had “extremely positive and productive talks” on a variety of topics.

Trump has spent his entire political career complaining about the Sino-American trade relationship and has kept the U.S. in an on again, off again trade war with Beijing while casting himself as a China hawk in all but important domains.

He’s repeatedly stressed the need for a laissez-faire approach to AI regulation dating back to when he signed his first set of artificial intelligence executive orders in July 2025. But in practice, Trump’s administration has made "whatever it takes" look more like something closer to "whatever the market will bear.”

Initially, Trump said America had started the AI race and would win it, that no foreign country would be allowed to beat the US, and that it was now official policy to do whatever it takes to lead the world in the field. He’s made that a familiar refrain on the stump in his social media output as he’s cast AI as the defining contest of the century and China as the rival to beat.

But late last year, the White House gave permission for Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 processors to approved Chinese buyers on the condition that the Treasury Department take a quarter of the profits. It was a similar arrangement to the one they’d put into place earlier in 2025 for the weaker H20 chips.

The administration also appears poised to extend a pause on heightened export controls that had drawn China’s ire, leading Beijing to cut off U.S. supplies of rare earth materials before a truce — set to expire next month — broke the stalemate.

Why?

Take a look at some of the guests who will be at this week’s state dinner honoring Xi.

According to a senior administration official, the guest list includes Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Michael Dell, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Jane Fraser, and Tim Cook.

With the exception of Frazier, the head of Citi, all of those big tech executives have significant business interests in China — and nearly all have allied themselves with the administration since Trump returned to power.

And Trump knows they need one thing above all — access to Chinese rare earths.

Without them, Apple and Google can’t build phones. Dell can’t build computers. Huang’s Nvidia can’t build the AI chips that Altman and Pichai need for their AI platforms.

And if those things can’t happen, none of those executives will be keeping the GOP coffers full.

So when Trump says he wants the U.S. to stay ahead in the AI race, he probably thinks he’s telling the truth.

But that lead could vanish if his administration continues to allow exports of key AI chips, made by Huang’’s Nvidia, and that will continue to happen as long as Trump’s contributors’ enterprises need the rare earths that Xi’s government has held hostage.

And for now that leaves Americans, and maybe the world, at risk of a rogue AI “incident” or incidents, all because the bottom line was placed before public safety.