Banned US outlets win readmission after judge rules press exclusion unconstitutional
President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday for a state visit, greeting Xi at Joint Base Andrews the night prior and rolling out a second ceremonial welcome from the South Portico on Thursday morning. The day combined formal pageantry — military flyovers, a marching band in Revolutionary War-era dress and Chinese flags displayed from the roof of the Oval Office alongside US flags — with substantive bilateral talks on trade, artificial intelligence and security.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump traveled to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday night to meet Xi off his plane, a courtesy US presidents rarely extend to visiting foreign leaders. In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump wrote: “I met President Xi at the plane (Airport!) yesterday and he looks strong, vibrant, and fit — Better than ever. Madam Xi, of course, BEAUTIFUL!” The post referred to Xi’s wife Peng Liyuan, who is recognized as “Madame Peng” under diplomatic protocol.
On Thursday morning the Trumps emerged from the White House south portico for a second welcoming ceremony that included flag-lined walkways, a trumpet salute and another red carpet. The two delegations — including Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha — then moved to the grand foyer for opening statements with no reporter questions permitted.
Opening his remarks, Trump observed: “Remarkably, this is our first time meeting together here at the White House, and as President Xi has already seen, a lot has changed since he was last here.” Trump told the gathering that the two countries had made strides on trade since his trip to China in May and said the visit would cover “pressing issues concerning security, technology, and ‘super intelligence,’” his alternative name for artificial intelligence. He described his relationship with Xi as a “truly great friendship” and reached back to World War II, noting that “Brave American pilots volunteered to come to China and fight for the very survival of the legendary country,” a reference to the Flying Tigers air corps that helped defend China against Japanese invasion. Trump added that interactions between US Marines and Chinese citizens during the war inspired the Marines to “adopt a Chinese phrase that they still use today: gung ho.”
Xi, speaking after Trump, said he was ready to work with the president to “steer the giant ship of the China-US relationship on a steady course toward the future” and added: “President Trump and I have respect for each other. We have built personal rapport and stayed in touch.” He announced that 100,000 young American students would be invited to study in China over the next five years and that China would send two giant pandas — Ping Ping and Fuchuan — to a zoo in Atlanta.
In remarks that acknowledged the broader contest between the two countries, Xi said the United States and China could “co-exist in peace” and that their competition “should be a healthy one.” He added: “The Thucydides trap can be overcome” — a reference to the theoretical risk that a rising power and an established power slide into war — and said “Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.”
The pageantry of the arrival was matched by restrictions on which journalists could cover it. The White House barred CNN, MS Now and Politico from the grounds; Chinese state media was granted access. Several major cable networks declined to carry pooled coverage in solidarity with the banned outlets, leaving the morning ceremony largely without US cable-news cameras. By the afternoon, some of the barred reporters had been readmitted after a federal judge found Trump’s action unconstitutional.
Michael McFaul, a former US diplomat, described the contrast of welcoming Chinese state media while barring US outlets as “wrong and embarrassing.” China ranks 178th in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, ahead of only North Korea and Eritrea, while the United States has fallen to 64th. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X: “If you’re a foreign authoritarian, Trump won’t just invite you to visit America, he’ll roll out the red carpet for you…”
In their bilateral talks, Trump showed Xi the Marine One helicopter and a new helipad on the White House south lawn. After the meeting, Trump told reporters: “We had a great meeting — and he has a great interest in granite. He likes granite. He’s an expert on stone, aside from many other things, and he loves good granite.”
The day’s events closed with a military ceremony in the Rose Garden, including a flyover and a marching band dressed in Revolutionary War-era uniforms — tricorn hats, white wigs and red tunics. The Rose Garden, which was paved over during renovations in Trump’s second term, has changed since Xi’s last visit, as has the décor of the White House foyer: where an official portrait of Barack Obama once hung, an image of a bloodied Trump with fist raised — taken after a failed assassination attempt and captioned with the word “fight!” — now hangs in its place.