Trump hosts Xi for state dinner with tech titans and sea bass
President Donald Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a state dinner on Thursday, featuring a guest list heavy with technology executives and a menu that included sesame-crusted sea bass, as the two leaders sought to project warmth amid closed-door talks on trade and artificial intelligence. The dinner, held in the White House's East Room, included Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Tesla's Elon Musk, Google's Sundar Pichai, and OpenAI's Greg Brockman, among others. Trump personally greeted Xi at Joint Base Andrews, an unusual gesture, and a 30-meter red carpet and flyover marked the arrival. The event follows Xi's May state dinner for Trump in Beijing, which Trump has sought to rival with a new White House ballroom he calls the "Great Hall of the United States." Trump also recalled a 2017 dinner where he informed Xi of a missile strike on Syria during dessert.