Measured against the issues that directly affect Americans, Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington landed somewhere between disappointing and unfinished. Whatever specific agreements eventually emerge, the Trump administration already earned a failing grade for geopolitical messaging that humiliated the United States without delivering strategic gains.

President Donald Trump offered the visiting leader of the People’s Republic of China far more than a long red carpet. Trump and the first lady met Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on the tarmac before the administration provided full official honors and a military jet flyover.

Trump also gushed about his “great friendship” with Xi. Before Trump greeted Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the tarmac in Alaska in 2025, no American president had welcomed a foreign leader that way since John F. Kennedy.

The lavish treatment looked especially jarring beside the receptions given to leaders of crucial American allies during Trump’s second term. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was met only by the Australian ambassador when he arrived in Washington in fall 2025.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrived at the airport earlier in the week without similar ceremony. She has faced intense economic and diplomatic pressure from China since telling parliament that a Chinese attack on Taiwan might constitute an existential threat for Japan.

Neither President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan nor his vice president has been permitted to pass through the United States since Trump’s second inauguration. Xi publicly disclosed that he pressed Trump to take a harder line on Taiwan, but it remains unknown whether Trump defended the island democracy.

Concerns among allies were likely worsened by Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement on the day Xi arrived. Rubio said Trump planned to invite Putin to the Group of 20 summit in Miami this December, even as Putin continues a brutal war in Ukraine.

Xi has called Putin his “friend of steel.” Against that backdrop, Trump’s grand treatment of both men sends an ugly message to allies facing economic, diplomatic and security pressure.

The spectacle also unfolded while Trump was fighting in court to remove three news organizations, including MS NOW, from the White House press pool because he disliked their coverage. Xi, meanwhile, famously ordered Chinese media organizations to obey the Communist Party.

Trump still found room for a private joke about the media with Xi. “China had the friendliest press corps,” the president of the United States quipped to the Chinese dictator.

The diplomatic substance was no more impressive than the messaging. Before Xi’s visit, Beijing offered familiar sweeteners, including additional soybean purchases and a ban on a new group of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl.

The agricultural purchases provide temporary relief to farmers struggling with high and rising costs caused by Trump’s chosen war with Iran. Tighter chemical regulations are also a useful step toward addressing the continuing opioid crisis in the United States.

Yet those one time gestures do not amount to meaningful progress toward dependable access to Chinese markets for American exports. Nor do they stop the global movement of the chemicals, since drug supply chains can simply move to other countries without broader action.

Extending the trade war truce for several more months was welcome, but Washington has not explained how it will ensure Beijing fulfills its promise to restore critical mineral supplies fully. Those materials are needed by manufacturers in the United States and allied countries.

There was also no visible progress on other urgent matters, including the risks posed by rogue artificial intelligence and the release of Americans wrongfully detained in China. Trump’s social media post about leaving artificial intelligence “exactly where it is” offered little reassurance.

The visit revealed an administration seemingly more interested in pomp than concrete success. Washington should work closely with regional allies, firmly resist Beijing’s economic and security bullying, and maintain channels for pragmatic and respectful diplomacy.

Xi is described as an unsentimental Leninist who likely regards Trump’s extravagant welcome as evidence that the American president is playing a weak hand. Flashy ceremony cannot replace the difficult work required to make Americans safer and more prosperous.

The administration should be held accountable for choosing political theater over an effective strategy.