Trump says ‘a lot of different problems’ settled with Xi

Donald Trump just said his visit had been “incredible” and “I think a lot of good has come of it”.

“We’ve made some fantastic trade deals for both countries,” the US president said.

We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve.

Trump said his relationship with Xi Jinping was “a very strong one”.

Sitting beside Xi in Beijing’s Zhongnanhai leadership compound, Trump also said:

We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar about [how] we want it to end. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the strait open.”

He also said that “we want them to get it ended because it’s a crazy thing there”.

Trump’s final hours in Beijing are being spent in Xi Jinping’s private residence, a secretive site near the Forbidden City that few foreigners – or even locals – will ever get a glimpse of.

Trump will have lunch there with Xi before leaving Beijing in the early afternoon, less than 48 hours after he landed.

At a busy intersection near Trump’s hotel, the crowds that gathered to catch a glimpse of the presidential motorcade were thinner on Friday morning than on Thursday evening, with the heavy police presence encouraging people not to loiter. Many grumbled about the inconvenience caused by the repeated road closures.

Asked for their views on Trump, the word that came up again and again from Beijingers was “unpredictable”.

“What he says isn’t necessarily what it means,” said one Trump-watcher, who declined to give his name.

As Trump and Xi hold their final talks in Beijing, the White House has shared the list of participants for the meetings.

Trump is joined by David Purdue, the US ambassador to China; secretary of state Marco Rubio; treasury secretary Scott Bessent; defense secretary Pete Hegseth and US trade representative Jamieson Greer.

Xi is joined by Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US; Cai Qi, a director of the central committee of the Communist party of China; foreign affairs minister Wang Yi; deputy foreign affairs minister Ma Zhaoxu; and He Lifeng, vice-premier of the state council.

According to the Associated Press, Donald Trump did something highly unusual for him over the two days of meetings with Xi: he held his tongue in front of the media.

Trump relishes taking reporters’ questions, often doing so nearly every day in the US.

But Xi, like most China’s senior leadership, refrains from press conferences.

In what might have been deference to Xi, Trump didn’t answer questions when reporters asked them while the pair toured the Temple of Heaven on Thursday.

And he didn’t do so again on Friday while walking with Xi at Zhongnanhai.

The Guardian