President Donald Trump is treating Chinese President Xi Jinping to a three-day White House extravaganza featuring blaring trumpets, stealth bomber and fighter jet flyovers, and the U.S. Marine Band playing both the American and Chinese national anthems.

Also planned to honor the Chinese leader: an opulent state dinner, a private tea meeting and hundreds of U.S. military personnel from all branches marching and carrying flags from both countries

The pageantry is the point.

“This is less a summit and more a spectacle,” Kurt Campbell, the Biden administration’s top Asia policy expert, said of the gathering.

American officials have made clear in conversations with lawmakers and allies that deliverables will be few, according to a U.S. official and a Western diplomat. The most important outcome of 2 1/2 days of fanfare is that the world’s two largest economies are talking to each other and keeping those communication channels open, Trump administration officials said.

“No matter what our disagreements and differences may be with the Chinese government, this is not some small country. This is the second largest economy in the world, and a pretty substantial military,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “It’s responsible statecraft for our leaders to speak and meet with one another.”

Lawmakers on the right and left have criticized Trump for offering Xi such a lavish welcome. Rubio on Wednesday rejected such criticism as “outrageous.”

“The relationship between the United States and China will define the 21st century,” he said hours before Trump met Xi at Andrews Air Force Base. “The idea that we would not interact with them at the highest levels is irresponsible. It’s outrageous. We have to.”

Trump has spent months preparing for Xi’s highly anticipated visit and has repeatedly touted his “great relationship” with the Chinese president. In June, Trump ordered restoration of the North Portico columns and security enhancements to its doors, as well as round-the-clock construction of the helipad on the South Lawn, taking it upon himself to survey progression of the now complete projects by foot and air.

Former senior U.S. officials, experts and analysts said the summit isn’t likely to produce many, if any, substantial results, though the two leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of topics, including Taiwan, the Iran war, artificial intelligence, trade and China’s holding of political prisoners.

“This is basically two geopolitical strongmen circling each other on the playground, trying to determine what their next move is,” said Campbell, who is now the chair and co-founder of the Asia Group. “The current dynamic in the competition has a little bit of the feel of a race. Who is going to get there first? Who is going to reduce their vulnerability and, as a result, accumulate a new source of leverage?”

Trump was received with fanfare when he traveled to China earlier this year. But Trump is going much bigger. The administration sees Xi’s visit as a chance to “lock in” some of the things the powers agreed to in Beijing in February, such as investment deals and market access,” a U.S. official said.

Even if the summit yields few concrete deliverables, some in the Trump administration see regular meetings between the leaders as part of a process that will buy Washington time to catch up with China in the race to secure critical minerals, the U.S. official said. Trump and Xi are expected to meet again at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, in November and at the G20 summit in Miami in December.

The spectacle began Wednesday with Trump’s decision to buck six decades of diplomatic tradition and greet Xi at Andrews Air Force Base — the first time a president has received a world leader there since 1962. It continues Thursday, with a grand arrival ceremony at the White House, including a flyover with a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber used to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facilities. At the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Trump was welcomed by flag-waving schoolchildren singing and shouting “welcome” in Mandarin.

Later on Thursday, Trump is set to host a state dinner in Xi’s honor, with an array of American CEOs in attendance: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Dell’s Michael Dell, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser and Apple’s Executive Chair Tim Cook.

Ahead of the dinner, the U.S. and China agreed to extend a trade truce that had been set to expire on Nov. 10. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced late Wednesday afternoon after an unannounced meeting with China’s vice premier that the “economic detente between the two countries” will be extended through Jan. 10.

Under the current arrangement reached in Busan, South Korea, in October 2025, Washington cut tariffs and eased export controls in exchange for Beijing pausing rare earth restrictions and resuming soybean purchases.

But as Xi grows more powerful, Trump has little leverage to prod the Chinese leader to change his behavior. It’s the personal relationship between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies that will be most on display. Analysts said Xi may not place as much value on it as Trump does.

“Xi values access and predictability, but he is much less sentimental about rapport,” said Craig Singleton, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ China program. “For Beijing, a warm relationship with Trump is useful if it produces space, it delays pressure, it keeps the bilateral relationship manageable and predictable.”

“That’s why I think the relationship can look warm at the top, while the systems underneath remain intensely competitive,” continued Singleton, a former U.S. diplomat. “Xi does not need friendship from Trump. He needs room to maneuver, and so that’s what the summit’s going to produce for him.”

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