It was just a fun little dinner for the people deciding the future of humanity. The amount of power concentrated at the head table alone was dizzying. The US president and the Chinese president, dining by candlelight with Elon Musk, Jensen Huang and Tim Cook, all of them sitting in the state diningroom of the White House at this moment that many in Silicon Valley warn could be the last before humanity stumbles into the AI apocalypse.
Standing before a room chockablock with AI moguls, billionaires and politicians, US president Donald Trump decided to depart from his prepared remarks. Now that he finally had these people together in one place, he could talk about his important plans. The ones he’s been working on nonstop ever since he returned to the White House.
“If I could go off-script, just for a second,” he said.
The sound of rich people clapping filled the room. Suspense!
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“I just want to say ...” the president continued.
“ ... I’d like to invite everyone in the room to visit through that beautiful curtain in the back – The door, it’s all lit up, and looks beautiful. It’s one year away from completion, the new ballroom that you’ve heard about.”
Oh. He was inviting them to take a walk through the construction site in back of the house.
“You’ll be the first people to step foot on that,” he told guests including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, “and we’ll do that maybe after we’re finished with the entertainment tonight.”
There was not a single mention of AI in his speech. Trump doesn’t buy into the AI panic. He insists it’s mostly just a problem of branding. AI needs better PR.
If any of the tech titans and members of Chinese Politburo who showed up to the White House used the state visit to get on the same page about the direction of this terrifying new technology, they haven’t shared their designs with the public. This was a roomful of people who have many disagreements about the way forward.
The US president, for his part, just seemed happy to be playing maître d’ to the mighty.
“You will see something that I think you will really love,” Trump told them about the ballroom site. “Tonight, if we had it, we would have had way more than a thousand people, with standing room only. And this room has about 145, that’s about it.”
“Anybody who wants to walk into a construction site that’s nice and clean and sparkling, it’s our honour to have you do so,” he said. “This is in honour of president Xi, madam Peng.”
Trump never seems more pleased than when he is hosting wealthy and powerful people at his table. The aspects of the job that so clearly delight him concern pageantry and set design, and Xi’s visit provided opportunities for plenty of it.
Earlier in the day, Trump took Xi around the back to show off a new helipad and the slick new driveway. “He’s an expert on stone, aside from many others, and he loves good granite,” Trump told reporters as the pair walked back inside.
Xi announced a gift of two giant pandas, named Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, who will live at the Atlanta zoo. At the dinner, Trump unveiled a rather large statue of a bald eagle to give to the Chinese autocrat.
“We hope it’ll find a nice place, a wonderful place, in Beijing,” Trump said.
Sadly for Trump, almost none of this made it on to the television networks he watches so closely. The Chinese state visit has collided with the consequences of the decision he made in a fit of pique last Friday to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House campus. A judge ordered the Trump administration to let the banned reporters back Thursday, but the TV networks are still refusing to take Trump’s carnival live. Until his administration formally agrees to let CNN back into the White House TV pool rotation, he is not going to see those blinking red lights he loves so much.
Shortly before the dinner began, he posted one of his diatribes on his website.
CNN and MS NOW were “fake,” he wrote, because they wouldn’t cover “one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years, the arrival at the White House of the Highly Respected President of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madam Peng.”
The president continued: “The event was magnificent – Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP,’ they refused to be there. That’s why they have such poor Ratings.”
He concluded: “Tonight’s State Dinner at the White House, for President Xi, will be spectacular! The Media will be in attendance.”
Yes, the White House complex was crawling with journalists Thursday evening as Xi pulled up to the front door of the residence. But, in the spirit of solidarity with those targeted by Trump’s ban, some just ignored the spectacle.
Who was at the state dinner for president Xi?
American tech executives and Chinese officials were among the more than 130 guests at a state dinner for President Xi Jinping’s visit to White House on Thursday. Tech titans including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman and Tim Cook made appearances at the event, hosted by President Donald Trump and Melania Trump. Here is the list of invitees provided by the White House:
US president Donald Trump and Melania Trump
China’s president Xi Jinping of China and Peng Liyuan
US vice president JD Vance and Usha Vance
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Jeanette Rubio
Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff
David Perdue, ambassador to China, and Bonnie Perdue
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and John Freeman
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth
Jamieson Greer, US trade representative, and Marlo Greer
Cai Qi, chief of staff to Xi
Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs
He Lifeng, vice premier of state council
Zheng Shanjie, chair of the National Development and Reform Commission
Wang Wentao, minister of commerce
Ma Zhaoxu, executive vice minister of foreign affairs
Ambassador Xie Feng, Chinese ambassador to the United States, and Wang Dan
Ivanka Trump
Eric Trump
Lara Trump
Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos
Viktor Knavs
Arabella Kushner
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, and Lori Huang
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta
Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, and Daniel Lin
Tim Cook, executive chair of Apple
John FW Rogers, executive vice president of Goldman Sachs
Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange
Linda G Mills, president of New York University
Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom
Tang Fangyu, director of the Central Policy Research Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee
Lan Fo’an, China’s finance minister
Zhou Hongxu, director of the Central Security Bureau
Lyu Luhua, secretary to Xi
Hong Lei, director general, Protocol Department
Cai Wei, director general, Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs
Mao Ning, director general, Department of Press, Communication and Public Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Zhang Quan, secretary to Peng
Zhang Yongchao, deputy director general, Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kelly Ortberg, CEO of Boeing
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock
Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, and Anna Brockman
Miriam Adelson, investor and philanthropist
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, and Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
James Taiclet, CEO of Lockheed Martin
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
Larry Culp, CEO of GE Aerospace
Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron CEO, and Sangeeta Mehrota
Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm
Jeff Bezos, Amazon chair, and Lauren Sanchez-Bezos
Jeff Yass, ByteDance and TikTok investor
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase
Michael Dell, CEO of Dell, and Susan Dell
Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, and Anthony Barra
David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs
Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla
Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, and Kathy Woods
Chief Justice John Roberts and Jane Sullivan Roberts
Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Jesse Barrett
Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Ashley Estes Kavanaugh
Speaker Mike Johnson and Kelly Johnson
Bret Baier, Fox News anchor, and Amy Baier
Laura Ingraham, Fox News host
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga.
Jesse Watters, Fox News host, and Emma Watters
David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, and Sandra Lynn Ellison
Kevin Warsh, Fed chair, and Jane Lauder
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Allison Lutnick
John Ratcliffe, CIA director, and Michele Ratcliffe
Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East
Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff, and Katie Miller
Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff, and Erin Scavino
Attorney General Todd Blanche and Kristine Blanche
Meredith O’Rourke, political fundraiser and leader of the O’Rourke Group
Energy Secretary Chris Wright
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cheryl Hines
Education Secretary Linda McMahon
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Kathryn Burgum
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Rachel Campos-Duffy
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget
Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Keith Sonderling, acting secretary of labour
Brad Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter, and Katie Simpson
Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer
David Sacks, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration, and Jeff Sprecher
Representative Jason Smith, (Republican, Missouri)
Senator Steve Daines, ((Republican, Montana)
General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Jay Clayton, director of national intelligence
Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH
Alexandre Arnault
Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa
Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard
- This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
