Trump-Xi Summit, White House Media Ban Update, Netanyahu's UN Speech

Leila Fadel (0:02)

President Trump rolled out the red carpet for President Xi Jinping of China.

A Martínez (0:06)

Besides all the pomp and pageantry, what consensus have they reached on issues such as their trade war and artificial intelligence?

Leila Fadel (0:12)

I'm Leila Fadel, that's A Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.

While Trump courts Xi, US television networks have not broadcast any footage of the summit. They're waiting for the White House to confirm CNN will be given equal access as part of the TV press pool. How long will the president keep up his attack on the press?

A Martínez (0:34)

At the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at critics. Many diplomats walked out. How is Netanyahu's speech being viewed in Israel? Stay with us, we've got the news you need to start your day. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have met all over the world in the last 10 years, but this week, for the first time, they met at the White House.

Leila Fadel (0:59)

Trump hosted Xi for a lavish state dinner last night. The US president literally rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese leader as they discussed artificial intelligence, trade and the Iran War.

A Martínez (1:10)

NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram joins us now to discuss all of this. Deepa, what kinds of things of substance came out of the meetings and the summit?

Deepa Shivaram (1:19)

Yeah, I mean, there were no major announcements, but there were a few concrete takeaways from the summit. The first is the US announced a two-month extension of the trade agreement between the countries which was established last year when Trump and Xi met in South Korea. And there were also discussions about artificial intelligence, US and Chinese officials had deliberated over information sharing systems that would help alert each other over AI incidents that would affect national security. And that would have been a huge development in AI security globally because there aren't a lot of guardrails that exist for this technology.

But it's unclear how far that proposal on AI will actually go because in his remarks on Thursday morning, Trump was clear that on AI he wants to quote leave it exactly where it is. Trump has been opposed to any kind of regulation around the technology and often speaks about beating China on AI.

Overall though, I mean, there were low expectations for anything major to come out of the summit. The meeting had more of an emphasis on Trump and Xi's personal relationship, more surface level rhetoric about the friendship between the two countries. Xi, I will say, made several comments about the responsibility the US and China have to cooperate and communicate.

A Martínez (2:28)

State visits usually involve some level of pomp and circumstances. Really seem though like President Trump wanted to go all out to welcome Xi to the White House. You heard Leila mention literally rolling out the red carpet. What did that entail?

Deepa Shivaram (2:39)

Yeah, I mean, the welcome that she got was actually unusual because Trump met him on the tarmac when he arrived in Washington. At the White House, Trump's been doing all kinds of construction projects and he's talked up things like building the helipad on the South Lawn as something to show off during Xi's visit.

Sure enough, Trump showcased the new helipad, had military flyovers, even gave Xi a tour of the South Lawn and some of the construction he's been working on. It definitely did seem like there was a bigger red carpet rollout than usual for this visit. I talked to Sam Sachs about all of this. She's a senior fellow at Think Tank New America. And she actually said the pageantry had some significance because tensions between the US and China have been ramping up so much.

SPEAKER_4 (3:21)

I don't want to understate the importance of pageantry at this moment because things have been so toxic. And so the pageantry itself creates a kind of breathing space that is stabilizing.

Deepa Shivaram (3:35)

What's interesting though is that because of Trump's ban on three media outlets, there wasn't any TV coverage of all of this. Trump posted about it on Truth Social yesterday and complained about how the major TV networks didn't show the quote made for television moments.

A Martínez (3:49)

All right. So what are we looking forward to when it comes to Trump and Xi?

Deepa Shivaram (3:52)

Well, a couple of announcements from Xi yesterday included the news that two new Chinese pandas are coming to the zoo in Atlanta. I know the bar was low for major takeaways, but panda diplomacy remains alive and well.