Merve Gül Aydoğan Ağlarcı
24 September 2026•Update: 24 September 2026
US President Donald Trump hailed his closed-door bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday.
“We had a great meeting,” Trump told reporters while giving an exclusive tour of his new helipad and Marine One.
Trump also said Xi “has great interest in granite. He likes granite.”
“He’s an expert on stone aside from many other things. And he loves good granite,” he added.
The Chinese president left the White House after the bilateral talks but was expected to return later with his wife, Peng Liyuan, for a state dinner.
Meanwhile, first lady Melania Trump took Peng on a tour of the National Museum of Asian Art while Trump and Xi held talks.
Trump’s meeting with Xi comes as the US remains at war with Iran and the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues.
Xi arrived Wednesday for a three-day state visit to the US, his first in more than a decade.
He is the first Chinese leader to make two state visits to the US since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979.
Then-US President Barack Obama hosted Xi for his first state visit in 2015.
Xi’s current visit comes after he hosted Trump for a state visit in May, when the two sides agreed on a “new vision of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability.”
