President Donald Trump landed in Beijing, China Wednesday ahead of his high-stakes summit with President Xi Jinping, but critics soon noticed a key figure was absent during Trump’s arrival.
“Donald Trump has arrived in China to find that President Xi did NOT greet him at the airport,” reads a statement from the progressive advocacy platform Call To Activism, run by digital strategist and political influencer Joe Gallina.
“MAGA is in spin mode heralding the ‘red carpet treatment,’ but the visit is already at a rocky start. Instead of a presidential welcome, Trump was greeted by US Ambassador to China David Perdue; Xi’s vice president, Han Zheng; China’s Ambassador to Washington Xie Feng; and Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu.”
Trump was, in fact, not greeted by Xi as he stepped off Air Force One Wednesday, and instead met by other Chinese officials. Trump’s own niece, Mary L. Trump, took notice of what she characterized as a snub as well.
“Xi couldn't be bothered to meet Donald at the airport because he understands as well as Donald does that humiliating your underlings is a great way to keep them in check,” she wrote in a social media post on X to her more than 1.6 million followers.
As argued by journalist Charbel Antoun, Trump walks into the U.S.-China summit with a “weakened” hand given his inability to secure a peace deal with Iran amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against the Middle East nation. And on Monday, Trump’s efforts to end the war on his own terms were undercut after Tehran agreed to a U.S.-Iran peace deal brokered by China.
🚨MAJOR BREAKING: Donald Trump has arrived in China to find that President XI did NOT greet him at the airport.
MAGA is in spin mode heralding the “red carpet treatment,” but the visit is already at a rocky start.
Instead of a presidential welcome, Trump was greeted by US… pic.twitter.com/2eI0HFs0ol
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) May 13, 2026