Trump rolls out the red carpet for China's Xi

The two leaders will meet for private talks at the White House on Thursday.

President Trump rolled out the red carpet for President Xi Jinping on Wednesday evening at Joint Base Andrews, joined by the first lady to personally welcome the Chinese president and his wife, Madame Peng Liyuan, to the United States for their high-stakes, three-day visit.

The two leaders are expected to discuss a number of issues, including artificial intelligence safety, Taiwan, trade, the war in Iran and critical minerals.

The airport greeting is unusual for Trump and reflects the pomp and circumstance surrounding the visit as Trump traditionally greets foreign leaders at the White House.

He’ll do that on Thursday when he and first lady Melania Trump welcome Xi and his wife at a ceremony on the State Floor of the White House. Trump and Xi will also participate in a review of troops in the Rose Garden before they head into formal, private talks.

Following that, Xi and his wife will be the guests of honor when Trump and the first lady host the Chinese delegation for a state dinner in the East Room, where both leaders are expected to deliver remarks.

Guests scheduled to attend the state dinner include tech executives like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai of Google and Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, the White House and a source familiar told ABC News.

Also on the guest list are Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Jane Fraser, the CEO of Citigroup, and Tim Cook, who recently stepped down as the CEO of Apple.

On Friday, Xi and his wife are scheduled to join Trump and the first lady for a private tea and a tour of the National Archives to view historical national documents. Xi is expected to depart the U.S. later Friday.

Xi’s last state visit to the U.S. was in September 2015 during the Obama administration. Trump visited China last May for talks with Xi.