Tech-Heavy State Dinner For XI

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From AP:

President Donald Trump, center right, and first lady Melania Trump, right, greet China's President Xi Jinping, center left, and his wife Peng Liyuan on the South Portico of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A tech-heavy guest list, the fashion choices of those on it, who sits where, their body language throughout the night and what’s on the menu: these are the softer — often and glitzier — details of diplomacy. They will be closely scrutinized at Thursday’s state dinner, offering potential clues about where things actually stand between President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping on the meatier policy matters discussed behind closed doors.

Thursday’s dinner will include an abundance of technology industry titans, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai of Google, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies.