Trump Announces Rescheduled Trip to China

President Trump will travel to Beijing for a rescheduled summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14 and 15, the White House announced on Wednesday. Trump had been scheduled to travel to China later this month but previously announced he was delaying the trip so he could be in Washington to help steward the US and Israeli war against Iran. The president announced the rescheduled trip even though the war in Iran continues and the US is pressing Tehran to accept a ceasefire proposal.

• "First Lady Melania and I will also host President Xi and Madame Peng for a reciprocal visit in Washington, D.C., at a later date, this year," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "Our Representatives are finalizing preparations for these Historic Visits. I look very much forward to spending time with President Xi in what will be, I am sure, a Monumental Event."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked if the new dates for the trip could suggest Trump believes the Iran war could end soon, offered an optimistic tone that the conflict could reach an endgame before Trump's travels, the AP reports. "We've always estimated four to six weeks," Leavitt responded. "So you could do the math on that." The United States and Israel launched the attacks against Iran on Feb. 28.

• The China trip had been planned for months but began to unravel as Trump pressured Beijing and other world powers to use their military might to protect the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for the flow of oil. The strait has been effectively closed as Iran targets energy infrastructure and traffic through the strait.

• Trump said last week while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office that he would be going to China in five or six weeks' time instead of at the end of the month. He said he would be "resetting" his visit with Xi. "We're working with China—they were fine with it," Trump said then. "I look forward to seeing President Xi. He looks forward to seeing me, I think."
• Trump's visit to China is seen as an opportunity to build on a fragile trade truce between the two superpowers, but it has become tangled in his effort to find an endgame to the war in Iran. Soon after pressing China and other nations to send warships to secure access to Middle Eastern oil, Trump indicated last week that his travel plans depended on Beijing's response, though he added that the US didn't need help from the allies that rebuffed his request.