U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (May 12, 2026) embarked on a visit to China for a meeting with President Xi Jinping to discuss smoothing trade relations rocked by tit-for-tat tariffs.

“We’re going to be talking with President Xi about a lot of different things. I would say more than anything else, it’ll be trade,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House as he headed to China.

“He’s been a friend of mine. He’s been somebody that we get along with... this is going to be a very exciting trip. A lot of good things are going to happen,” Mr. Trump said about his meeting with the Chinese President.

Mr. Trump sought to downplay differences with Mr. Xi over Iran and the shadow the conflict is casting on global oil markets.

“We’re going to have a long talk about it. I think he’s been relatively good, to be honest with you,” Mr. Trump said of his plans to discuss the conflict with Mr. Xi.

“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” he added.

“I don’t think we need any help with Iran, and we’ll win it one way or the other. We’ll win it. We’ll win it peacefully or not. The Navy’s gone. Their air force is gone. Every single element of their war machine is gone,” he added.

“We have Iran very much under control. We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated — so one way or the other, we win,” he said.

Accompanying Mr. Trump on Air Force One are Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio; Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth; U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer; Eric Trump; and Laura Trump, among others.

A large delegation of CEOs of top US companies will also be in Beijing during Mr. Trump’s visit.

The White House has invited top CEOs, including Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple), Larry Fink (BlackRock), and Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), to join Mr. Trump on his trip to China this week.

Also expected to join Mr. Trump’s delegation for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping are Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Cargill’s Brian Sikes, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Cisco’s Chuck Robbins, Coherent’s Jim Anderson, GE Aerospace’s H. Lawrence Culp Jr, Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon, Illumina’s Jacob Thaysen, Mastercard’s Michael Miebach, Meta Platforms executive Dina Powell McCormick, Micron Technology’s Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon and Visa’s Ryan McInerney.