China's Xi kicks off state visit to Washington on Wednesday with

The image of the president standing on the tarmac to meet a visiting leader is a small thing, but in diplomacy it isn't. It's a signal, and Donald Trump knows exactly what he's sending by doing it himself instead of letting Xi Jinping make the drive to the White House. This is personal diplomacy, the kind that doesn't show up in a briefing book. It says we're ready to deal directly, and we're not going to hide behind protocol.

Some will call it a photo op. They said the same thing about Trump's first meetings with Kim Jong Un, and then he walked out of Singapore with concrete commitments while the critics stayed home. The difference here is that Xi is not a side player. He runs the largest competitor we have on the planet. A tarmac greeting is a way of saying that the conversation starts on equal footing, not with a lecture from Washington about how China ought to behave.

The China playbook has never been about speeches. It's about leverage. Trump's instinct to build a personal rapport with Xi, while never pretending this is a friendship on paper, has gotten us further than the old approach of scolding from a distance. We tried that for years. It produced nothing but a stronger China and a weaker American position. Real engagement means showing up, and that's what this is.

This is what "America First" looks like in practice. Not shouting across a table, but making sure the other guy knows you're willing to look him in the eye. Whether the deal materializes remains to be seen, but you can't close a deal you refuse to properly open. Give Trump credit for treating Xi like a counterpart, not a schoolkid. That's how you get things done.