Trump greets China’s Xi at airport in historic move

The last time an American president did this was 1962, when JFK greeted Britain's prime minister. Now it's Donald Trump meeting Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. You don't have to squint to see the signal here. This is not a photo op; it is a flex. It tells Beijing, and everyone else watching, that the most consequential relationship of the century gets handled face-to-face, not through a translator or a stuffy side room at some summit.

This is how Trump operates, and frankly, it has been missing from Washington for a long time. Previous administrations were so worried about the "optics" of being seen with Xi or Putin that they made diplomacy transactional and cold. Airports and handshakes matter because they tell the other side you show up. We have seen plenty of dinner invitations and golf weekends for foreign leaders who don't have our best interests at heart, but we never saw this level of personal outreach to the one leader who actually matters. It is a frank admission that managed rivalry beats fantasy cooperation.

The chattering class will call it grandstanding. They might even whisper that Trump is getting too cozy. That critique holds water only if you ignore that Xi knows exactly who he's dealing with, and the trade deal on the table is one of the most favorable arrangements the U.S. has secured in years. Trump isn't surrendering; he's holding every card and letting Xi see his face. The alternative is the tired old script: pouring billions into losing wars while trading partners run circles around us. We'll take the direct meeting. There is nothing weak about it, and there is everything weak about hiding in the White House waiting for the world to come to you. This is a step forward, not a retreat, and it is exactly the kind of permanent summitry this country needs again.