For Trump and Xi, a warm farewell and unfinished business

President Donald Trump showed off the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, as the two leaders wrapped up a state visit to Washington with friendly gestures but few apparent breakthroughs other than a promise to see each other twice more this year.

“We’ve made great strides, very positive for both countries,” Trump said over tea Friday before setting out for the National Archives, embracing what he said was a warm personal relationship with Xi.

He later said that “everything” had been discussed, including the war in Iran, and that the outcome of the summit would be “great for the farmers.”

Xi focused more on the relationship between the two countries than on his personal chemistry with Trump, continuing a difference that was evident on the meeting’s first day.

“The president and I are like two people that are charting the course for the great ship of China-U. S. relations,” Xi said. He said that Trump and he had agreed to build a relationship of “strategic stability on the basis of respect, fairness, and reciprocity. So, from this, one can see that the prospects for this relationship will get brighter.”

He praised his host in terms that were sure to appeal to the U.S. leader, who gained fame early in his career by running hotels and whose family remains invested in the resort business.

“Everything is done to the highest order of perfection, and there is thought in every little detail, and it’s greatly appreciated,” Xi said.

After tea, the leaders and their wives toured the National Archives to see the foundational documents of the United States to commemorate America’s 250th birthday year.

Under a different president, the gesture — parading the authoritarian leader of a communist country in front of the key artifacts that guarantee U.S. democracy — might have been seen as aggressive. Trump, however, offered a genial tour to his guest, and if he commented about democracy, it wasn’t audible to the cameras, which were back in operation after a court order ended Trump’s effort to ban three news organizations from covering him.

“We’re just comparing. Ours goes 250 years. Which is great, and we’re proud of it. But theirs goes 6,000 years. So there’s a little difference between 6,000 and 250. But we’re very proud of our 250,” Trump said.

Xi and other Chinese leaders often have focused on their country’s thousands of years of history as a way of emphasizing that they can outlast pressure from Washington — although modern China’s communist government dates to 1949.

Trump, who Thursday praised Xi’s knowledge of stone and particularly granite, declared his admiration for the rotunda of the National Archives building, which was completed in 1935.

“This is a great building. Great building,” Trump said. “This is when they built it properly.”

Trump fought with the news media during the course of the summit after his effort to bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. On Thursday, the White House video pool, which television networks share, remained out of commission as the networks awaited assurances that CNN would be allowed access. That drew complaints from Trump that the press was missing “made for television” moments of the summit.

By Friday, however, the TV pool was back, and in the end Trump said that he was happy with how the trip had played in the media.

“We appreciate the fair coverage. It’s been very fair. We appreciate it,” he said.

The two leaders confirmed plans to meet again in November in China and in December in Miami, making for four face-to-face encounters over the course of 2026.

The rapid pace of meetings may ease the pressure off any one summit to produce a breakthrough, even as both sides continue to discuss Taiwan, whether to regulate artificial intelligence, and the complex and thorny economic relationship between the two superpowers.