President Donald Trump hosted China’s President Xi Jinping for a high-profile state dinner at the White House on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, blending high-stakes diplomacy with a tech-heavy guest list and glitzy Washington pageantry.
Tech Titans and Diplomatic Guest List at the White House
The event in the East Room brought together a cavalcade of billionaires, Washington powerbrokers, and technology industry leaders. Guests included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai of Google, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell. Trump described the gathering during the United Nations General Assembly week as “the hottest ticket in town,” noting that it featured “the entire tech world, the entire banking world and a lot more.” The atmosphere combined formal diplomacy with moments of casual celebrity, such as Altman signing autographs upon his arrival at the White House.
Policy Discussions and Arrival Ceremonies
The evening festivities followed a rigorous day of business hours discussions where Trump and Xi addressed complex bilateral tensions, including trade, artificial intelligence, and policy regarding Taiwan. The diplomatic engagement began with an unusual protocol on Wednesday when Trump personally greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at Joint Base Andrews with a 100-foot red carpet, a 21-person honor guard, and a flyover featuring two B-1 bombers. During a formal arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump remarked on their longstanding rapport, stating that from the time of his first election in 2016, he and Xi had forged a friendship.
Menu, Fashion, and White House Construction Tour
First lady Melania Trump helped craft the evening’s state dinner menu, which was served on historical red china from Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Guests dined on a first course of yellow squash velouté with wild mushrooms, fresh herbs, crispy pancetta, and drizzled scallion oil, followed by sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, roasted garden eggplant, and sauce verte, alongside a dessert of vanilla crémeux with sour cherry confit and walnut frangipane, as well as ice cream with honey from the White House. For the evening’s fashion, Melania Trump wore a tuxedo-style outfit featuring a white Saint Laurent cotton poplin blouse, a black silk cummerbund, and black Dolce & Gabbana brocade pants with a peony motif, while Peng Liyuan wore a red gown and Xi wore a black suit. Breaking momentarily from tradition during his toast, Trump invited the assembled dignitaries to tour the nearby construction site of his new South Lawn ballroom—which he has called the “Great Hall of the United States”—making dinner attendees the first people to step foot on the project once the evening’s entertainment concluded.
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