Trump Heads to Beijing for Xi Talks as Inflation Hits Three-Year High

Donald Trump headed to Beijing on Tuesday for a state visit with Xi Jinping, arriving at a moment when inflation has climbed to its highest annual rate in nearly three years and household price pressure is again shaping the political debate in Washington. The trip, scheduled for May 13 to May 15, is the first visit to China by a U.S. president in nine years and Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with Xi since their encounter in Busan last October.

The summit had been delayed from March because of the Iran war, which has helped push global energy prices higher and added another layer of urgency to the talks. The agenda is wide-ranging and economically charged, with trade, tariffs, Taiwan, AI chip sales and the Iran conflict all expected to come up as Trump looks for tangible gains from a relationship that remains defined by rivalry as much as diplomacy.

Trump also invited a roster of major business leaders to join the trip, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Larry Fink and Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg. Their presence underscores how closely the White House has tied China policy to the interests of Tesla, Apple, BlackRock and Boeing, and how central commerce and technology remain to the broader negotiations.

At home, the numbers are working against Trump. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Consumer Price Index rose 0.6 percent in April and 3.8 percent over the past 12 months, the highest annual inflation rate since May 2023. Energy prices rose 3.8 percent in the month and accounted for more than 40 percent of the overall monthly increase, while shelter rose 0.6 percent.

The timing matters politically because it links Trump’s foreign-policy stagecraft with the domestic issue most Americans feel directly in their wallets. Higher energy costs, driven in part by the Iran war, feed straight into the cost of commuting, shipping and goods movement, while China talks carry implications for tariffs and supply chains that can filter into prices over time. That leaves Trump trying to show progress on Beijing without losing ground on the issue voters have kept closest to home: whether prices are still too high.