President Donald Trump embarks on a much-anticipated trip to China next month to meet with President Xi Jinping, as the first year-plus of the Trump presidency has redefined global economic affairs and foreign policy.
Trump and Xi are set to meet in Beijing on May 14-15. Over the past 15 months, Trump has reasserted the United States’ role on the global stage, whether it be through economic policy, diplomacy, or military operations. In turn, the developments have certainly redefined the U.S.-China relationship.
“President Trump has undoubtedly restored American strength on the world stage – showing the entire world that the days of Biden-era weakness are over. The President has secured key trade deals, solved eight global conflicts through his peace through strength policies, and built the greatest military in the world – whose results speak for themselves,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement.
“The United States is respected again thanks to President Trump’s leadership, and the President looks forward to visiting China, which he is expecting to be a very positive visit that will lay the groundwork for many positive results achieved in the coming years between our countries,” Wales added.
On the economic front, Trump has assembled numerous trade deals that not only strengthen ties between the United States and the respective countries but also counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Following his Liberation Day tariffs announced on April 2, 2025, the president struck major deals with the European Union, the United Kingdom, and numerous countries in China’s backyard, like Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, while also securing major investments from key Middle East countries. The deals account for more than 85 percent of the global gross domestic product.
Through the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs, which the Supreme Court later struck down in February, Trump gained significant leverage over countries worldwide, enabling deals that shift economic dependency away from China and toward the United States.
For instance, the EU trade deal, which Trump called “the biggest deal ever made,” came after China sought the EU’s partnership in resisting Trump’s “unilateral bullying” via tariffs, as Breitbart News noted last year. And in the week before the historic agreement between the U.S. and China, Xi met personally with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa to make the case about the dangers of decoupling.
“The pressure may have backfired, and the E.U. leaders appeared much more comfortable dealing with Trump after returning from their awkward stint in Beijing,” as Breitbart News International News Editor Frances Martel noted in late July.
In 2024, the EU and the United States traded €1.68 trillion, or roughly $1.8 trillion, in goods and services, accounting for 43 percent of global GDP and nearly 30 percent of global trade. Under the deal, the EU committed to invest an additional $600 billion in the U.S. and buy $750 billion worth of U.S. energy, underscoring the deepening of relations.
Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle spoke with Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s Commissioner for Economy and Productivity and former Prime Minister of Latvia, on Tuesday. Dombrovskis indicated that Europeans are formally rooting for the United States in the forthcoming China talks.
Diplomatically, under Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the United States returned as the premier mediator on the world stage, striking numerous ceasefires and peace agreements. This came after the global instability fostered under the Biden administration, which saw major wars commence between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel.
While the Russia-Ukraine war persists, Trump settled the conflict between Israel and Hamas, while also ending conflicts between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, Armenia and Azerbaijan, India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, Egypt and Ethiopia, and reportedly helped prevent what could have led to an escalation in conflict between Serbia and Kosovo.
And while he has reasserted the United States position as a diplomatic juggernaut, often floating tariff consequences as a means to drive peace deals, he has shown he is unafraid to use the might of the United States armed forces against enemies, particularly the radical Islamist Iranian regime and former Venezuelan dictator Nicólas Maduro.
Iran represents the intersection of the United States’ military, economic, and diplomatic presence globally under Trump.
On February 28, Trump commenced Operation Epic Fury in Iran, with the goal of wiping out Iran’s navy, destroying the regime’s missile capabilities, ensuring it can never attain nuclear weapons, and ending its ability to sponsor terrorism.
Following the United States and Iran two-week ceasefire last week, White House press secretary announced that the president and his administration “exceeded” all military objectives, with the U.S., in five weeks, wiping out Iran’s defense industrial base, destroying the Iranian navy, hindering its ability to sponsor proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and preventing its ability to achieve a nuclear weapon.
Top-level negotiations between the U.S. delegation of Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, with counterparts in the Iranian regime, took place last weekend. However, Iran failed to agree to meet the United States on its six redlines to cut a deal to permanently end the war, including ending its nuclear pursuit.
Though the United States has excelled in its objectives, a result of the war was the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil passes, spiking crude oil prices and, in turn, gasoline prices. However, Trump said Friday that Iran has announced the full reopening of the strait, after he implemented a U.S. naval blockade on the strait following negotiations last weekend.
“THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“THIS PROCESS SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY IN THAT MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J.TRUMP,” he added.
As Politico noted in early March, China buys 17 percent of its oil from Venezuela and Iran, with 55 percent of Venezuelan crude and 87 percent of Iranian crude exports going to China in 2025.
Trump, confidently anticipating he would get the result he achieved Friday on the Strait, said Wednesday that he expects a “big, fat, hug” from Xi for getting ships moving again.
“China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also – And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran,” Trump wrote.
“President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks. We are working together smartly, and very well! Doesn’t that beat fighting??? BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to – far better than anyone else!!!” he added.
Trump also told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer that Iran agreed to “everything” following a Truth Social post stating the United States will retrieve enriched uranium at the sites of Natanz, Fordow, and Esfahan, which the United States struck in Operation Midnight Hammer last June.
“The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘Dust,’ created by our great B2 Bombers – No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or for,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either, but the USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezboolah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!! Thank you!”
Trump’s last meeting with Xi came in October during his Southeast Asia trip, and Xi will visit the president in the United States later in the year on a date that has not yet been announced, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted last month.
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