Trump invites Chinese President Xi Jinping to inauguration: Report
President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC next month.
The invite was made in early November, shortly after Trump’s Election Day victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, CBS News reported on Wednesday.
It’s unclear whether Xi has accepted the invitation.
The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
A spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team would not confirm or deny the report of Xi’s possible historic appearance at the Jan. 20 inauguration.
“World leaders are lining up to meet with President Trump because they know he will soon return to power and restore peace through American strength around the globe,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
State Department records dating back to 1874 indicate that no foreign leader has ever attended a presidential inauguration, according to CBS News.
Xi, 71, may not be the only world leader that attends the swearing-in ceremony.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom Trump regularly referenced on the campaign trail and met with this week at Mar-a-Lago, is “still considering” whether to attend the 45th president’s second inaugural, according to the outlet.
The report of XI’s invite comes after Trump threatened to impose massive new tariffs on imports from China.
China-based ByteDance, the parent company TikTok, also faces a Jan. 19 – inauguration eve – deadline to sell the social media app or face a ban in the US.
Trump, 78, has met with several world leaders as he prepares to assume the presidency.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Argentinian President Javier Milei and Orbán have all made stops in Palm Beach, Fla., in recent weeks, where Trump’s transition efforts are headquartered.
The president-elect also traveled to Paris last weekend where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and Prince William of the United Kingdom.