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Trump calls Xi’s Washington visit ‘exciting’, but claims US leads China in AI race

US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that the US held a significant lead over China in artificial intelligence, touted what he termed unprecedented levels…

By Samantha Johnson / September 2, 2026
US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that the US held a significant lead over China in artificial intelligence, touted what he termed unprecedented levels of inbound US investment and said he was thrilled about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later this month.
The president’s bravado comes as inflation and oil prices rise, his war of choice with Iran drags on and his polling numbers hit new lows ahead of the US midterm elections in November.

“AI is going up, and we’re leading China in AI very substantially,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“By the way, we have the president of China coming on the 24th. That’ll be very exciting. Great, love to love to have him. A lot of good things to discuss, very, very productive things to discuss with President Xi.”
Analysts say expectations are relatively low for meaningful deliverables or significant structural reform coming out of the September summit, similar to the May sit-down between Trump and Xi in Beijing.

“I’m not hearing much,” said Zack Cooper, senior fellow with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, “because there’s not going to be much”.

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