Donald Trump invites China's Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration
Dec 12, 2024
Washington, DC [US], December 12 : President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his Janurary 20 inauguration, CBS News reported citing sources.
As per the reports, Trump invited Xi in early November, shortly after the election but it was not clear whether Chinese President has accepted the invitation. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.
The president-elect's team is gearing up to host several world leaders at the Capitol in January.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has a warm relationship with Trump and visited him at Mar-a-Lago this week, is "still considering" whether to attend, as per CBS News.
"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 transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
Recently, Trump has threatened to increase tariffs on goods imported from China, adding that the US government has set a deadline of January 19, the eve of Trump's inauguration, for TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the social media app or face a ban in the US.
According to CBS News, TikTok is currently fighting the ban in court, having lost a bid to block the ban last week is appealing the case to the Supreme Court.
Notably, in a historic political comeback, Trump won a second term as President of the United States after securing 295 electoral votes in the 2024 presidential election, defeating Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, who garnered 226 votes.
Trump's return to the White House marks only the second time in US history that a president has served two non-consecutive terms. The first such instance was Grover Cleveland, who served as president in 1884 and 1892. Trump had earlier served as US President from 2016 to 2020.