Top allies of President Donald Trump were alarmed by his conciliatory approach toward Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, with the concern privately running deeper than public comments suggested, according to more than a dozen interviews with administration officials, lawmakers and policy experts.
Trump gave Xi an extraordinary welcome, including a formal state dinner with business titans, a military flyover and a tour of the National Archives. Xi’s first visit in more than a decade came as the White House had dropped its most aggressive economic penalties on China and aimed to reduce tensions between the world’s two great superpowers.
The perceived turnabout in both policy and rhetoric toward China — which Trump once accused of “raping” the U.S. economically — unsettled many of Trump’s supporters who previously thrilled to his adversarial posture toward Beijing.
Steve Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist and a top China critic, publicly called for no concessions to the Chinese on his podcast for three consecutive days during Xi’s visit, and privately relayed that message to administration officials. Senate Republicans who rarely publicly break with the president bashed the “lavish welcome.” And Laura Loomer, typically one of the president’s most ardent defenders on social media, slammed the “red carpet treatment” and “win for our enemies.”
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Meanwhile, one White House official told The Washington Sun that there was broad concern among the administration’s China hawks.
“It is astonishing what is going on right now — Trump is functionally a China dove right now,” said one administration ally granted anonymity to speak candidly.
The White House strongly rejected these characterizations.
White House aide Peter Navarro, widely regarded as the fiercest China hawk in the president’s orbit, said he was consulted on the summit and supported it. The goal was to eliminate the “obvious disconnect” between the commitments Xi has made to the president and China’s refusal to fulfill those obligations thus far, Navarro said.
Navarro also stressed that the president has imposed 50% tariffs on many imports from China, and pointed out that industry-specific duties allow that number to be even higher.
“Frequent one-on-one meetings allow POTUS to express obvious concern and at times displeasure with promises made but unkept, and this helps keep things on track,” Navarro said in a statement. “I’m a veteran of the first Trump White House and the China wars. The best path is action, action, action — talk softly but move fast.”
On Friday, the president said American farmers would be “very happy” with the result of the talks — appearing to preview new Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products — while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed for a new hotline between the countries’ leadership for emergencies related to artificial intelligence.
Of the criticism that Xi was treated with too much deference and praise, Navarro said: “You don’t do a major state visit of a world leader without red carpet treatment.”
Still, this week’s tone and strategy affirm the extent to which Trump, faced with the political realities of a trade war, has reversed his posture on one of the most important economic policies of his tenure.
Michael Pillsbury, who served as chair of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, said Trump has privately recognized the upside of a more pragmatic response to Beijing.
“I have had a chance to speak directly to him. He thinks the first-term was too confrontational to get results,” Pillsbury said. Of the traditional China hawks in Trump’s orbit, Pillsbury said: “This group is no longer very powerful. … Are they upset? Yes, but they’re very careful to not dare attack Trump directly.”
In his first-term, Trump imposed new tariffs and economic sanctions on China. Those policies were largely maintained by the Biden administration. The initial moves of Trump’s second term suggested he only wanted to amplify that approach, imposing sky-high tariffs on China, and the rest of the world, in April 2025.
But after China retaliated by restricting American access to rare earth minerals crucial for a range of domestic products, the U.S. economy faced a full-blown economic crisis. The moment crystallized the economic and political limitations Trump faces in trying to untangle the world’s two largest economies, and has been only followed by a gradual easing of tariffs and sanctions between the countries.
Edward Fishman, senior fellow and director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Chinese response to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs caused a reaction that set the stage for this week’s summit.
“It was a crisis of confidence in the White House, and where we’ve been ever since is this effective detente,” Fishman said. “There’s been a sea change in U.S. policy toward China, and there’s real concern that taking aggressive action against them will result in retaliation that the United States can’t sustain.”
Navarro said the administration is working with a “large team” and more than 50 companies to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese rare earth metals, which will give it the capacity to confront China without fear of blowback. On Friday, Navarro said on Bannon’s podcast that the U.S. is between six and 18 months of being “rare earth magnet independent. (Bannon described Navarro’s prediction as “impossible.”)
Some former Trump administration officials have said Navarro’s influence appears to be on the decline as the president works with Xi.
“Peter has certainly not been very outspoken of late — whether that’s because he’s been sidelined, or what it is I don’t know,” said Wilbur Ross, who served as Commerce secretary during Trump’s first term and was widely seen as largely sympathetic to Navarro’s goals. “Normally, in the context of the China meeting you would have thought there would be some commentary from him.”
Navarro said his public communications have “of course” not been limited, citing appearances on MS NOW, Bloomberg and CNBC, among other outlets.
The concerns about Trump’s invitation to Xi may run deepest on Capitol Hill. Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker of Mississippi criticized the president in a floor speech in which he said he would have recommended against the Xi visit and that he would remind the president “his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America.”
Lawmakers in both parties are concerned about Trump’s decision to delay $14 billion in arms sales for Taiwan. Adam Posen, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said it’s possible Congress will force the president to adopt tougher economic and foreign policy measures against Beijing next year, after the midterm elections.
But for now, Posen, who favors reduced trade barriers with China and was a strong critic of prior administration policy, has been encouraged by what he’s seen.
“It’s a sign he’s, consciously or not, being pragmatic in a constructive way,” Posen said. “American presidents talk tough and threaten China, and in each case they ended up — I think rightly — backing off.”
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