Trump’s Delay of Xi Visit Echoes Pattern of Last-Minute Changes

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China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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A number of factors for the postponement could be at play — Trump increasingly eschews travel and prefers world leaders come and pay tribute to him at the White House or at his Palm Beach estate. The American president, a former reality television star, enjoys keeping allies and adversaries alike in suspense about big decisions. And he is now consumed with a war he predicted would be a swift victory, with no clear end in sight and few nations prepared to join him in pursuing it. 

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Still for Trump, teasing a schedule change is part of a well-worn playbook. Much like he threatens — and sometimes reverses declarations — to levy tariffs or to exit international treaties, Trump sees his foreign visits as another way to barter with other countries. 

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“He delights in mixed messages,” said Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett, who added it remains unclear how much influence Trump truly has over China. “Leverage is a beautiful thing when you have and a brutal thing when you think you have it and and don’t,” he said. 

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Historical Patterns

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This isn’t even the first time Trump has publicly wavered on a meeting with Xi. Last fall before the two were scheduled to sit down at an international summit, he told reporters that “maybe it won’t happen.” Ultimately, that session did occur. 

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Sometimes Trump dangles a cancellation but does not follow through. 

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He memorably canceled a planned 2018 summit with North Korea’s Kim in Singapore amid pique over some fiery rhetoric from Pyongyang.

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In a letter, the US president called it a “truly sad moment in history.” Yet he soon softened after a conciliatory statement from North Korea and the meeting was back on. Though the summit yielded no diplomatic breakthrough, he presented it a great success.

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At other times, Trump cancels and holds firm, perhaps to avoid a meeting he thinks may be a problem or an embarrassment later.

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There was a planned visit to Denmark in 2019, which he said he would not do because the prime minister had “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.” He also canceled a meeting with Putin at the 2018 Group of 20 meeting  — when Putin was already en route — over Russia’s decision to fire on Ukrainian ships. 

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Trump scrapped plans in 2018 to travel to London for the opening of a new US embassy, saying he did not like the location. But by doing so, he avoided coming in contact with potential protests.

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Early Exits

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At other moments, Trump has exited foreign engagements early, to enact pressure or express frustration. 

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Just last year, he left a meeting of the Group of Seven major economies in Canada ahead of schedule. Before that, in 2018 at another G-7 in Canada, Trump backed out of a joint communique after clashing with then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and departed earlier than planned. He did it again in 2019, when he scrapped a press conference at the end of a NATO summit. That came after another a group of world leaders were caught on video mocking Trump.

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And in some moments, Trump has also deputized others to travel in his place, declining some trips at last minute.

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In 2018, he canceled a trip to South America, citing a crisis in Syria, and sent Vice President Mike Pence. Again in 2019, Trump sent Pence to Poland for an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, opting to stay in the US, where he furiously monitored a hurricane in real time — sending out tweets and videos and at one point showing off a doctored map that did not match the projected path of the storm.