Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested there is a 50% chance Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration.
“I think there’s a 50/50 chance that Xi Jinping is going to show up, which you have to admit, in terms of sending a signal to the planet, would be pretty unbelievable,” Gingrich said, later calling the invitation a “tremendous move.”
Trump’s transition campaign spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed Thursday morning that the president-elect had asked Xi to the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. It is yet to be determined whether Xi will accept the invitation and attend the high-profile event.
While Trump has frequently said he has a good relationship with Xi, the president-elect often played tough with the communist leader during his first term, hitting China with rounds of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods. Trump announced plans earlier this month to place “an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs” on all Chinese products coming into the United States until Beijing cracks down on fentanyl flowing into the country.
Leavitt said during a Fox News interview on Thursday that Trump’s invitation was about “creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just our allies but our adversaries and our competitors, too.”
Her words mirror sentiments expressed by top players in the incoming Trump administration, including former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the president-elect’s pick for national intelligence director.
Gabbard came under fire for meeting with former Syrian leader Bashar Assad but has defended her decision to sit down with the totalitarian dictator, saying, “We’ve got to be willing to meet with whoever we need to if there is a possibility and a chance that can help us take steps forward towards peace.”
Gingrich said Trump’s move to extend an olive branch toward China comes because the president-elect “believes in constant offense, constant momentum, keeping things going forward.”
“I think he gets up every day and tries to figure out, you know, ‘Let’s go to McDonald’s or let’s go to the garbage truck,’ whatever it takes, but he wants to be on offense,” Gingrich said, making a reference to Trump’s campaign appearance at the iconic franchise and his garbage truck photoshoot after President Joe Biden suggested Trump supporters are trash.
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“I suspect he woke up, looked around and thought, ‘Yeah, I think my good friend Xi Jinping, we haven’t been together in a long time, why don’t I …?’” Gingrich continued.
If Xi accepts the invitation, he could find himself standing side by side with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is considering attending the inauguration as well, according to a CBS report.
