President Trump will personally greet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday evening — a protocol break no sitting American president has extended to an adversary in modern memory — while a U.S.-China trade agreement reached last year is set to expire in November, and the only concrete policy announcement ahead of the visit is a visa crackdown on birth tourism operators.

The stakes for working Americans are buried under three days of planned pomp: a military honor guard, a flyover, nearly 500 military personnel for a White House welcoming ceremony, and a formal state dinner. The Los Angeles Times reported that Trump is pulling out all the diplomatic stops to reciprocate the red-carpet treatment he received in Beijing in May. Melania Trump explained the tarmac greeting on Fox & Friends by saying the two leaders "have a great relationship" and that Xi is "coming on our soil, and we need to welcome them with the most respect."

Respect for whom, exactly? The Council on Foreign Relations' David Sacks told the BBC the greeting was "quite stunning" — noting such treatment would not normally be given to an ally, much less a strategic rival. Newsweek placed the gesture in historical context: Eisenhower met Khrushchev at the airport in 1959, Kennedy met Nehru in 1961. Trump also greeted Putin on the tarmac in Anchorage in 2025. This is the first time Trump has welcomed any leader this way during an official state visit.

Meanwhile, the issues that actually matter to Americans — trade, tariffs, AI dominance, rare earth minerals, fentanyl exports, and Taiwan — are on the agenda but generating no pre-visit commitments. Newsweek reported that a U.S.-China trade agreement reached last year is due to expire in November, and there is anticipation of an announcement about a possible extension. Translation: the administration is negotiating the terms right now, behind closed doors, with no public scrutiny of what American workers are being asked to concede.

Fox News reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio did announce one hard measure hours before Xi's arrival: visa restrictions on individuals who "engage in or facilitate" birth tourism. The crackdown targets fixers who coach visa applicants to commit fraud and operators of commercial birth tourism schemes, which have disproportionately catered to Chinese nationals. "The United States will not allow foreigners to exploit our immigration system and violate the sanctity of U.S. citizenship," Rubio said in a statement. It's a real action on a real abuse — but it's also a convenient headline to run the same day you're rolling out a 21-gun salute for the man whose government has fueled that abuse.

Not everyone in Washington is playing along. Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, openly criticized the lavish welcome from the Senate floor Tuesday. Wicker called Xi 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." He ticked through a list of topics Trump should raise — China's military buildup, its support for Iran — and said that during "every minute of dialogue" Trump should remember who his guest is.

Rubio countered that the two countries must interact at the highest levels because they are "the two largest economies in the world" with "probably the two most powerful militaries in the world." Fair enough — but engagement and pageantry are not the same thing, and this White House is choosing pageantry.

The Los Angeles Times noted that Trump has lavished praise on Xi as a "great leader" and described a warm personal friendship — all while giving Xi a pass on many issues. Trump told reporters he was delighted his new "work of art" helicopter landing pad would be ready for the visit, while bemoaning that his massive White House ballroom would not.

A president bragging about his helipad while negotiating away leverage with the country that ships fentanyl into American communities, steals intellectual property, and builds a military aimed at U.S. cities — that's the picture. The birth tourism crackdown is real. The question is what gets traded away at the state dinner to keep the good vibes flowing.