Forgive Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he had flashbacks to Mar-a-Lago when he walked into the White House for a summit with President Donald Trump.
These days, the executive mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is resembling Trump's private Palm Beach club and residence. There are now sky-high flagpoles on the building's exterior, gold decor adorning the Oval Office, the Rose Garden patio area furnished with yellow-and-white umbrellas and an opulent ballroom under construction.
So, yes, it may all look familiar to what he saw at theWinter White House during an April 2017 summit early in Trump's first term.
Here is a look back at five things that happened during that two-day summit.
A global panorama of protesters descended on Palm Beach County
Trump visits to his adopted home county used to draw throngs of supporters
and protesters. But Xi's visit here nine years ago was on a different level.
In addition to U.S. presidential demonstrators, Xi drew his own crowd. There were people demanding liberty for Tibet and others calling for China to allow Taiwan to retain its autonomous status.
The more iconoclastic protest was the one by followers of Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual practice banned in China since 1999. The group was there to call on Xi to respect and permit Falun Gong, organizers said.
Six protesters were arrested during the summit for attempting to block motorcades, including by standing in front of them as they sped along their routes.
Some who showed up to wave flags said they did so as a welcoming gesture to Xi.
“It’s something that we look forward to,” said Teng Luo, 29, of West Palm Beach. “We would like to see more harmony between these two countries.”
Tariffs were a Trump-Xi Mar-a-Lago summit agenda item
In the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump made a point — as he did again in 2024 — of accusing Beijing of ripping off the United States in its trade relations.
As president, Trump imposed significant tariffs on thousands of consumer and industrial products, leading to retaliatory tariffs from Beijing. On Jan. 15, 2020, the Trump and Xi governments signed a trade deal that paused the tariff confronation.
A few months later, the world descended into the coronavirus pandemic and a global economic closure — and relations between the two powers tensed as Trump blamed the viral outbreak on China and used xenophobic language in doing so.
A chocolate cake and Syrian rocket attack
Trump hosted Xi, and the two leaders' respective delegations, at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago on the evening of April 6.
During dessert, the Trump chocolate cake was served, and as the two leaders enjoyed the sweet delicacy, Trump told Xi he had ordered a missile strike on Syrian targets in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on civilians.
Later, in an interview on a Fox network channel, Trump described the scene before the revelation saying: "We had finished dinner. We're now having dessert. And we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it."
Where did Melania Trump take China's first lady?
While the presidents negotiated, first lady Melania Trump took her counterpart, Peng Liyuan, to Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach.
The two women saw classrooms and spoke with teachers and students. They then attended a student performance of a a song from Little Women the Musical.
A diplomat with knowledge of the first ladies' tour later told The Palm Beach Post that one of the classrooms visited had a presentation on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Xi Jinping not the first, or last, world leader to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago
As important as China is on the world stage, Xi was not the first international leader Trump entertained at Mar-a-Lago as president.
That honor went to the late Shinzo Abe, who was Japan's leader during Trump's first term. Trump took Abe golfing during that weekend visit, which culminated in the leaders and their aides huddling in the middle of a Mar-a-Lago dining hall after word of a North Korea missile test.
Trump later hosted a Central American presidents confab as well as a key South American ally, then-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
This term, Trump has hosted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Finland President Alexander Stubb.
And, no, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: When Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago. A look back
