By PBS News
Publication Date: 2026-05-13 16:18:00
Prominent U.S. executives from Big Tech and Wall Street to agriculture and aerospace are joining President Donald Trump on his trip to China this week.
WATCH LIVE: Trump and Xi hold meeting as China state visit begins
Trump arrived in Beijing Wednesday to meet with President Xi Jinping. Aside from discussions about Iran, the two leaders are expected to discuss trade and artificial intelligence.
Here’s a look at some of the executives, according to the White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Elon Musk
Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, led Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency until leaving in the spring of 2025 before the controversial pop-up agency was shuttered in November. The billionaire, who also owns the social media platform X, feuded with Trump last summer in a war of words that included Musk claiming without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Musk eventually said that he regretted some of his posts on X about Trump.
Since then, Musk has refocused his energy on Tesla and his other companies. Tesla has operations in China and Musk has visited there. He’s also been dealing with French prosecutors seeking charges against him and X for child sexual abuse images on the platform,…
