On January 20th, at 12:00 pm, President Trump will resume the duties of President of the United States. In an unprecedented move and at President Trump’s invitation, several world leaders will be in attendance.
It is standard practice for ambassadors to foreign countries to attend the ceremony as a diplomatic courtesy, however, heads of state have not previously attended. According to Time, citing the AP:
While foreign diplomats such as ambassadors have typically attended U.S. presidential inaugurations, no foreign head of state has previously made an official visit for the occasion…But that is set to change for Trump.
So far, Argentinian President and libertarian populist Javier Milei is set to attend, while Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is expected to attend “if her schedule permits it” according to the article. Daniel Noboa, President of Ecuador, India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya are also slated to attend.
Notably, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele has also been invited but has not yet confirmed.
In early December, President Trump extended an unusual invitation that concerned many of the Mockingbird Media talking heads, such as CNN’s Stephen Collinson, who called it “a reminder of Trump’s fondness for foreign policy by grand gesture and his willingness to trample diplomatic codes with his unpredictable approach.”
In December, Collinson wrote:
“This is a reminder of Trump’s fondness for foreign policy by grand gesture and his willingness to trample diplomatic codes with his unpredictable approach. The Xi invitation also shows that Trump believes that the force of his personality alone can be a decisive factor in forging diplomatic breakthroughs. He’s far from the only president to pursue this approach — which rarely works since hostile US adversaries make hardnosed choices on national interest rather than vibes.”
While President Xi himself is not in attendance, Trump’s “force of his personality alone” must have struck a chord in China.
Today, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that “President Xi Jinping’s special representative, Vice President Han Zheng, will attend the inauguration ceremony of President Donald Trump…”
From the Diplomatic Schedule on the ministry’s website:
At U.S. invitation, President Xi Jinping’s special representative, Vice President Han Zheng, will attend the inauguration ceremony of President Donald Trump on January 20 in Washington, D.C.
China follows the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation in viewing and growing its relationship with the United States. We stand ready to work with the new U.S. government to enhance dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly pursue a stable, healthy and sustainable China-U.S. relationship and find the right way for the two countries to get along with each other in the new era.
The South China Morning Post in December said, “Even if Xi sends a representative in his place, it would still open new and crucial channels of communication.”
Trump has made what some experts have hailed as a “brilliant tactical move” by extending an invitation to Xi to attend the event.If the meeting takes place, it would give Trump a chance to discuss key bilateral issues and set the stage for a potential deal between the world’s two largest economies which are standing on the brink of a widening trade war. Even if Xi sends a representative in his place, it would still open new and crucial channels of communication.
President Trump, the man behind best-selling book “The Art of the Deal” and “The Art of the Comeback,” has been well underway in terms of foreign policy and negotiations, famously inviting numerous world leaders to his Mar-a-Lago “Winter White House” over the last year and since his 2024 election victory.
In the break from historical ‘tradition,’ other notable attendees scheduled to attend include Tom Van Grieken, the chairman of Belgium’s Vlaams Belang party, Éric Zemmour of France’s Reconquête party, Tino Chrupalla of the Alternative for Germany party, Santiago Abascal of Spain’s Vox party and Nigel Farage of the populist Reform UK party.
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