White House confirms First Lady Melania Trump not travelling to China with US President

By Reena Bhardwaj

Washington DC [US], May 13 : First Lady Melania Trump will not be accompanying US President Donald Trump to China during this visit, as per the White House.

Trump, who departed for China a short while ago, is accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, Deputy National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, and Ambassador Monica Crowley aboard Air Force One.

Others accompanying President Trump are White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Beau Harrison, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, Assistant to the President & White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung, and President's Science and Tech Advisor Michael Kratsios.

Also aboard Air Force One are Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Ross Worthington and Walt Nauta.

Before his departure to China, Trump interacted with the media and expressed optimism ahead of his visit.

Calling President Xi a friend, Trump told reporters, "You're going to see that good things are going to happen. This is going to be a very exciting trip."

When asked if Xi Jinping would help in making a deal with Iran, Trump said, "It might be. I don't think we need any help with Iran. They're defeated militarily, and they'll either do the right thing or we'll finish the job. They're either going to do the right thing or we're just going to finish the job."

The US President told the media that among the several items for discussions with China, trade would be a key focus area.

"We're going to be talking with President Xi about a lot of different things. I would say more than anything else will be trade," Trump said.

Earlier, a White House official said that over a dozen business and tech leaders representing major companies across technology, finance, defence, and consumer sectors would be a part of the American delegation.

As per the White House official, the list includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, Cargill CEO Brian Sikes, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, Coherent CEO Jim Anderson, and GE Aerospace CEO H. Lawrence Culp.

Other leaders to travel with Trump are Goldman Sach's David Solomon, Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, Meta executive Dina Powell McCormick, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Visa CEO Ryan McInerney.

The list reflects leadership from some of the world's most influential corporations spanning technology, finance, aerospace, manufacturing, and global payments.

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