Trump says China will invest hundreds of billions in US tech companies whose CEOs met with Xi

President Trump claimed Thursday that China plans to “invest hundreds of billions of dollars” in the companies run by the CEOs he “surprised” Xi Jinping with during their high-stakes meeting.“Those business people are here to make deals and to bring back jobs,” Trump said of the dozens of executives and entrepreneurs that accompanied him on his historic trip to Beijing.“China’s going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars with those people that were in that room today,” the president told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Thursday night.“That’s why they came.”Trump revealed that businesspeople, including Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook, were not initially scheduled to take part in the US delegation’s meeting with Xi and Chinese officials at the Great Hall of the People.“I suggested that before we start the meeting, ‘I’d like to introduce them to you,’” Trump said, “and they were surprised, because it wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t scheduled.”Trump said Chinese leadership “really had a good time” once they “got used to the fact that we’re a little off schedule here.”“They did fantastically well,” he said of the businesspeople.

“It was really good.”“Xi actually said that was very good.That was a good idea, but it was very different from what the schedule had.”Trump’s interview with Hannity was taped Wednesday, after his more than two-hour-long meeting with Xi in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.Trump and Xi have thus far seemed to have found common ground on issues related to Iran and the need to keep US-China relations amicable.A White House readout of the summit noted that “both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”Meanwhile, Trump insisted Xi offered to assist the US in getting Iran to cease hostilities.“President Xi would like to see a deal made, he would, he would like to see a deal made.

And he did offer.He said, ‘I...