At least he got to see the sights again.
President Donald Trump and his big entourage of Cabinet officials and CEOs are on their way back from China, and it’s not clear they’ll have anything to declare when they make it home. After two days of meetings, meals, speeches, and sightseeing photo ops, Trump left China with few perceptible accomplishments. Though it’s always possible there will be deals announced or confirmed after the fact, as of right now, here’s what did and didn’t get done as far as anyone can tell.
Let’s just get this out of the way up top, because it might very well be Trump’s biggest takeaway from the trip:
Though Trump said China had agreed to buy Boeing jets and might buy U.S. oil, there’e been no official confirmation of that by China or of any other deals. CNN’s Stephanie Yang explains:
Before leaving a two-day summit in Beijing, President Donald Trump said he had made many trade deals with China, accompanied by a cohort of “brilliant” tech billionaires. But the details of those deals – at least on Friday afternoon in Beijing when Air Force One departed – were vague, signaling a potential shift in leverage between the world’s two largest economies since Trump’s last visit nearly nine years ago.Investors, decrying the lack of specifics, sold off stocks. Dow futures were down more than 300 points, or 0.6%. The broader S&P 500 futures fell 1% and Nasdaq futures were 1.4% lower. With no firm resolution to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Brent oil futures rose 3%, above $108 a barrel. Soybean futures sold off sharply after the United States spoke of a nebulous commitment from China to buy agricultural products. And bond yields rose as traders grew cautious about rising inflation.
