Remarks: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping Tour the Zhongnanhai Gardens Before Tea - May 14, 2026

[The first 00:03:38 were during a tour of the garden, and the participants were at a distance from the camera. It is transcribed as best possible. The second half is before tea, and was fully audible.]

Do you [Inaudible]

[Via interpreter] [Inaudible]

So when you [Inaudible] the president [Inaudible] the media changes beyond anything that anybody has ever seen before [Inaudible] and all possible [Inaudible] It's, it's called wall to wall. There's no other story, there's [Inaudible]

[Via interpreter] [Inaudible]

Yeah.

Yes, it does. Very much so.

[Via interpreter] President [Inaudible]

[Inaudible]

[Via interpreter] [Inaudible] be quiet, oh, uh, be careful.

Okay, I'll watch it. [Inaudible] you'll get down.

[Via interpreter] Take a look at these two tr- -- trees. Two trees merged into one. This, this grew for over a tho- -- 100 years.

Each 100 years? It's, it's very unusual.

[Via interpreter] Close to 200. All the trees here are around 200 to 300 years, and the big one just behind, uh, 400 years old.

They live that long? That's actually [Inaudible]

[Via interpreter] And there are trees are 1,000 years old.

Uh, ask the President, when other people come in, from other countries, presidents and prime ministers, does he bring them here?

[Via interpreter] In the past, we never had state [Inaudible] and then even [Inaudible] we reserved the space for [Inaudible]

[Inaudible] I like it.

[Via interpreter] This tree, 250 years. 150 years old.

That's great. So they live, uh, they live --

[Via interpreter] 150 years old.

That's pretty old. It's getting pretty old, this tree.

[Via interpreter] [Inaudible]

Nice, nice place. Nice place. I like this place.

[Via interpreter] [Inaudible]

[The press moves into a room for the presidential tea.]

[Via interpreter] Please, have a seat.

Sit?

[Via interpreter] Well today, I'm hosting the President and his officials in the Zhongnanhai Compound for tea. This is the place where Party and the Central government leaders of China work and live, including myself.

[Via interpreter] After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 the leadership have moved to this compound including the Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and so on. I've chosen this place especially to reciprocate the hospitality extended to me in 2017 at Mar-a-Lago.

That's right.

[Via interpreter] Well this place used to be part of the Imperial Garden. There is a lot of history around this compound. On our way in, we stayed to look at some of the old trees. One of them is 490 years old. In other places within this compound there were trees that have lived to be over a thousand years old.

[Via interpreter] The President was interested to learn all about that including the Chinese roses, which we looked at. And I've agreed to send the seeds for these roses to the President as a gift.

I love that. That's great. Okay. I want to thank you very much. Uh, this has been an incredible visit. Uh, I think a lot of, a lot of good has come of it. Uh, we've made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries. Uh, he's a man I respect greatly. Become a really good friend. We've known each other now 11 years, almost 12 years, that's a long time.

And uh, we've settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn't have been able to settle. And the relationship is a very strong one. Uh, we've uh, really done some, uh, wonderful things, I believe. We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar on Iran. We want that to end. Uh, we don't want them to have a nuclear weapon.

We, uh, want the Straits open. We're closing it now. They closed it and we closed it on top of 'em. But we want the Straits open and uh, we want them to get it ended because, uh, it's a crazy thing. They're a little bit crazy and it's no good, can't have it. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. But we discussed a lot of other things also, and, uh, I think we're very much on agreement.

We're going to have some further discussions now with the group. But I just want to thank President Xi and all of his representatives. And we've become friendly with all of 'em. Great people. And it's an honor to be here. And we'll be back and I believe on September 24th or thereabouts that President Xi is going to be coming to the United States.

And we will be reciprocal, like reciprocal trade. Uh, the visit will be reciprocal. We're going to lay it on the line and we're going to have, uh, you're going to, you're going to walk away, I hope, hopefully very impressed like I'm very impressed with China. And I just want to end by saying thank you very much.

It's been really a great, uh, couple of days. Thank you very much.

[Via interpreter] Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for this warm visit.

Thank you, thank you.