Donald Trump landed in Beijing this morning for a two-day, high-stakes China summit — and he brought a clown car’s worth of delegates from the worlds of finance and tech in a clear attempt to flex the power of the United States during his talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Also joining: the secretaries of the Treasury, Defense, and State — the latter of whom appeared to do an extremely weird sartorial bit aboard Air Force One — and the vaunted director of the Melania documentary and the Rush Hour movie franchise. Because when topics like tariffs, AI, the war in Iran, and Taiwan are on the table, you gotta be surrounded by the A-team.

Nvidia chief hitches a ride in Alaska

After being left off the initial list of business leaders heading to China, Jensen Huang, the CEO of chip giant Nvidia, hopped aboard Air Force One when it stopped to refuel in Alaska. Trump reportedly called him Tuesday morning with the invite and in a Truth Social post ranted about the “FAKE NEWS!” that Jensen was not making the trip, writing, “Jensen is currently on Air Force One and, unless I ask him to leave, which is highly unlikely.”

Titans of finance and tech

Also joining Trump are some of the biggest names from Wall Street, business, and tech, a group that includes former Apple CEO Tim Cook (whom Trump has nicknamed “Tim Apple”), BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Citi’s Jane Fraser, and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, GE Aerospace’s Larry Culp, Meta’s Dina Powell, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon, and Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra. According to Forbes, the combined net worth of the group is roughly $870 billion, a large chunk of which belongs to …

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… Elon Musk, with whom Trump has apparently buried the hatchet

As the New York Times put it, “The inclusion of Mr. Musk in the delegation is the latest sign that the world’s richest man has restored his relationship with the president … after a falling out with the president.” Reminder: That “falling-out” involved the richest man in the world writing on X, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Though Musk later deleted that post and vaguely apologized, he subsequently called for a new political party as Trump told his followers, “I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks.” Anyway, they’re apparently pals again, and Musk wanted people to know that not everyone got to ride on the president’s plane.

Where’s Sam Altman?

Unfortunately for the CEO of OpenAI, the China trip coincided with the Musk v. Altman trial, where he’s defending himself against claims by Musk that he and other OpenAI execs have prioritized profits over safety. While it’s not clear if Altman would have been invited, there’s probably a nonzero chance Musk is pleased his former co-founder would have had to decline. 

What is Secretary of State Marco Rubio doing?

Cosplaying as the captured leader of Venezuela, it would seem?!

Rush Hour representation

It wouldn’t be a real summit without the inclusion of director Brett Ratner, best known for helming the Amazon-backed documentary of the First Lady, Melania, and Rush Hour movies one through three. (The president is reportedly a “huge fan” of the franchise, which checks out.) A spokesperson for Ratner told the Guardian he will “use the trip to scout for filming locations for the latest installment of the Rush Hour franchise.”