Pomp, pageantry but precious little to show for Trump’s Beijing excursion

No swift end to the Iran war, uncertainty over Taiwan and only vague outlines of commercial deals ... but the US president did get to bask in the company of Xi Jinping

It was historic, to be sure, but not as anyone had predicted. First there was Donald Trump, a self-declared teetotaler, apparently drinking champagne after Xi Jinping assured him that China's great rejuvenation" could go hand in hand with Make America great again". Then there was a Chinese military band playing a rendition of the US president's signature campaign song, YMCA.

Beneath giant chandeliers, blue and gold balconies and a big orange backdrop with pagoda-style roofs, Thursday's state banquet in Beijing featured characters whose presence would have been unthinkable here a decade ago: Elon Musk, the eccentric tech billionaire, Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host turned secretary of war", and of course Trump himself, a former reality TV star now leading the world's biggest superpower.