Trump-Xi meeting live updates: US and Chinese leaders sit down in South Korea for high stakes trade talks

If Americans going hungry cannot force Republicans and Democrats back to the negotiating table to end the government shutdown, nothing will.

And it looks like no relief will be coming for hungry families. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) had a sharp exchange of words on the Senate floor about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits not going out on the first of the month.

Lujan has a separate bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has a bill to keep the benefits coming during the shutdown. Lujan’s bill would also allow money for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to continue to go out. Lujan excoriated the Trump administration for removing the contingency plan for SNAP from its website.

Experts believed Donald Trump and Xi Jinping would be able to strike a trade-war truce between the world’s two largest economies.

“I think there will be an agreement of sorts that lowers the temperature and gets both sides to table their weapons for the time being,” said Victor Cha, president of the geopolitics and foreign policy department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He told The Independent: “China will hold off on the rare earth controls for one year and may buy more soybeans. US will not carry out 100 per cent tariffs. Both sides will claim victory but this will be a temporary state until the next round of ratcheting up trade tensions.

“We will see if this can hold until early 2026 when Trump will go to China, in which case, they can build on this. But if things deteriorate before then, they will use that next summit to get back on track again.”

In a symbolic move, the Senate voted 50 to 46 Wednesday to approve a resolution blocking President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

Four Republicans joined Democrats in favor of the resolution.

Trump began sparring with Canada on tariffs shortly after his second term began. In early February, he put an additional 25 percent levy on nearly all goods from Canada, but the tariffs didn’t go into effect until early March. Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs.

In June, Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports, of which Canada is a top supplier.

Last Thursday, Trump announced he was terminating trade talks with Canada, claiming the country “fraudulently” used an ad featuring the late Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs.

Read more about Trump ceasing trade talks with Canada:

President Donald Trump is currently meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea amid an intense trade war. Here are some photos:

Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump at a bilateral meeting at around 10:15 p.m. ET Wednesday in South Korea, “I’m ready to continue working with you to build a solid foundation for China-U.S. relations and create a sound atmosphere for the development of both countries.”

Xi admitted that the U.S. and China “do not always see eye to eye with each other, and it is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.”

But he said, “In the face of winds, waves and challenges, you and I, at the helm of China-U.S. relations, should stay the right course and ensure the steady sailing forward of the giant ship of China-U.S. relations.

“I always believe that China’s development goes hand in hand with your vision to make America great again.”

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have begun what is expected to be three to four hours of high-stakes, in-person talks in hopes of lowering the temperature of a simmering trade war that has threatened to boil over and upend the global economy.

The two leaders arrived within minutes of each other at South Korea’s Gimhae Air Base, a military facility on the edge of Gimhae International Airport in Busan, the second-largest city in South Korea.

Speaking during a brief media availability at the top of their summit, Trump said he and Xi would have “a very successful meeting” and called Xi “a very tough negotiator.”

“We have a great understanding. We have a great relationship, we’ve always had a great relationship,” Trump said.

President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping have both landed at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, ahead of a much-anticipated meeting amid an intense trade war.

President Donald Trump has called his highly anticipated meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping “the G2.”

“THE G2 WILL BE CONVENING SHORTLY!” he wrote on Truth Social Wednesday night.

Trump was riffing off the G7, a group of seven major economic powers, which includes the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK.

Trump and Xi are meeting face-to-face in South Korea amid an intense trade war.

South Korean police stood guard as anti-China protesters gathered ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.