The economic mission in Air Force One’s first-class cabin.

When “Air Force One” took off heading to Beijing on May 13, U.S. President Donald Trump did not travel alone. The 17 most powerful CEOs in America shared his cabin — an unprecedented number in the history of U.S. presidential trips.

This was not an ordinary diplomatic trip, but the largest business summit in history.

Trump’s first visit to China after a nine-year absence took on a completely different form.

Joining him on the plane were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — three people holding the levers shaping the global digital economy — along with 14 other leaders of top corporations.

The message from that entourage was clear before the plane even landed: this was the trip of a businessman sitting in the president’s chair, someone who believes that every problem in the world, ultimately, can be reduced to a balance sheet.

The Three B’s and the Language of Deals

In diplomatic circles, people often use chessboard metaphors to describe summit meetings. But Trump brought a different vocabulary to Beijing: not one but three B’s at once — Boeing, Beans, and Beef.

It sounds simple, but this is exactly what he wanted to put on the negotiating table. China buying Boeing planes to rescue the struggling U.S. aviation industry competing with Airbus; China opening its market to U.S. soybeans and beef to appease farmers in the West — his core voters.

The three B’s, though rough, represent the language Trump speaks most fluently: the language of deals, of exchange, of immediate balance on the trade ledger.

He did not come to Beijing to discuss universal values or a rules-based international order. He came to demand that China open its market, buy U.S. goods, and share the burden of the trade deficit weighing on American workers.

But beneath those simple three B’s lies a much more complex layer — and it was this layer that was brought onto the plane at the last minute.

Nothing in politics is coincidental. The fact that Jensen Huang — CEO of Nvidia, architect of global AI infrastructure — was added to the passenger list of “Air Force One” right before departure was a calculated signal.

Nvidia is at the center of the greatest technological conflict of this century. The previous Biden administration imposed export controls on China — a restriction Beijing considers an economic weapon, while Washington calls it a national security measure. Nvidia lost a massive market; China lost access to chips to fuel its AI ambitions. Both are suffering losses.

Trump does not believe in long-term embargoes. He believes in specific deals. The presence of Jensen Huang sent a clear message: the chip issue will be on the negotiating table in Beijing.

The question is not whether the U.S. will sell AI chips to China, but rather what to sell, how to sell it, and what to get in return. This is no longer technology diplomacy — this is technology bargaining, and Trump is a natural at bargaining.

The Gravity of 17 CEOs

The real gravity pulling “Air Force One” toward Beijing is not just chips, not just soybeans or Boeings awaiting delivery.

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