Trump Previews Sept. 24 Xi Summit, Brushes Off Report Linking Chinese Satellite Images to Deadly Iran Strike

President Trump previewed his September 24 White House meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One on September 13, touching trade, Boeing, artificial intelligence, and a fresh allegation that Chinese entities fed satellite imagery to Iran ahead of a deadly strike on U.S. troops.

Trump said the two leaders will discuss "almost everything," according to reporting from Anadolu Agency, The Epoch Times, and TRT World, which each cited his Air Force One remarks after he departed Shannon Airport in Ireland.

Tariffs and the auto fight

Trump defended his 100 to 150 percent tariffs on Chinese vehicles, telling reporters "the tariff kept them out." He contrasted the U.S. market with Europe, which he said was being "decimated" by Chinese cars.

The stance puts him at odds, at least on tactics, with the auto industry itself. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Honda, and Stellantis, sent a letter to congressional leaders this month urging permanent legislation banning Chinese vehicles outright, not just tariffs. CEO John Bozzella wrote that Chinese automakers are "dumping subsidized vehicles with connected software and hardware" capable of transmitting consumer data to the Chinese Communist Party, and pushed for a bill to pass by the end of December. Trump has separately floated allowing Chinese automakers to build cars in the U.S. if they hire American workers, a middle path the alliance's push for an outright ban does not contemplate.

On Boeing, Trump said he expects an agreement for China to purchase aircraft during Xi's visit. China agreed to buy 200 Boeing planes after the two leaders met in Beijing in May, but that deal has not been finalized. "I get every deal," Trump told reporters.

The satellite imagery allegation

The most serious new item on the table involves an unresolved intelligence question. The Wall Street Journal reported, as relayed by Turkiye Today, that unnamed U.S. officials have tied high-resolution satellite imagery supplied by Chinese entities to Iran's July 17 missile strike on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, which killed three U.S. Army soldiers.

The officials did not name the Chinese entities involved and did not allege the Chinese government itself was directly involved, according to the same reporting. Chinese officials, when pressed, asked U.S. counterparts for proof of the imagery transfer and declined to acknowledge Chinese companies were involved. No charges have been filed and no formal U.S. government accusation against Beijing has been announced. The U.S. did sanction three China-based satellite companies in May over alleged support for Iran's military operations, a fact that predates this specific reporting but underscores Washington's existing suspicion of the sector.

Asked about the report, Trump did not treat it as a crisis. "They basically do what we do," he said, adding, "when they say that China spies on us, I say, you're right, and we spy on them, too." He did not say whether he plans to raise the issue directly with Xi on September 24.

AI: no brakes

Trump also rejected calls from parts of the tech industry to slow AI development, according to Yeni Şafak. "Whoever wins AI wins," he said, arguing that "a lot of negative forces" are exaggerating risks that may never materialize, though he acknowledged regulators "can put guardrails" on the technology.

The pushback he's dismissing is not fringe. Anthropic's Dario Amodei published an essay urging companies to deliberately slow capability advancement, a position OpenAI's Sam Altman endorsed while pledging his own firm's safety practices. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk have separately backed more controlled development, citing evidence that advanced AI systems have already been exploited for cyberattacks, foreign propaganda campaigns, and dual-use biological research. Whether Trump's bet on speed over caution proves right depends on risks that, by definition, haven't yet materialized at scale. That's exactly the safety camp's argument for building in guardrails now rather than later.

Other ground covered

In the same set of remarks, Trump said he had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian diesel refineries, arguing the strikes were driving up global fuel prices. He also praised CIA Director John Ratcliffe and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for Gaza negotiations, claiming Hamas is now willing to disarm, and said the U.S. is ramping up Patriot and Tomahawk missile production after supplying Ukraine.

None of that is confirmed by independent verification in this reporting cycle beyond Trump's own characterization. The concrete date that will test all of it is September 24, when Xi is scheduled to arrive at the White House for the meeting Trump has now framed as covering nearly the entire U.S.-China relationship at once.