Trump’s disruption to TV coverage during Xi visit frustrates Chinese officials

Trump had spent months preparing for the visit, enlisting two military bands, ordering a flyover, speeding up construction on a new helipad and rolling out a red carpet for Xi. The pooled TV coverage that would normally capture the two leaders together got suspended after Trump barred the outlets, cutting into the kind of broad public visibility Xi wanted from the summit.

The blocked coverage mattered because the visit was designed to show the two leaders standing together in front of a global audience. Network cameras deliver that image to viewers in the US, China and elsewhere. Access was cut. The summit lost some of the visual reach both governments had been counting on.

Chinese officials reportedly found the disruption particularly frustrating given how much planning went into the visit on the American side. A leader gets a red carpet, two military bands and a flyover, and still loses the cameras he wanted most.