US First Lady Melania Not Accompanying Donald Trump To China: White House

Last Updated:May 13, 2026, 02:53 IST

The White House did not provide a reason for Melania Trump’s absence from the China visit.

The White House on Tuesday (local time) confirmed that US First Lady Melania Trump will not accompany US President Donald Trump during his visit to China.

Trump, who departed for China a short while ago (local time), is accompanied aboard Air Force One by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, Deputy National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel, Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Ambassador Monica Crowley.

Others travelling with Trump include White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Beau Harrison, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, Assistant to the President and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, and Science and Technology Advisor Michael Kratsios.

Also aboard Air Force One are Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Ross Worthington and Walt Nauta.

Before departing for China, Trump interacted with reporters and expressed optimism about the visit. Calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a friend, Trump said, “You’re going to see that good things are going to happen. This is going to be a very exciting trip."

When asked whether Xi could help broker a deal with Iran, Trump said, “It might be. I don’t think we need any help with Iran. They’re defeated militarily, and they’ll either do the right thing or we’ll finish the job. They’re either going to do the right thing or we’re just going to finish the job."

The US President said trade would be a key focus area during his discussions with Xi.

“We’re going to be talking with President Xi about a lot of different things. I would say more than anything else, it will be trade," Trump said.

Earlier, a White House official said more than a dozen business and technology leaders representing major companies across the tech, finance, defence and consumer sectors would be part of the American delegation.

According to the official, the list includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, Cargill CEO Brian Sikes, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, Coherent CEO Jim Anderson and GE Aerospace CEO H. Lawrence Culp.

Other executives travelling with Trump include Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, Meta executive Dina Powell McCormick, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Visa CEO Ryan McInerney.

News world US First Lady Melania Not Accompanying Donald Trump To China: White House

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