For the first time in United States history, a president-elect will welcome foreign leaders to one of the most American of political traditions – the transfer of power.
Incoming president Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and conservative world leaders including Argentine president Javier Milei and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni to his inauguration, although Xi is sending his vice president Han Zheng as his representative.
Milei and Paraguay's President Santiago Peña were special guests at the Hispanic inaugural ball Saturday night, where several of Trump’s nominees for key cabinet positions made appearances – including Senator Marco Rubio, chosen to lead the State Department, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, tapped to head up the Health and Human Services Department.
Tariffs and TikTok
The Chinese president was the first foreign leader whose invitation to the inauguration became public in December. The announcement to dispatch Han was made on Friday by the country's foreign ministry, and it comes as the rivalry between the US and China could escalate under Trump. Several of Trump’s cabinet picks are known China hawks, including Rubio, who has called China "the most potent, dangerous and near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted".
Trump has vowed to impose tariffs and other measures on China. But the two leaders spoke on the phone on Friday and discussed trade, fentanyl and TikTok, with Trump saying the call was "a very good one".
Argentina's Milei was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump after the November 5 election, traveling from Buenos Aires to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Milei was scheduled to attend three inaugural galas over the weekend and one of the official inaugural balls that Trump will attend on Inauguration Day, as well as the swearing-in ceremony.
Argentina's leader describes himself as an "anarcho-capitalist" and frequently receives praise from billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who has grown closer to Trump since the election, for implementing a series of austerity measures that laid off tens of thousands of government workers, froze public infrastructure projects and imposed wage and pension freezes below inflation.
Musk will lead a non-governmental effort to cut federal government spending, regulations and personnel. While Milei hopes good relations with the US could help Argentina reach a new deal with the International Monetary Fund.
European guests
Italy's Meloni is another leader who has recently visited Mar-a-Lago, and who will attend the swearing-in ceremony. Meloni kept unexpectedly good relations with Democratic President Joe Biden but is likely to form a more natural alliance with Trump. She is considered a key interlocutor between Europe and the US.
Pro-Western former Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili will also attend the ceremony as a guest of US Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. Georgia has been wracked by protests following a parliamentary election that opposition groups alleged was rigged .
She has maintained she is still the legitimate leader of the former Soviet republic, after Mikheil Kavelashvili was inaugurated as president late last month from a party that critics have accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. Kavelashvili's ruling party has denied those accusations.
Zourabichvili told Fox News that Georgia could be "the big success for America or the big problem for America" in the region because "Russia is always trying to dominate".
French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Trump last month in Paris during the Notre Dame Cathedral reopening, will not be at the inauguration, but far-right figures from the country have said they will attend.
These include Eric Zemmour, a talk show pundit turned conservative politician, and his partner, Sarah Knafo, a member of the European Parliament. Zemmour has been convicted multiple times of inciting racist or religious hatred .
Prominent French far-right politician Marion Maréchal also said in a statement that she would attend. She is a member of the European Parliament – and the granddaughter of the late National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, and niece of Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen.
Taiwan delegation
The offices of Ecuadorean president Daniel Noboa and Paraguayan president Santiago Peña have also said they have been invited to the inauguration and plan to attend.
Taiwan has sent legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu and seven others to Washington for Trump’s inauguration, but Taiwan’s foreign ministry said its delegates would not attend the ceremony now that it has been moved indoors because of cold weather .
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, citing Taiwan’s foreign ministry, also reported that the delegates would meet American politicians and think tank scholars to cement Taiwan-US relations. It is unclear whether they will meet with Trump. Trump has criticized Taiwan for pulling some of the semiconductor industry from the US, but relations also significantly improved during his first term.