President Trump has two set pieces this week, three days and 200 miles apart: a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, and a state visit from China's Xi Jinping on Thursday.
The 81st General Assembly's high-level week opened Monday, September 21, 2026, and runs through September 28. Roughly 120 heads of state, heads of government and senior representatives are in New York.
The order of speakers
Secretary-General António Guterres opens the general debate on Tuesday morning. By long-standing custom Brazil speaks first among member states — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva takes the rostrum next — and the United States speaks second, putting Trump immediately after him.
The rest of the week is unusually loaded:
- Wednesday — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address the assembly
- Thursday — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a prerecorded video statement; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks
- Thursday afternoon — Venezuela's interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, makes her debut at the UN
- Saturday, September 26 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
The absences say something too. India, Germany and South Africa are sending deputies rather than their leaders. Xi Jinping will address the assembly by video — while travelling to the United States for a meeting with Trump.
Guterres's last one
This is Guterres's final General Assembly; his term ends at the close of the year. He has said he will spend the week on de-escalation in the Middle East, freedom of navigation in contested waterways and an effort toward a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The succession is already in motion, and it lost a leading name this month when former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet withdrew from the race.
Then Washington
Xi arrives in the United States for a state visit built around a Thursday meeting at the White House and a tour of the National Archives on Friday. Iran, trade and artificial intelligence are on the agenda.
State visits of this kind are heavy on ceremony and historically light on signed outcomes. One measurable gap is already on the table: Trump has repeatedly threatened to sanction China over its purchases of Iranian oil and has not done it.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in New York from September 20 to 23 for the high-level week.
Reporting from NPR and the U.S. Department of State.
