This is CNN breaking news.

Good evening. I'm Laura Coates right here in Washington, D.C., where right now President Trump is sitting down with President

Xi Jinping, the leaders of the world's two superpowers face-to-face at one of the most uncertain times for the global economy.

Here they were just moments ago walking towards the

Great Hall of the People where the meeting is taking place. The president in brief remarks

praise Xi as a great leader. So I really look very much forward to our discussion. It's a big

discussion. There are those that say this is maybe the biggest summit ever. They can never remember anything like it. It's, I can say in the United States,

it's people aren't talking about anything else. But it's an honor to be with you. It's an honor

to be your friend and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before.

Look, there is a ton on the agenda.

Maybe the biggest elephant in the room is, of course, the war in Iran.

Remember, the president originally delayed this very summit because he wanted to have Iran over with first.

Well, that didn't happen because now we're in day 75 of a war

that frankly shows no clear sign of ending. The straight through which half of China's crude oil

passes through, that's still closed. Negotiations nowhere. The ceasefire on life support.

That's not my word. That's how the President of the United States

put it. And the cost is nearing $30 billion, which might not even contemplate the cost of damages to

U.S. faces in the Middle East. And the pressure here at home, you can feel it. You can see it each and

every day at the pump where prices continue to painfully tick up.

And the polls, they show a dramatic drop in support for the president, now cratering in poll after poll after poll.

You know, we even saw a crack emerge on Capitol Hill today where three Republican senators joined with the Democrats in a

failed effort to vote to end the war. All things that President Xi Jinping and his team, they're

...