Arabella Kushner, the 15-year-old granddaughter of President Trump, featured prominently at the White House during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit on Thursday. Dressed in a cream floor-length gown, she stood alongside senior officials including the Secretary of State and Vice President. Her prominent positioning was likely a deliberate diplomatic gesture intended to charm Xi during the formal talks.

Arabella began learning Mandarin at 18 months old, studying with the family's Chinese nanny and at school alongside her brothers Joseph and Theodore. Trump has previously leveraged her language skills for diplomatic purposes: during a 2017 state visit to Beijing, he showed Xi a video of the then-young Arabella singing and reciting Chinese poetry in Mandarin whilst addressing Xi and his wife as "Grandpa Xi" and "Grandma Peng." That clip was later broadcast on screens during the state dinner, with Chinese media reporting that Xi praised her performance as deserving an "A+."