Trump and Xi Clear Entire Agenda Using Buzzer System, Aides Confirm
Officials say the summit's famously long list of issues was dispatched in record time once someone produced a kitchen timer.
White House aides confirmed that this week's summit between the two leaders ran so efficiently because staff had quietly replaced the usual translation booths with a countdown clock borrowed from a game show prop closet.
According to people familiar with the room, each agenda item — trade, technology, and several matters neither side had bothered to define in advance — was allotted the time it takes to say a single sentence, after which a bell sounded and the topic was considered resolved regardless of what had actually been said.
"We came together, briefly, and then a bell rang," said a spokesperson for neither government in particular, who declined to clarify which issues had been decided and which had simply run out the clock.
Staff on both sides reportedly agreed that the format saved considerable time, since no one had to reach consensus so much as outlast the buzzer, and several unresolved disputes were quietly filed under "handled" before either delegation left the building.
By the time reporters were let back into the room, the long agenda had been fully cleared, the timer had been packed away, and both leaders were already being briefed on an entirely new set of issues to not discuss at the next one.