Donald Trump joked on Thursday evening that he had received “nothing, absolutely nothing” from Xi Jinping in initial conversations at their first summit. But the US president claimed he had built an early rapport with his Chinese counterpart ahead of more substantive talks scheduled for Friday.

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies will discuss a range of contentious issues during their meeting at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, from the North Korean nuclear programme to bilateral trade disputes, when more substantive talks begin on Friday morning. 

But the much anticipated talks between the two men have already been overshadowed by the US missile attack on Syria and what it might signal about the Trump administration’s willingness to use military force to achieve his goals.