Lindsey Graham Is Already Begging Trump to Derail China Talks

Senator Lindsey Graham wants Donald Trump to threaten to impose tariffs on China if they don’t drop their “dirtbag” friends.

Speaking on Fox News’s Hannity Wednesday, Graham presented his own vision for the outcome of Trump’s two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The South Carolina Republican said that China should cut off the “worst people in the world,” referring to Russia and Iran, and join America’s efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

“If you help us, I will be very grateful. If you don’t help us, and you continue to prop up these regimes, I will do business with you on Monday, and put tariffs on you on Tuesday,” he said.

In order to force Xi to drop his buddies, Graham said he would introduce legislation to allow Trump to place tariffs on China for buying Russian oil. China is the largest buyer of Russia’s coal and crude oil exports, and of Iran’s oil exports.

“The only thing China respects is strength,” Graham said. “So, when this [summit] is over, if they’re still doing the same damn thing with Iran and Russia and we don’t punish China, we’ve made a mistake.”

The real mistake would be implementing more tariffs, which would only cause more economic strain for average Americans, who are already suffering from skyrocketing inflation caused by Trump’s military campaign against Iran. A fresh round of tariffs on China would also surely disrupt the only economic indicator that Trump actually cares about: the U.S. stock market.

Graham has continually tried to insert himself in negotiations with foreign countries. Speaking to Pentagon officials earlier this week, he tried to undermine Pakistan, a key mediator in the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.

Representative Frederica Wilson has yet to explain why she hasn’t voted on a single issue since April 17.

The Florida Democrat has been missing in action for weeks, according to her documented voting record. She has so far failed to address her nearly four-week absence, though her team has been busy keeping her social media active and curated.

Some of the account’s posts seem designed to trick people into thinking that Wilson is still out and about. In one bizarre post circulated earlier this week and flagged on X by Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree, Wilson’s team reused photographs of her from an October event, in an attempt to suggest that the lawmaker was still mingling with her constituents.

Wilson is a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, as well as the House Committee on Education and Workforce. Both committees have held several hearings since April 17, though the 83-year-old doesn’t seem to appear in video footage of any of them.

Wilson represents Florida’s 24th congressional district, which encompasses the Miami-Dade area and Broward County. She has held the seat since 2013 and is up for reelection in November. The area has a solid Democratic advantage, according to an analysis by the Cook Political Report.

That might be enough to hand Wilson another two-year term—if opposition wasn’t coming from within the party: Christine Sanon-Jules Olivo, a small-business owner with ties to the NAACP, is running to unseat her in the district’s Democratic primary, scheduled for August 18.

Wilson is not the only member of Congress to recently disappear without explanation, however. Last month, there was a significant stir over the prolonged, inexplicable absence of New Jersey Republican Representative Thomas Kean Jr. Journalists, his constituents, and Republican allies in the tristate area attempted to contact him for weeks, trying to glean an answer from the AWOL politician.

Nothing worked until House Speaker Mike Johnson phoned him in late April, learning that Kean had been struggling with an unspecified “personal health matter.”

Kean is still not back at work.

Republicans in two more Southern states, South Carolina and Georgia, are moving ahead with plans to redraw their districts this year following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais last month.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is planning to call state legislators for a special session, local TV station WIS-10 reports. A spokesperson for the governor told the outlet Wednesday to expect “something” on Thursday regarding an announcement, the same day that the state’s legislative session is scheduled to end.

The South Carolina Senate voted down a resolution Tuesday that would have made a special session possible, making an executive order from the governor the only possible way for one to be called. On Tuesday night, McMaster posted on X, “The General Assembly still has two full days in which to finish its important work, including giving full consideration—as sought by the people—to the important question of redistricting.

“I urge the General Assembly to finish its work according to the U.S. and South Carolina constitutions and the best interests of the people,” McMaster’s post said.

Meanwhile, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Wednesday called for a special legislative session June 17 to redraw the state’s congressional map, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. While Kemp has already ruled out changing the map in time for November’s midterm elections, the governor is hoping to get the map redrawn before November’s gubernatorial elections.

Republicans in Georgia hope to improve on their 9–5 advantage in the House of Representatives, while South Carolina has one Democrat, Representative Jim Clyburn, versus six Republicans. If these efforts are successful, the two states would join Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida in marginalizing the political power of their Black populations.

Miami residents are suing President Trump, claiming that the land given to him for the construction of his presidential library was an illegal transaction intended to curry favor with the president—a violation of the domestic emoluments clause of the Constitution. The lawsuit calls for the land sale to be canceled.

The lawsuit points to the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis selling a three-acre plot of land in the middle of Miami to Trump’s foundation for just $10—when it’s obvious that the land is worth millions.

“With its waterfront views and central location in bustling Downtown Miami, the [Miami Dade College] Parcel would likely sell for over $300 million on the open market, according to local real estate experts,” the lawsuit reads. “But President Trump paid nothing for it.” Litigants also stated that the library would disrupt their lives and contribute to traffic and noise pollution.

Another point of contention in the lawsuit is that Trump has already publicly stated that he doesn’t even want to use the library for its intended purpose—he wants it to be a hotel.

“[The land] is no longer available to serve MDC’s student community and Downtown Miami,” the suit reads. “Instead, the land will house a Trump hotel that brings riches to the President.”

This lawsuit comes just a month after The New Republic reported that four massive companies with loyalties to Trump—Meta, X, ABC, and Paramount—all pledged tens of millions of dollars toward the library. Now the slush fund that money went into is nowhere to be found, adding yet another level of scrutiny to a project that isn’t even off the ground.

And on top of all this, the renderings for the Trump Presidential Library are gaudy, gratuitous, and ugly. AI-generated concept art shows an ostentatious skyscraper in downtown Miami with at least two massive gold statues of the president, massive outdoor patios with palm trees, full-size planes and fighter jets inside, a large ballroom, a replica of the Oval Office, and of course gold everywhere and on everything.

Vice President JD Vance blatantly lied Wednesday when asked about Donald Trump’s callous remarks on Americans’ worsening financial situation.

At a press conference, Vance was asked whether he agreed with Trump’s position that Americans’ worsening financial situations should not be a consideration in the decision-making process on Iran.

“Well, I don’t think the president said that,” Vance said. “I think that’s a misrepresentation of what the president said.”

Let’s be super clear: It wasn’t a misrepresentation. When asked Tuesday whether Americans’ worsening financial situations motivated him to make a deal with Iran, Trump replied: “Not even a little bit.”

“The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran is they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me,” Trump said.

Rather than indicate any daylight between the president and himself, Vance decided to lie about quotes on the public record. The vice president is just one of many Republicans who have been sent scrambling to clean up the president’s careless remarks. House Speaker Mike Johnson once again played the amnesiac earlier Wednesday when asked about the president’s shocking statements.

Trump has insisted that the economy is in great shape. In reality, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly report, released Tuesday, found that inflation rose to 3.8 percent in April, outpacing wages, which grew at a rate of 3.6 percent.

Meanwhile, new polling from CNN shows that Trump’s net economic approval rating isn’t just bad—it’s one of the worst of all time. A whopping 77 percent of Americans blame Trump for increasing the cost of living in their community, up 37 percent from 2024.