The One Issue Trump Is Desperate to Avoid in China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping brought up the issue of Taiwan Thursday during President Trump’s visit to China, warning that the “Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations.”

“’Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” Xi said. “Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the U.S.”

The move doesn’t bode well for the U.S.-China summit, which Trump had said could be “the best summit ever.” The meeting between the two countries’ leaders is supposed to improve trade ties, with several U.S. executives making the trip with Trump.

“Handled well, relations between the two countries can maintain overall stability,” Xi said. “If handled poorly, the two countries will collide or even clash, putting the entire U.S.-China relationship in an extremely dangerous situation.”

Trump didn’t address questions from the press about Taiwan, only saying “Great. Great place. Incredible. China’s beautiful,” after his morning conversation with Xi. The White House’s readout of the meeting didn’t even mention Taiwan.

“President Trump had a good meeting with President Xi of China,” a White House official said. “The two sides discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between our two countries, including expanding market access for American businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment into our industries. Leaders from many of the United States’ largest companies joined a portion of the meeting.”

This suggests that the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously. In December, the U.S. reached an $11 billion arms deal with Taiwan, which was condemned by China, which has never ruled out invading the island. The majority of Taiwan’s people want things to stay the way they are: neither declaring independence from China nor submitting to Chinese authority. If Xi decides to push reunification, what would Trump do?

Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted child sex trafficker, is enjoying a range of special privileges at the low-security prison where she was transferred after she played defense for Donald Trump.

Noella Turnage, a former employee of the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, shared Maxwell’s private emails detailing the extent of her special treatment with CNN’s Erin Burnett Wednesday.

“The food is legions better, the place is clean, the staff is responsive and polite,” Maxwell wrote in an email to her brother, adding: “I feel like I have dropped through Alice in Wonderlands [sic] looking glass. I am much happier here and more importantly safe.”

Turnage was fired for leaking Maxwell’s private emails.

“I never actually laid eyes on Maxwell,” Turnage said, clarifying that she knew about Maxwell’s treatment solely from her private emails. “The things that were being done for her were not common for any of the other inmates, not even the other high-profile inmates.”

Maxwell received more than just better room and board, Turnage said. “The lengths they went to to provide a private visit for Maxwell actually caused visitation to be shut down for the rest of the inmates that weekend,” she said. “They were not able to see their families that Saturday, to make way for Maxwell to see her visitors.”

Maxwell also benefited from having her mail personally handled by the warden. “Which may not sound like a big deal to some people, but the other inmates in that prison, Erin, they have a hard time getting out their regular mail, much less anything needed for court filings and things such as that, so for them to go out of the way to make sure Maxwell had that opportunity is pretty disgusting,” Turnage said.

An inmate at the prison who spoke to CNN said that Maxwell also enjoys “bottled water and clamshell meals delivered to her room.”

Maxwell was mysteriously transferred to the minimum-security prison just days after she provided testimony to then–Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about her former conspirator Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with Trump. During her hourslong questioning, Maxwell claimed that Trump never witnessed Epstein’s sexual misconduct—a surprising claim considering their well-documented close friendship.

Lawmakers have described Maxwell’s new digs as “not suitable for a sex offender.”

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.

Senator Rand Paul’s son William drunkenly used antisemitic insults against Republican Representative Mike Lawler at a Washington, D.C., bar and restaurant on Tuesday.

NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman witnessed the entire exchange as the younger Paul, who introduced himself as the Kentucky senator’s son, accosted Lawler regarding Representative Thomas Massie’s primary election next week in Kentucky.

Paul was seated at the establishment’s bar a couple of seats away from Lawler and Gorman, and interrupted a conversation between the two to tell Lawler that if Massie loses, it will be because of “your people.”

Lawler replied, “Your people?”

“Yeah, you Jews,” Paul said, to which Lawler remarked that he isn’t Jewish.

“Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew,” Paul said. The senator’s son then went on a rant against Jewish people, calling them anti-American and claiming Lawler and his “Jewish supporters” served Israel over America. Lawler argued with Paul and defended his support of Israel, telling him that he was antisemitic.

Paul then accused Jewish Republican megadonor Paul Singer, who is funding an anti-Massie super PAC, of serving “Israeli interests, not American interests.” A pro-Massie super PAC, Restore Freedom PAC, has run an ad with a picture of Singer in front of a rainbow Star of David titled “LGBTQ Mafia.”

Paul also told Lawler that he “needs to watch more Tucker Carlson,” and defended his father and Massie as the only legislators who care about the U.S. Lawler ultimately decided to end the conversation, telling Paul, “Well, you just seem to hate Jews, so there’s no point arguing anymore.”

This prompted Paul to wave his finger at Lawler and say, “Don’t put words in my mouth, Mike Lawler, I never said that.” Paul then complained about Lawler’s position on state and local taxes, and Lawler told him to “Please leave us alone.” The senator’s son then gave Lawler the middle finger, then apologized for being drunk and left, but knocked over his barstool and tripped over it in the process.

The whole exchange was pretty embarrassing for Paul, and he’s now put his father in the awkward position of having to apologize for his son’s rude behavior. Massie, a libertarian ally of Senator Paul, has often clashed with President Trump, who is backing his primary opponent. The younger Paul did not do him or his father any favors Tuesday night.

Just one Democrat voted Wednesday to confirm Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, handing President Donald Trump complete control over U.S. monetary policy.

The final vote for Warsh was 54–45, mostly along party lines. Only Senator John Fetterman broke ranks and voted alongside Republicans to confirm Warsh.

Warsh is everything Trump wants in an appointee. He’s handsome and wealthy—the richest Fed chair ever, in fact—but most of all, he’s willing to do whatever the president wants.

During his confirmation hearings last month, Warsh assured lawmakers that he would “take [his] responsibility to be an independent leader of the Federal Reserve very seriously,” and claimed the president had never “asked [him] to predetermine, commit, fix, [or] decide on any interest rate decision in any of our discussions, nor would I ever agree to do so.”

But that was a lie. Trump confirmed to The Wall Street Journal in December that he’d pressed Warsh on whether he could trust him to support interest rate cuts if he were chosen to lead the central bank. When Senator Ruben Gallego cornered him on this point during the confirmation hearing, Warsh complained about journalistic standards.

It’s no secret that Trump has been desperate for the Fed to lower interest rates, in the hopes of boosting his party’s chances in the midterm elections. He has repeatedly attacked outgoing Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to cut rates. And Trump has no qualms demanding loyalty from those he installs, such as the conservative Supreme Court justices he won’t stop harassing.

The confirmation of Trump’s newest sycophant signals the destruction of the Fed’s independence.

The Trump administration plans to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California, claiming that the state has not taken alleged fraud tied to its hospice and home health agencies “seriously.”

“These fraudulent health care providers are getting rich by giving people medications they don’t even need,” Vice President JD Vance announced at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “We want California to get serious about this fraud.”

Vance argued that states around the country were paying the cost of California’s allegedly blind eye, though California Governor Gavin Newsom vehemently denied that the administration’s attack had anything to do with fraud.

“We hate fraud. But that’s NOT what this is,” Newsom wrote in a statement on X. “Vance and Oz are attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes. Pretty sick.”

Newsom further claimed that rising costs related to California’s In-Home Supportive Services, or IHSS, which provides more than 730,000 low-income, disabled residents with home-based care, had ultimately saved the federal government money.

“Why has IHSS grown in California? It’s simple: Because California is keeping more people OUT of far more expensive nursing homes!” Newsom wrote.

The Trump admin has singled out California as the “ground zero” of health care fraud, as the government aims to strangle Medicaid funding around the nation. Vance’s announcement follows actions taken weeks prior by the federal administration that suspended the licenses of 447 hospice facilities and 23 home health agencies around the Los Angeles area, on suspicion of fraud.

Vance also said that his anti-fraud unit would “very aggressively encourage states to take Medicaid fraud more seriously” and would soon be issuing letters to all 50 states “that will require them to show that they are aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states.”

“And if they don’t, we are going to turn off the money,” Vance noted.

This story has been updated.