The News You Need on Wednesday, May 13th, 2026.
The President wants to prosecute bad press of his war on Iran, AOC's magic moment in MLK's church and much more. Get all the news you need today from The Horton-Kaiser Report.
A Weakened Trump Arrives at Xi’s Court
Financial Times
Scott: Donald Trump arrives in Beijing today for his much anticipated summit with Xi Jinping—one of only two world leaders, alongside Vladimir Putin, that Trump clearly considers a peer, and whom he envies. But as Gideon Rachman notes here, Trump likes to talk about who “holds the cards,” and this time it’s clear not only that Xi holds all the cards, but also that this is because Trump slipped the cards to him.
What is most likely to result from this summit?
At this point, America’s allies are focused on a number of potential catastrophes, first among them Trump simply suggesting to Beijing that they needn’t worry about the US doing anything to help defend Taiwan if they should want to invade.
Is that a far-fetched concern? We’ll know soon enough.
Trump’s strategic position has been further weakened by the fiasco of the Iran war. The US president was originally scheduled to travel to Beijing in mid-April. He delayed the trip, apparently hoping to get the conflict with Iran wrapped up before he met Xi. Instead, he will arrive in China, with the Strait of Hormuz still effectively closed, and fuming about the US’s inability to bend Iran to its will.
So will Xi take advantage of Trump’s weakness? If the Chinese leader plays his hand well, he will use his visitor’s need for some “wins”. China is likely to agree to some big-ticket purchases of American goods—“Boeings and beans”—that will give Trump something to boast about. A Chinese offer to make large investments in the US might tempt Trump, although it would be viewed with suspicion by his security advisers. In return, the Chinese may look for further concessions on trade.
China may also sign off on the establishment of a Board of Trade. Like Trump’s Board of Peace, this will be presented by the White House as an alternative to failing multilateral institutions—the UN, in the case of peace, and the WTO when it comes to trade. The reality is that a new trade board is highly unlikely to resolve trade imbalances—just as the new peace board has mysteriously failed to end conflict in the Middle East. But for the Chinese, there is little downside in agreeing to a flashy announcement, if it keeps Trump happy.
The big geopolitical issue on the table will be the future of Taiwan. The Chinese have made it clear they want something on this.
In advance of the visit there has been speculation that Trump may change the American position on the island’s future by saying explicitly that the US opposes Taiwanese independence rather than simply not supporting it. That may sound like a tiny semantic change. But it would be regarded as a big win for Xi in both Beijing and Taipei—increasing the pressure on the Taiwanese to agree to “reunification” talks. I have even heard some eager Chinese commentators compare Trump’s visit this week to Margaret Thatcher’s trip to Beijing in 1984 during which the British leader agreed to return sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.
That analogy is flawed. Taiwan is not an American colony so Trump cannot sign it over to China. The US president can, however, seriously weaken Taiwan’s position by signalling a reduction in political and military support for the self-governing island.
Trump himself may not care much about the fate of Taiwan. But many of his advisers and the US Congress do. They are likely to object strongly if the president makes a radical shift in policy.
Charles: I spent a great hour discussing the state of the world last night with Kevin Miller and Brian Russick over at Coder Conversations. See it all here:
Knowledge is power.
Scott: I believe passionately that one of the really poor items in media coverage in the United States is science reporting.
I am routinely pulling things out from major science journals that are significant news in themselves but haven’t really been covered as news.
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A Magic Moment for Mother’s Day Iniside a Sacred American Church
Charles: If you share our affliction of being addicted to the Washington news cycle, it’s easy to forget there are still magnificent political moments in public places in 2026.
On Mother’s Day Senator/Pastor Raphael Warnock created one of them at his grand pulpit inside Martin Luther King Jr’s. Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Right now is a particularly good time to remember that Warnock’s presence in the United States Senate was the product of a modern miracle of organization and determination: the 500,000 new voters Stacey Abrams registered in Georgia by 2019 who elected Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate and sent Joe Biden to the White House.
Last Sunday Warnock invited Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the pulpit: another Democratic star who has served in Congress just two years longer than he has. AOC was powerful and concise with remarks resonant of King’s cadences. She said the Supreme Court’s decision eviscerating the Voting Rights Act had allowed state legislatures to
literally draw blacks out of power. We are living in terrifying times but we are people of faith. And our faith is the foundation that gives us the courage to fight.…We stand together and we are not going back.
