Closing summary
With Donald Trump recovering from jet lag in Beijing, we are concluding our live coverage of his second term in office for the day now, but our colleagues in Australia and China will resume live updates in a few hours. Here are the latest developments:
By a vote of 54-45, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to be chair of the Federal Reserve for a four-year term. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to break with his party and vote in favor of Trump’s pick.
Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate banking committee, slammed Warsh’s confirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve. “Mr Warsh has proven to be a sock puppet for Trump,” she said.
Republican congressman Mike Lawler told reporters that Republican senator Rand Paul’s son William had drunkenly accosted him on Tuesday night at a bar in Washington on Tuesday night, and “said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die”. “I think that’s fucking disgusting,” Lawler added.
For the seventh time, the Senate failed to advance a war powers resolution that would curb military action in Iran. However, the vote, 49-50, was the closest one yet, with more Republican lawmakers voting in favor of the resolution. For the first time, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined her colleagues, Susan Collins and Rand Paul, in voting yes. John Fetterman was again the only Democrat to vote no.
The White House celebrated Donald Trump’s arrival in Beijing with a video that showed his son Eric and daughter-in-law Lara were front and center of his entourage, despite years of complaints from Republicans about Joe Biden bringing his son Hunter to China on Air Force Two to strike business deals.
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Republican congressman Mike Lawler says Rand Paul's son 'said he hates Jews and hates gays' in drunken diatribe
Republican congressman Mike Lawler told reporters on Wednesday that Republican senator Rand Paul’s son William had drunkenly accosted him on Tuesday night at a bar in Washington.
The younger Paul, who recently served as a congressional aide to two of Lawler’s colleagues, went on “a 10-minute diatribe about Jews” at the Tune Inn Restaurant & Bar, the New York congressman said, and “said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die”.
“I think that’s fucking disgusting,” Lawler said.
Details of the incident were first reported earlier on Wednesday by a witness, Reese Gorman of the digital publication Notus, in a remarkable first-hand account.
William Paul, who has been charged at least three times for drunken assault or driving, reportedly told Lawler that he was enraged at “anti-American” Jews for supporting a primary challenge against his father’s libertarian ally, congressman Thomas Massie.
Lawler added that Paul initially told him that he thought he was Jewish. When the Irish and Italian Catholic corrected him, Paul reportedly said: “Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew.”
William Paul’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he spent part of last week in San Diego, attending a conference with the Christian Employers Alliance. His profile photo on the social network shows him pointing approvingly at a statue of Barry Goldwater, whose grandfather was an Orthodox Jew, in the US Capitol.
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The White House, and El Salvador's president, keep trying to make Margarita-gate happen, and Rand Paul's son enters the boozy chat
The war of words over excessive drinking on Capitol Hill continued on Wednesday as sharp words, and memes, were exchanged in multiple confrontations pitting Democrats against Republicans, Republicans against Republicans, and El Salvador’s pro-Trump president and the White House against observable reality.
Online, the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen took a virtual swipe at the FBI director, Kash Patel, urging him to make good on his promise, during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, that he would take the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Audit) self-screening exam for hazardous or harmful alcohol use.
Van Hollen, who had pressed Patel on his reported abuse of alcohol, only for the FBI director to use false and misleading information to accuse the senator of having a drinking problem, posted a copy of the screening form he filled out indicating that he consumes a modest three drinks a week.
“Given all the lies he told yesterday, I imagine he’ll fudge the numbers here, but let’s see yours, Director Patel,” the senator wrote on social media.
While the FBI director has not responded, his allies in the White House, and El Salvador, jumped in to defend him, by attempting to smear Van Hollen with what the senator has credibly described as staged, hoax photographs of him meeting the wrongly deported Salvadoran man Kilmar Ábrego García last year next to cocktail glasses placed on the table by an aide to El Salvador’s far-right president, Nayib Bukele.
Although Van Hollen convincingly debunked the hoax photos he called Margarita-gate last year – pointing out last year that the supposed margaritas he and the deportee were accused of drinking were clearly untouched, since the salt rim on each glass was intact – Patel tried to dodge questions about his own reported drinking by wrongly asserting as fact that the senator had been photographed “drinking on taxpayer dime” in El Salvador.
In support of that false claim, first the White House, and then El Salvador’s president, reposted the same photographs Van Hollen said had been staged, apparently banking on rightwing partisans never having heard that the images were set up to frame the senator.
Van Hollen responded to the latest White House attempt to make Maragarita-gate happen by commenting on the hoax photo: “Glasses were placed in front of us but we did not drink them. I know that may be a confusing concept for Director Patel.”
While all this was unfolding, William Paul, a son of Republican senator Rand Paul, reportedly interrupted a conversation between a reporter and Republican congressman Mike Lawler at a Capitol Hill bar on Tuesday evening and “drunkenly hurled antisemitic insults” at Lawler, who is not Jewish.
According to a remarkable account from Reese Gorman of Notus, who was at the bar with Lawler, “Paul – who introduced himself as the Republican senator’s son – confronted Lawler about Rep Thomas Massie’s GOP primary election in Kentucky next week.”
The younger Paul, who recently worked as an aide to two other Republican congressman, Alex Mooney of West Virginia and Mike Collins of Georgia, then told Lawler that if Massie, an ally of his father, was defeated, it would be the fault of “you Jews”.
After Lawler pointed out that he was not Jewish, Paul, who confessed that he was drunk, said, “Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew,” before launching into an antisemitic tirade, urging Lawler “to watch more Tucker Carlson”, flipping off the congressman and tripping over his bar stool as he left.
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The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, spoke at a conference on Wednesday hosted by an influential rightwing libertarian thinktank.
The event was convened by the Cato Institute, a group co-founded by fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch, whose vast network of political organizations has long worked to sow doubt about climate science.
At Wright’s “fireside chat” on Wednesday afternoon, Wright discussed the philosophy guiding his energy policies. A key reason to produce energy, he said: “better human lives”.
“My political line is, when you think about energy, [you] should only think about two things. Humans – that’s why we produce energy. And math … does the math show that’s an effective way to better human lives,” he said. “That’s why energy is there. It’s not to score political points.”
As head of the energy department, Wright has presided over an array of policies aimed at boosting fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the primary cause of the climate crisis, which is experts agree is exacerbating dangerous extreme weather events, allowing diseases to spread faster, and worsening illnesses from allergies to lung disease.
Wright also said that though he has worked on other forms of energy, including researching solar power in graduate school, “the biggest innovations … are almost certainly going to be in oil, gas and coal because they’re what matter”.
But In March, the US generated more of its electricity from renewable power than it did from gas, marking the first time clean energy surpassed the planet-heating fossil fuel for a full month nationally, research showed last month.
Wright is the founder and former CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company.
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Here's a recap of the day so far
For the seventh time, the Senate failed to advance a war powers resolution that would curb military action in Iran. However, today’s vote, 49-50, was the closest one yet, with more Republican lawmakers voting in favor of the resolution. For the first time, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined her GOP colleagues, Susan Collins and Rand Paul, in voting yes. Meanwhile, John Fetterman was again the only Democrat to break with his party and vote no.
By a vote of 54-45, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to be chair of the Federal Reserve for a four-year term. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to break with his party and voted in favor of Trump’s pick to lead the central bank. Warsh will officially step into the role on 14 May, when the term of outgoing Fed chair Jerome Powell ends.
JD Vance announced today that the Trump administration is deferring $1.3bn in Medicaid reimbursements from the state of California. “The simple reason,” the vice-president said, is because “California has not taken fraud very seriously”. Earlier, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also announced a six-month freeze for new home healthcare and hospice providers from enrolling in Medicare.
The Republican governor of Georgia called a special session for next month to redraw electoral maps, the latest southern state to initiate new map-making after the US supreme court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. Brian Kemp announced the special session will start on 17 June. However, he said that the state will not redraw its boundaries for this year’s elections.
Meanwhile, Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, said that he is canceling a special legislative session that was scheduled to redraw the state’s supreme court districts next week. However, Reeves, a Republican, noted that he does expect the state to redraw its four congressional districts at some point in the near future. Mississippi held its primary elections for congressional seats in March, before the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais ruling.
Donald Trump touched down in Beijing earlier today, and was greeted with a red carpet and fanfare ahead of a high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping. As the president stepped off Air Force One, he was met by China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, before traveling to his hotel. Before departing for his trip to China, Trump told reporters he does not consider the economic impact the war is having on Americans and that stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon was his top priority.
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Warsh is a ‘sock puppet’ for Trump, says top banking committee Democrat
Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member on the Senate banking committee, slammed Kevin Warsh’s confirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve, repeating many of the reservations she had about the president’s pick to lead the central bank.
“Mr Warsh has proven to be a sock puppet for Trump,” she said on the Senate floor. “During his confirmation hearing, Warsh couldn’t even say that Trump lost the 2020 election. We need a Fed chair who evaluates economic data and sets monetary policy in the real world, not in Trump’s delusional alternative reality.”
Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, added that the criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the outgoing Fed Chair, is still ongoing. “Take it from US attorney Pirro, who said that she, quote, ‘will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation’. And she went on to promise that her office would, ‘continue to litigate the issue’,” Warren said.
This comes after Republican senator Thom Tillis threatened to block Warsh’s confirmation until the probe into Powell was dropped.
“The second that the Administration pretended to close the investigation, Republicans folded and advanced Mr Warsh’s nomination,” Warren said today.
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Fetterman, lone Democrat to confirm Warsh, calls Trump's Fed pick 'transparent and responsive'
As I mentioned earlier, John Fetterman was the only Democratic senator to break ranks with his party and vote to confirm Kevin Warsh as the chair of the Federal Reserve.
Fetterman said today that he believes Warsh will be “transparent and responsive to Congress and the public”.
“His promise to maintain Fed independence in setting interest rates is crucial and I look forward to working with him,” the Pennsylvania Democrat added, while encouraging Jerome Powell to stay on the Fed board “as long as he wants”.
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The Republican governor of Georgia called a special session for next month to redraw electoral maps, the latest southern state to initiate new map-making after the US supreme court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act.
Brian Kemp announced the special session, which will start on 17 June, on Wednesday. It will focus on “enacting, revising, repealing or amending” district lines for the state legislature and congressional district, in light of the US supreme court’s decision in Louisiana v Callais.
Kemp, whose term ends next January, has said that the state will not redraw its boundaries for this year’s elections. The state’s primaries are set for next Tuesday. Instead, the redistricting special session will seek to lock in Republican-leaning maps while the party still holds power in the state legislature and governor’s office.
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Vance says US is 'making progress' on Iran peace deal, but fails to provide details about state of negotiations
The vice-president was unclear about the state of negotiations between the US and Iran, when pressed by reporters today.
“I’m not going to tell you everything, because we’re trying to have a productive conversation,” Vance said, when asked if administration officials are in touch with Tehran. A reminder that Trump said this week that the latest peace proposal from Iran was “completely unacceptable” and the current ceasefire was “on life support”.
“I think that we are making progress,” Vance said today. “The fundamental question is, do we make enough progress that we satisfy the president’s red line? And the red line is very simple, he needs to feel confident that we’ve put a number of protections in place such that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
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While taking questions from reporters today, Vance joked about Donald Trump pitting him against the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to be the president’s tapped successor.
Earlier this week, Trump encouraged attenders at a Rose Garden Club dinner to cast their votes in an oral straw poll about which of the two should lead the ticket in 2028. Vance appeared to come out as the favorite.
“I just don’t think it sounds like the president of the United States to have a televised competition for who would succeed him as his apprentice,” Vance joked today, referencing the president’s reality TV credentials in relation to his stunt. “[Trump’s] always been fascinated by politics … so I think it’s natural for him to joke around with us a little bit, to play around with the idea.”
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Vance announces government is deferring $1.3bn in Medicaid reimbursements from California
The vice-president announced today that the Trump administration is deferring $1.3bn in Medicaid reimbursements from the state of California.
“The simple reason,” Vance said, is because “California has not taken fraud very seriously”.
“There are California taxpayers and American taxpayers who are being defrauded because California isn’t taking its program seriously,” he added. “These fraudulent healthcare providers are getting rich by giving people medications they don’t even need, a violation of the trust that should exist between every American and the people who prescribe the medications.”
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Kevin Warsh confirmed as chair of Federal Reserve
By a vote of 54-45, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to be chair of the Federal Reserve for a four-year term.
John Fetterman was the only Democrat to break with his party and voted in favor of Warsh.
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Trump administration announces freeze on new home healthcare providers from enrolling in Medicare
Earlier, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also announced a six-month freeze for new home healthcare and hospice providers from enrolling in Medicare – the federal health insurance program that largely serves Americans aged 65 and older, and younger people with disabilities.
The order will prevent new providers from signing up for Medicare reimbursements, but will not affect providers already enrolled in the program. “Today we’re shutting the door on fraud – preventing new bad actors from entering Medicare while we aggressively identify, investigate and remove those already exploiting them,” Mehmet Oz, the CMS administrator, said in a statement.
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Today, JD Vance announced an audit, previously reported by the Wall Street Journal, of state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs). These are the watchdogs responsible for rooting out waste, fraud and abuse within the agency.
“If they do not aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud, we are going to turn off the money that goes to these anti-fraud units,” Vance said, while noting that the Trump administration is sending letters to each state’s MCFU. “We can only help these state programs if those state programs are willing to help themselves,” the vice-president added.
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In a short while, the Senate will officially confirm Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve.
On Tuesday, Warsh’s nomination was advanced in a 51-45 vote, with John Fetterman being the only Democratic senator to cross the aisle and vote with the Republican majority.
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Mississippi governor cancels special legislative session to redraw state supreme court maps
in Jackson, Mississippi
This morning, Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, said that he is canceling a special legislative session that was scheduled to redraw the state’s supreme court districts next week. However, Reeves, a Republican, noted that he does expect the state to redraw its four congressional districts at some point in the near future.
Reeves, in an appearance on SuperTalk radio, a conservative talk radio network, also said that it would be difficult for the state to redraw the congressional districts in the Republicans favor in time for the upcoming midterm elections, slated for November. Doing so might also hurt Republicans in congressional races.
Mississippi held its primary elections for congressional seats in March, before the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais ruling, which narrowed a key protection of the Voting Rights Act and spurred a number of Republican-led states to reconfigure their maps. But an immediate redrawing of the Mississippi’s congressional districts with the goal of eliminating Democratic seats would more than likely mean invalidating its primary results and making firmly Republican areas more competitive by adding more Democratic voters instead.
In a post on X following the news, Reeves wrote:
Just to clarify, I said I expect lawmakers to redraw congressional lines BETWEEN NOW and 2027 elections! I also expect them to redraw legislative and Supreme Court lines between now and 2027 elections!
Reeves made it clear that he wants the state to redraw its congressional districts, specifically targeting Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson’s seat. He said that he is working with the Trump administration on when and how the state should redraw congressional and legislative districts.
“It is not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” Reeves said of redrawing the state’s congressional district with a focus on Thompson’s district.
Thompson, the state’s lone congressional Democrat, is also the longest-serving black elected official in Mississippi and in Congress. He represents Mississippi’s second congressional district, about 275 miles long, which encompasses much of the Mississippi Delta, an area that is predominantly black.
And here’s my colleague Joseph Gedeon’s story on Donald Trump saying yesterday that the growing financial pressure inflicted on Americans by his war on Iran is “not even a little bit” motivating him to make a peace deal with Tehran.
With US inflation at a three-year high, and fuel costs still climbing after a sharp rise in oil prices, the US president said on Tuesday that he is not focused on the economic hardship sparked by the conflict.
Trump told reporters at the White House before boarding a plane to China:
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.
The president’s remarks come ahead of a US midterm election campaign season which looks to be defined by mounting concerns around affordability.
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Adding to that last post, in a new interview with Reason magazine, the Democratic senator John Fetterman has said that the US war on Iran is worth the higher gas prices and costs to Americans because it’s for a “noble cause”.
Fetterman, who has repeatedly broken with his party to vote against advancing war powers resolutions that would curb US military action against Iran, said:
Yeah, it’s real expensive for America right now, but that’s a noble cause to just hold Iran regime accountable for the mass chaos, murder and destruction that they’ve underwritten for decades.
Fetterman also critiqued comparisons to the disastrous US war in Iraq, saying that with regards to Iran, “we have a nuclear power at the cusp and it’s entirely appropriate to hold them accountable for what they’ve done”.
His comments echo those made by Donald Trump and his allies to justify the war as being necessary and worth the costs to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Even just yesterday, Trump was asked by a reporter how much the impact of the war on Americans’ personal finances factored into his thinking in negotiations with Iran, to which he – astoundingly – replied:
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.
You can also watch Fetterman’s interview here.
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Senate fails to advance war powers resolution, while more GOP lawmakers break with party
For the seventh time, the Senate failed to advance a war powers resolution that would curb military action in Iran. However, today’s vote, 49-50, was the closest one yet, with more Republican lawmakers voting in favor of the resolution.
For the first time, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined her GOP colleagues, Susan Collins and Rand Paul, in voting yes.
Meanwhile, John Fetterman was again the only Democrat to break with his party and vote no.
This is the first vote on the resolution since the lapsed 60-day deadline for Congress to authorize the conflict, as required by the War Powers Act.
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Van Hollen posts copy of test that screens for unhealthy alcohol use on social media, urges FBI director to do the same
As we reported on Tuesday, the FBI director, Kash Patel, clashed with Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, after the lawmaker grilled him about allegations of heavy drinking on the job, as reported by the Atlantic.
Van Hollen asked if the FBI would be willing to take a test to determine whether he has a drinking problem, Patel snapped that he would – provided the senator take it alongside him.
On Wednesday, the Democratic senator posted a completed copy of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test on social media, which he said he took after “all the lies” the FBI director told yesterday.
“I imagine he’ll fudge the numbers here, but let’s see yours,” Van Hollen said, urging Patel to take the questionnaire.
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A House natural resources committee hearing got heated on Wednesday morning as lawmakers asked US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about the Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2027.
Ranking member Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, asked Burgum about the cost of living crisis Americans are facing.
“I mean, you’re in a different economic strata, but I think most of us understand there’s a struggle out there because of this administration’s economic and energy policies,” he said.
Huffman said Burgum has “spent a lot of the department’s time resources and taxpayer dollars to serve Donald Trump’s vanity,” including by working on the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool – the cost of which has ballooned to $13m according to a federal contracting record first reported by The New York Times.
“It’s hard to understand how these projects to stroke Trump’s ego do anything for the American people with their day to day struggles,” said Huffman. Meanwhile, the “big oil billionaires” are profiting from the president’s war on Iran, he said. Burgum defended the administration, saying it is working to make energy affordable.
Two of Trump’s top environmental officials are defending the administration’s policies before lawmakers this morning.
The US interior secretary Doug Burgum is testifying before the House natural resources committee about Trump‘s fiscal 2027 budget request for the department, while energy secretary Chris Wright is appearing at a Senate armed services committee hearing about the forthcoming 2027 Defense Authorization Request, which proposed a $1.5tn budget for defense spending.
Burgum faced scrutiny at the House committee hearing. Congresswoman Susie Lee, a Democrat from Nevada, asked the secretary about a July 2025 memo requiring he personally approve all solar and wind permits.
“This basically created a total permitting mess in my home state of Nevada, stalling 93% of all new energy capacity in our state,” she said to Burgum, who claimed that the country “over-rotated towards intermittent forms of energy.”
On 21 April, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s July memo, issuing a preliminary injunction that was requested by environmental and industry trade groups which said the administration had imposed illegal roadblocks to wind and solar energy development.
Lee asked Burgum if the administration will appeal the decision. “Oh, absolutely,” the interior secretary replied.
Wright, too, faced tough questions on Wednesday morning. New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, for instance, asked why the federal government would increase defense spending at the Department of Energy by $7.2bn, while its proposed budget would slash $2.5bn from energy efficiency programming.
“Talk to us, if you will, about how you square those cuts to successful energy efficiency programs that have really helped families in my state and throughout this country, with the high energy costs and the budget that you’ve proposed,” she said to Wright.
He responded that he “shares her passion” for energy affordability. “It’s just a matter of balancing what’s the right role of the government in that and what’s the right role of the marketplace,” he said.
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While Trump is in China, we can expect to hear from vice-president JD Vance at 2pm ET today, when he hosts an anti-fraud initiative event. Vance will be joined by Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson and Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The Trump administration will launch a nationwide audit of state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a senior administration officials. MFCUs are state watchdogs at the state level established to ensure that divisions responsible for uncovering abuse are adequately investigating misuse and wrongdoing.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth will headline a faith rally on the National Mall this weekend in Washington DC, hosted by a private foundation operating in partnership with the White House, which includes some speakers that experts have characterized as Christian nationalist or extremist.
Rededicate 250, billed as the faith-based component of America’s semiquincentennial, features speakers including a Detroit pastor who has called the Democratic platform “demonic” and launched his own memecoin after praying at Trump’s second inauguration; a rabbi who has defended the use of torture and authored an essay titled “The Virtue of Hate”; and a Christian author and radio host who said in 2020 he would die in the fight to keep Joe Biden out of the White House and was later named in a defamation suit over 2020 election fraud claims.
Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and House speaker Mike Johnson are also scheduled to appear. The lineup includes no Muslims, no representatives of historically Black churches, no Indigenous faith leaders and no mainline Protestants.
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Reporting from Beijing
The Middle East conflict that Donald Trump started, and seems unable to finish, will cast a long shadow over two days of talks amid fears that he might be tempted to weaken US support for Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China, in return for Xi’s assistance.
“I don’t think we need any help with Iran,” Trump said to reporters before departing the White House on Tuesday. “We’ll win it one way or the other – peacefully or otherwise.”
He also sought to play down divisions with Beijing, saying Xi had been “relatively good” during the crisis and insisting that Washington had “Iran very much under control”.
The war has entered its third month, with Tehran tightening its grip over the strait of Hormuz and Washington struggling to turn a fragile ceasefire into a lasting settlement.
Behind the scenes, US officials have spent weeks urging China – Iran’s biggest oil customer and one of the few powers with leverage in Tehran – to pressure the Islamic Republic into reopening the strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply ordinarily passes, while accepting US terms for peace.
The US recently sanctioned several Chinese firms accused of assisting Iranian oil shipments and supplying satellite imagery allegedly used in Iranian military operations. China condemned the measures as “illegal unilateral sanctions” and invoked a rarely used blocking statute prohibiting Chinese entities from complying with them.
Xi has also offered implicit criticism of the US over the war. He has said safeguarding international rule of law is paramount and “must not be selectively applied or disregarded”, nor should the world be allowed to revert “to the law of the jungle”.
Still, neither side appears eager to allow the Iran crisis to derail broader diplomatic and economic engagement in the first of four potential meetings between Trump and Xi over the next year.
The two countries remain locked in a fragile tariff truce reached last autumn after tensions threatened to erupt into a full-scale trade war. Trump has long complained about China’s trade surplus with the US, while Beijing has bristled at American export controls and sanctions.
Trump arrived at his hotel earlier, and the press pool travelling with the president noted that the highway route leaving the airport was decorated with American and Chinese flags. Skyscrapers were lit up with Chinese characters meaning “Beijing Welcome”.
Here are some pictures of Donald Trump’s arrival in Beijing, where he was greeted by China’s vice-president Han Zheng.
Trump greeted in China with red carpet and fanfare
As the president exited Air Force One, a red carpet led him to the motorcade.
An honor guard marched to line up on both sides of the walkway, which was also flanked by hundreds of men and women in blue and white – waving the flag of the People’s Republic of China flag and the US flag while chanting.
As a band played for the ceremonial arrival, Trump offered a fist pump to the music, then proceeded down the stairs.
Travelling with the president, and following him off the aircraft were Eric and Lara Trump, Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth.
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Donald Trump touched down in Beijing at around 7:50pm local time/7:50am ET.
The president will be greeted by China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, along with David Perdue, US ambassador to a China.
Also welcoming Trump in Beijing: Chinese ambassador Xie Feng, and vice-minister of foreign affairs Ma Zhaoxu, 300 Chinese youth, a military band and honor guard.
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Trump arrives in Beijing for summit with Xi
Donald Trump has arrived in Beijing for meetings with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
We will bring you more as we get it.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Donald Trump to discuss ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during meetings with Xi Jinping.
“We are in constant contact with our American partners. We are thankful and we are expecting that the issue of ending of the Russian war against Ukraine will be raised now as well, while the president of the United States is in China,” Zelenskyy said in a speech during a summit in Romania.
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The Guardian’s picture editor Matt Fidler has compiled a few pictures from previous US presidential visits to China, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. The gallery offers a visual history of one of the world’s most important bilateral relationships, featuring tea receptions at the Forbidden City and tours of the Great Wall of China.
Click here to see more:
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There is much for Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to discuss, but a few key issues are likely to dominate the agenda, Mark Saunokonoko reports.
In his explainer, Mark explores the high-stakes diplomatic summit between the US president and Chinese leader, focusing on tensions over trade, Taiwan, AI, fentanyl trafficking and the ongoing Iran conflict. You can read that here:
US and China trade envoys hold talks on 'resolving' economic and trade issues, state media reports
Top Chinese and US negotiators held talks in South Korea on “resolving” trade friction between their economies ahead of the Trump-Xi summit, according to Chinese state media.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese vice premier He Lifeng “conducted candid, in-depth, and constructive exchanges on resolving economic and trade issues of mutual concern and further expanding practical cooperation”, China Central Television (CCTV) reported, without elaborating on the specific issues discussed.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed on a year-long truce in October last year after a frenzy of tit-for-tat trade tariffs. They are expected to expand on that deal in their meetings in Beijing this week.
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Back in the US, a Democratic challenger who said she intends to drop out of November’s race for the Senate in Nebraska to clear the way for an independent candidate has won the state’s Democratic primary.
Cindy Burbank ran against William Forbes, who Democrats contended was a Republican plant in the race, with the intent to drop out if she won. Forbes, a pastor who has voted for Trump and opposed abortion access, is currently registered as a Democrat.
While the state Democratic party endorsed Burbank for the primary, it has backed Dan Osborn for the general election.
Osborn, an independent, is seen as the best hope to beat the Republican senator Pete Ricketts in November. Burbank wants to clear the field to give Osborn and Ricketts a head-to-head matchup, she has previously said.
And in the state’s second congressional district, known as the “blue dot” of Omaha and its surrounding suburbs, the state senator John Cavanaugh remained locked in a tight race with Denise Powell that remained too close to call late Tuesday night.
Read more here:
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Here are some pictures on the newswires from Beijing ahead of Donald Trump’s visit:
Trump takes tech leaders on mission to 'open up' China
Accompanying the US president on his trip to China are a host of tech leaders, including Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of Apple, with hopes of securing a series of business deals.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump said:
I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to “open up” China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People’s Republic to an even higher level! In fact, I promise, that when we are together, which will be in a matter of hours, I will make that my very first request. I have never seen or heard of any idea that would be more beneficial to our incredible Countries!
The inclusion of Musk signals a reconciliation between the world’s richest man and the president after a public spat last year. Musk had been appointed to lead the Trump administration’s cost-cutting team known as the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), but he quit after clashing with the president over US federal spending policies.
The delegation of chief executives joining Trump on his China trip include:
Tim Cook of Apple
Larry Fink of BlackRock
Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone
Kelly Ortberg of Boeing
Brian Sikes of Cargill
Jane Fraser of Citi
Jim Anderson of Coherent
Larry Culp of GE Aerospace
David Solomon of Goldman Sachs
Jacob Thaysen of Illumina
Michael Miebach of Mastercard
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Trump says he doesn’t ‘think about Americans’ financial situation’ as he travels to China
Morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
Donald Trump is set to land in Beijing today for high-stakes talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with the war on Iran expected to loom large over the summit.
Before departing for his trip to China, the US president told reporters he does not consider the economic impact the war is having on Americans and that stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon was his top priority.
“Not even a little bit‚” Trump said when asked to what extent “Americans’ financial situations” were motivating him to reach a deal with Iran.
“The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran – they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody,” he said.
“I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
US inflation rose 3.8% in April from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest jump since 2023 as conflict in the Middle East continued to drive energy prices and everyday costs for Americans. In March, the consumer price index, which measures the price of a basket of goods and services, rose 3.3%, up from 2.4% in February.
Since Trump began the war on 28 February, gas prices in the US have surged past $4.50 a gallon, with fears it could stay elevated for longer as the strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of global oil supplies before the conflict, remains effectively shut.
Trump attempted to allay those fears by insisting his policies “are working incredibly”.
He said: “If the stock market goes up or down a little, the American people understand.
“When this war is over, oil is going to drop, the stock market is going to go through the roof, and truly, I think we’re in the golden age right now. You’re going to see a golden age like we’ve ever seen before.”
Trump has sought help from China, a close ally of Iran and the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to convince Tehran to reopen the strait of Hormuz and end the war. But he told reporters yesterday that he won’t “need any help with Iran” and the war will be won “one way or the other – peacefully or otherwise”.
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