Hey everyone. Welcome to the show. Our biggest news of the day, the President is halfway around the world getting reminded who actually holds the cards by Chinese leaders. And in DC, federal officials are publicly arguing about their drinking habits as right-wing media spent last night chasing a fake CIA raid story. And underneath all of it, probably what most of you care about, the economy keeps getting worse.
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Ok, let’s get to it.
1. Trump Lands in Beijing Seeking a Deal. Xi Spends 24 Hours Showing Who Holds the Cards
Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday for his first trip to mainland China since 2017, and his first sit-down with Xi since the two met in South Korea last October.
In his remarks, Xi went right at the issue that matters most to him, telling Trump that Taiwan is, “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” and that mishandling it could push the relationship into “clashes and even conflicts.”
Before leaving Washington, Trump signaled U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are now on the table. Here’s Trump:
Xi walked in more confident than ever. Over the last year, he has weaponized China’s dominance of rare earth elements. Twice in 2025, he threatened to cut off the flow. Twice, Trump backed down on tariffs.
Trump’s deliverables so far: a soybean purchase, possible Boeing orders, and an invitation for Xi to visit Washington. What he did not get: a rare earths agreement, a path on AI chips, or anything resembling a structural win.
This is what happens when you start a trade war without the cards to finish it. Xi is treating Trump like a salesman he will politely entertain. And this particular salesman appears to be flying home with very little in his bag.
2. Trump Mobile Suddenly Says the Phones Are Shipping. Funny How That Works.
In case you missed the twists and turns this week: last June, Don Jr. and Eric Trump launched Trump Mobile and a $499 gold smartphone called the T1, advertised as proudly made-in-the-USA. Around 590,000 people paid a $100 deposit.
But the phone never shipped. Ship dates kept moving, and the company blamed the 43-day government shutdown, which analysts called nonsense for a private hardware company.
In April, “Made in USA” came off the website. And the preorder terms quietly added this line: “A preorder deposit provides only a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the Device for sale.”
Translation: your deposit does not guarantee a phone.
Then this week, after the story exploded online and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office publicly described the project as, “FRAUD,” Trump Mobile posted for the first time, in nearly a year, that pre-orders would get an update email and phones would ship this week.
Replies on that post are turned off, by the way. They know what they did, and they are trying to save themselves now. I am not a phone expert. But the people who are phone experts are saying this is a Chinese phone with Trump branding on it.
This is the same pattern as the crypto coin, the sneakers, and the trading cards. A promise. A delay. A quiet rewrite of the fine print. And somebody, somewhere, gets stuck holding the bag.
3. Fox News Spent the Night Telling Viewers the CIA Raided Tulsi Gabbard's Office. It Didn't Happen.
On Wednesday, a self-described CIA whistleblower told a Senate committee that the agency had seized roughly 40 boxes of files on JFK and MKUltra from Tulsi Gabbard’s office.
Within hours, Jesse Watters broke into Fox primetime. Headline on screen: “BREAKING: CIA RAIDS TULSI GABBARD’S OFFICE.”
Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida ran with it, giving the CIA a 24-hour ultimatum or a subpoena.
There was one problem. Gabbard’s own office said none of it happened. Press secretary Olivia Coleman posted on X: “This is false. The CIA did not raid the DNI’s office.”
Luna walked it back, saying it “did not happen today and was not a raid,” but maybe something else happened at some other point, which they are still trying to figure out.
This is what an information ecosystem looks like when it has stopped checking sources. By the time the correction lands, the original framing is already on a million phones and through a few rounds of fundraising emails. In the actual news business, this kind of story is called “Too good to check.” Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans live in an alternate reality because of the perverse incentives of the right wing media ecosystem.
4. The FBI Director and a U.S. Senator Are Publicly Feuding Over Who Drinks More
The Atlantic recently reported that FBI Director Kash Patel’s drinking has interfered with his job, including episodes where staff allegedly had to force entry into his home to wake him up. Patel predictably filed a $250 million defamation suit.
On Tuesday, Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen put it directly to Patel: “When your private actions make it impossible for you to perform your public duties, we have a big problem.”
Patel called the reporting a “total farce” and “categorically false.” Then he took a rhetorical swing at the Senator.
He accused Van Hollen of being the real drinker, citing the senator’s 2025 trip to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration admitted it had wrongly deported. Here’s Patel:
Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of rape or gang membership. He is awaiting trial on separate charges. And the trip was a senator doing oversight on a man the government admitted it had wrongly deported.
Both men agreed to take the AUDIT alcohol screening side by side. Van Hollen posted his yesterday: two to three drinks a week, everything else clean. Patel has not posted his.
The Director of the FBI is publicly trading accusations about drinking habits with a sitting senator on a federal government account. There used to be a line between the FBI and partisan politics. That line is gone.
5. Inflation Up, Wages Down, Jobless Claims Rising — All in One Week
Three Labor Department reports dropped this week, all moving in the same direction.
Tuesday, the Consumer Price Index for April. Annual inflation hit 3.8 percent, the highest in nearly three years. Gas up 28 percent. Real wages, what your paycheck actually buys, are now down for the year. For the first time in three years, inflation is eating every dollar of wage growth.
Wednesday, the Producer Price Index. Wholesale prices jumped 1.4 percent in a single month. The annual rate climbed from 4 to 6 percent. The biggest one-month jump since March 2022. What businesses pay this month is what consumers pay next month. The pipeline is loaded.
And then today. Initial jobless claims rose 12,000 to a total of 211,000.
Two months ago, the President started a war and told the country it would be quick. Today, gas is more expensive, groceries are more expensive, your paycheck buys less, and more Americans are out of work than a month ago. And there are no signs things are moving in a better direction.
As always, thanks for reading. Tomorrow we will be watching the back half of the China summit, and what, if anything, the President is willing to give up to come home with a deal.
If this work helps you make sense of the news, please like, share, and subscribe. It keeps this going. See you soon.
