Trump arrives in Beijing for high-stakes summit with Xi amid US war with Iran
Chinese youth hold American and Chinese flags as they join officials to welcome U.S. President Donald Trump at Beijing Capital International Airport, May 13, 2026 in Beijing, China. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(BEIJING, China) — President Donald Trump arrived on Wednesday in Beijing for a multi-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, during which he said he’d seek to deepen diplomatic and economic ties between the world’s two largest economic powers.
After his arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport on Wednesday evening, Trump’s itinerary included a welcome ceremony, a bilateral meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People later in the day and a state banquet that night, according to the White House.
“We have a lot of things to discuss,” Trump said on Tuesday as he departed the White House, where he fielded questions about what would be on the table during the high-stakes summit. The summit begins as the effects of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran continue to ripple around the globe and the U.S. economy remains a pressing issue at home.
The president was asked whether the pair would discuss diplomatic ways to end the war with Iran, which is in its third month. China is a key buyer of Iranian oil, which could give it considerable diplomatic leverage over Tehran, experts told ABC News. Trump said the U.S. had Iran “very much under control,” adding that it would be among the topics discussed.
“We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated, one way or the other. We win,” Trump said. “We’re going to be talking about, we’re going to be talking with President Xi.”
Trump traveled on Air Force One with a more than a dozen U.S. executives, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Trump said on social media on Tuesday that he planned to ask Xi to “open up” the Chinese economy.
Asked to respond on Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said that the scheduled diplomatic meetings were expected to play “an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations.”
“During the visit, the two heads of state will have an in-depth exchange of views on major issues concerning China-U.S. relations and world peace and development,” Guo added, according to a transcript published by the ministry. “China stands ready to work with the U.S. to expand cooperation and manage differences in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit, and provide more stability and certainty for a transforming and volatile world.”
The California Republic state flag waving along with the national flag of the United States of America on a clear day. 3D illustration render. (rarrarorro/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — During Tuesday’s midterm primary election in California, all eyes are on the crowded field of gubernatorial candidates looking to succeed current Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has termed out, in what has become the most expensive governor’s race on record.
California hosts “jungle” primaries, also known as non-partisan primaries, which means all candidates are listed on one primary ballot and the top two candidates advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. There are 61 candidates running for governor in the state.
Most expensive governor’s race on record
The gubernatorial primary has surpassed $315 million in ad spending and reservations, according to AdImpact, making this the most expensive governor’s race on record.
The crowded race features many Democratic candidates: former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, billionaire Tom Steyer, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Rep. Katie Porter, and California Superintendent Tony Thurmond. Republicans running include Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News contributor Steve Hilton.
Although Rep. Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign for governor — and resigned from Congress — in April amid sexual misconduct allegations, he will still remain on the ballot as he missed the deadline to withdraw his name. Swalwell said in April that he “will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”
Democratic candidates have remained locked in a tight race without a clear frontrunner.
According to a Public Policy Institute of California poll conducted in mid-May, Becerra and Hilton were leading the pack with 23% and 20%, respectively. They were followed by Steyer at 15%, Bianco at 13% and Porter at 12%.
While Democrats have been worried that the significant number of Democratic candidates could split up the vote, resulting in Republicans advancing to the general election, President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Hilton has also presented some concern among those who were hoping for the two Republican candidates to advance to the November election.
Under California’s top-two primary system, the prospect of two Republicans advancing to November has relied on Hilton and Bianco remaining closely matched in the polls. However, Trump’s endorsement could mean increased support for Hilton might come from those who previously backed Bianco. If Hilton gains while Bianco’s support holds steady or declines, a Democrat could overtake Bianco and acquire the second spot in the general election, strategists say.
Attention on LA’s mayoral race
Another California race that has captivated national headlines is the Los Angeles’ mayoral election, following the sudden rise of reality TV star Spencer Pratt and his media-forward campaign which has exploded across social media.
Pratt, who is a registered Republican running an independent campaign, is challenging the incumbent, Karen Bass, who is endorsed by Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris. She faces sharp scrutiny from critics for her leadership, especially for her initial absence during and response to Los Angeles’ devastating wildfires last year. Bass, who was away from the city on a planned diplomatic trip to Ghana when the Palisades Fire first erupted, has pushed back on criticism over her management of the fire, saying earlier this year that her focus “is on the lives and on the homes.”
Progressive city councilmember Nithya Raman, who has been compared to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is also in the running in the tight three-way race.
A candidate wins the nonpartisan mayoral race outright if they get more than 50% of the vote; otherwise, the race goes to a runoff in November between the top two vote-getters.
House races in the balance after redistricting
Following the passage of Prop. 50 last year, a ballot initiative championed by Newsom in retaliation to Texas redistricting, five districts in California are now redrawn in favor of Democrats. As Democrats eye new victories, some incumbent Republicans are consequently facing an uphill battle.
In California’s 11th Congressional District, voters get their first opportunity to weigh in on a representative to succeed Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who is retiring after almost 40 years in Congress.
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who was endorsed by Pelosi earlier this month, faces off against state Sen. Scott Wiener and Saikat Chakrabarti, a former software engineer who was once chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Another key race, California’s 22nd Congressional District, has become a proxy battle within the Democratic Party, as moderate state Rep. Jasmeet Bains, backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is facing off against progressive Randy Villegas, who has the support of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Both Democrats have argued they are the stronger candidate to flip the Latino-majority swing district by ousting incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao over his vote in support of Trump’s cuts to Medicaid.
Exterior view of the Louisiana State Capitol building, the seat of government for the state of Louisiana, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 20th June 1974. Completed in 1931, the Art Deco building was designed by architects Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth. (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
(BATON ROUGE, La.) — Louisiana lawmakers on Friday approved a new congressional map that could allow Republicans to flip one of the state’s two Democratic-held House seats in the 2026 midterms.
The Louisiana Senate gave final approval to a bill with the new map after much dissent from Democrats.
“Y’all, at the beginning of this process, I would have said that we are building a house on a broken foundation. Now, it feels more like quicksand, because we’re in 2026 going into a map that we know is flawed, that we know is going to get struck down,” state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat, said on the Senate floor.
State Sen. Jay Morris, a Republican, defended the map ahead of the final vote.
“I think we have a map here that meets all the traditional redistricting criteria. It’s not racially gerrymandered. … I think it broadly allows for representation for each region of the state, and it’s very fair, and we should approve it,” Morris said.
The new map comes weeks after U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
The landmark Supreme Court decision dealt a blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and set off a newfound scramble of mid-decade redistricting in Louisiana and other states that Democrats say could drastically reduce the number of Black representatives in Congress.
On Thursday, during hours of floor debate, several Democratic state representatives condemned the redrawn map, which eliminates one of the two majority-Black districts in the state, as discriminatory.
“I want to ask you to remember the argument that we should now be colorblind about a congressional map, in this state of all states, requires forgetting a quantity of history that I don’t believe any of us has the right to forget. Black people in this country were not citizens; not partial citizens, not second-class citizens. We weren’t citizens at all,” state Rep. Kyle Green, a Democrat and member of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, said on Thursday.
State Rep. Beau Beaullieu, a Republican who sponsored an amended version of the map that the state House approved, argued to members that legislators had been forced to redraw the map because of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“And now we find ourselves back with a similar map to the one this body passed in 2022, that had five Republican districts and one Democrat district,” he said on Thursday. “The map complies with traditional redistricting principles and also maximizes partisan advantage. The map is contiguous; it is compact; it binds communities of interest; it protects incumbency. … Race was not a factor when drawing these districts.”
U.S. President Donald Trump dances on stage after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center on February 22, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Conservatives from across the country will descend on Texas this week for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the largest gatherings for Republicans in the year.
But the yearly gathering comes during a fraught time for the party as the ongoing war with Iran has split some of President Donald Trump’s MAGA followers.
And for the first time in nearly a decade, Trump will not attend the event. A White House official told ABC News that Trump could not attend due to his schedule and the ongoing conflict in Iran.
Vice President JD Vance, who spoke at the gathering last year, is also not listed as a speaker.
Since the war began in February, notable Trump allies have publicly broken from him over the conflict. Most recently, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned over his opposition to the war, making him the highest-profile administration official to step down over the issue.
Other MAGA allies, such as Tucker Carlson and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, have spoken out against the war.
Bannon, who will speak at CPAC, said on his “War Room” podcast this month that if the war becomes “a hard slog,” it could cost the GOP voters before November’s midterm elections.
“We’re going to bleed support,” Bannon said at the time.
In an interview with Piers Morgan earlier this month, Carlson said the Iran war was a “betrayal” to Trump’s supporters.
“Breaking faith with those people, those voters, the ones who actually got Trump elected and whose coalition promised a new day in American politics, that’s a big deal. It’s a betrayal on the level that I don’t think people who aren’t in those groups can understand, like, this is heartbreak. This is heartbreaking,” Carlson said.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate and has been supportive of the war, is also scheduled to speak at the gathering.
A Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday found that a little more than half — 54% — of voters oppose the U.S. military action in Iran, while 39% support it.
But 86% of Republicans overall support Trump’s military action while 92% of Democrats and 64% of independents oppose it, according to the Quinnipiac poll.
CPAC occurs this year as the midterm primaries are underway and comes ahead of the bitter Texas Senate Republican primary runoff between Sen. John Cornyn, who has held his seat since 2002, and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, which Trump hasn’t yet made an endorsement in.
Paxton is slated to address Friday’s Ronald Reagan Dinner, while Cornyn is not scheduled to speak.
Other notable GOP candidates attending the event include former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, who’s running for retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis’ seat in North Carolina, and businessman Nate Morris, who is running for retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat in Kentucky.
