Associated Press, Mark Schiefelbein 

President Trump touched down in Beijing this morning for his first trip to China since 2017.

Trump walked off Air Force One joined by his son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

^ Psst, Trump invited the Nvidia CEO after coverage of his snub, according to The Hill’s Julia Manchester and Miranda Nazzaro.

He was greeted with quite the show: China’s vice president and foreign minister were there for Trump’s arrival, along with U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue. Oh, and let’s not forget the 300 Chinese children, a military band and an honor guard that made for an impressive welcome ceremony. 🎥 The flashy welcome ceremony

🎥 Watch the plane taxi — I still can’t get over how large of a plane this is.

What’s on tap for the trip?: Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday and take part in a state banquet. He will have more meetings on Friday before flying back to Washington.

💻 Watch Xi welcome Trump at 10 p.m. EDT

💻 Watch Trump and Xi’s meeting at 10:15 p.m. EDT

Helpful primer for the trip: 5 things to watch during Trump’s high-stakes meeting with Xi

The war in Iran. Progress on a U.S.-Iran peace deal seems to be unraveling. The Hill’s Laura Kelly argues this may give China some leverage, leaving the U.S. at a disadvantage.

Issues that may come up: “Trump and Xi … are expected to discuss Beijing’s focus on continued access to U.S. technology and Trump’s pursuit of China’s purchase of American products, such as Boeing jets. China’s role in America’s fentanyl crisis, artificial intelligence and China’s claim to Taiwan are just some of the other major issues of the summit.”

Read more: ‘Iran war may give China, Xi, some leverage on Trump at Beijing summit’ 

💬 Follow today’s live blog

When President Trump took office in 2025, he vowed to be fierce toward China, threatening steep tariffs and trade negotiations it couldn’t refuse.

But as The New York Times points out today, the president has had to drastically scale back his expectations. The Supreme Court struck down his landmark tariffs — and economic woes in the U.S. have lowered his ambitions.

Now, the goal is simply to smooth over relations between the two dueling superpowers.

Specifically, Trump is hoping to restore or increase “U.S. sales of products like airplanes, ethanol, soybeans, beef and sorghum.”

Read more in the NYT: ‘Trump’s Shrinking Ambitions on China’

Related read in Foreign Affairs: ‘America Has Lost Its Leverage Over China: How Trump and Xi Could Cement Beijing’s Advantage for Years to Come’

Plus, in Foreign Policy: ‘What Happened to Trump the China Hawk?: The U.S. president heads to Beijing in detente and dealmaking mode.’

The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. posted a list of four issues it does not want to be challenged in the summit. The list: “The Taiwan question,” “democracy and human rights,” “paths and political systems” and “China’s development right.”

President Trump demanded today that a Republican Senate staffer be fired for making Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) look “out of it” during a recent Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

From Trump’s post: “The guy that came up to Mitch McConnell today when McConnell thought the hearing was over and started speaking in his ear for Mitch to belatedly introduce some other people, all Democrats and, by doing so, made Mitch look foolish and completely out of it, should be immediately fired!”

Who is the staffer?: “His name is Robert Karem, he is a Never Trumper, and was grandstanding — trying to show how ‘important’ he was.”

Some context from Punchbowl’s Andrew Desiderio: “Not only is Robert Karem one of the most respected Capitol Hill NatSec staffers (both parties), but he was also a DoD appointee of… Donald Trump,” Desiderio posted.

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President Trump said on Tuesday that he does not know the contractor who is renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and painting it bright blue.

This wouldn’t be so newsy if Trump hadn’t previously said he brought in a man he knew to complete the project.

Remember, the project has been widely criticized. The New York Times reports that federal records estimate it will cost $13.1 million, when the initial estimate was $1.8 million. The project has also been criticized for being a no-bid contract.

What Trump said last month: He said he had a “guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools.” “He looked at it. He called me up. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something on it,’” Trump said about the renovation project.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was asked about the contractor situation during a House hearing on Wednesday. He said the guy Trump talked about wasn’t officially part of the project. 

“He’s just a citizen that cared about it and offered some free advice. There’s nothing there there, in terms of any dollars flowing to anybody that worked for President Trump,” Burgum said 

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general is investigating former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s $38 billion project to turn warehouses into immigration detention centers, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

Eleven empty warehouses were purchased over the winter, and the DHS overpaid for most of them. “The purchases raised eyebrows among officials across the administration and in both parties on Capitol Hill, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Read the full report: ‘Watchdog Probes Kristi Noem’s Warehouse Purchases for ICE Detention Centers’

Until recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not have a PCR test for the Andes virus, the strain of hantavirus that can spread from person to person, Wired’s Emily Mullin reports.

Well, a lab at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha then developed one in just a few days.

Read more: ‘Inside the Race to Develop a Test for the Rare Andes Hantavirus’

🗺️ Map of states monitoring hantavirus exposures

— The Trump administration is hosting a nine-hour prayer festival on the National Mall on Sunday to honor the nation’s Christian roots. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will speak.

— Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) got a long-overdue rebrand. It has been renamed to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). That’s because the disease is broader and not all patients have cysts.

— Plans to build a Trump Tower in Australia have been scrapped just three months after they were announced, per CNN, because the developer says the brand has become “toxic.”

Politico: 10,000 rulings: The courts’ overwhelming rebuke of Trump’s ICE policies

The Wall Street Journal: Wall Street Is Getting More Anxious About Long-Term Inflation

CNN: Democrats are going there on attacking the Supreme Court. Here’s what it could mean

The Washington Post: Why the U.S. job market is so hard, especially for recent college graduates

The Atlantic: The Democrats Can’t Let Go of Racial Preferences