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THE BIG PICTURE
Trump is flying to Beijing this week for a summit with Xi Jinping — and he's bringing 17 CEOs along for the ride, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Larry Fink, and Boeing's Kelly Ortberg, in what amounts to the largest corporate delegation ever attached to a presidential foreign trip.
Meanwhile, back home: a man called 911 to check on his sick 4-year-old and ended up in ICE custody and Republicans are trying to slip $1 billion in taxpayer-funded security upgrades for Trump's White House ballroom into an immigration enforcement bill. Trump also publicly demanded that Supreme Court justices he appointed swear personal loyalty to him after they struck down his tariffs. And the Supreme Court cleared Alabama to gut one of its two majority-Black congressional districts — handing Republicans another House seat by dismantling court-ordered voting protections.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS
1. Trump's Billionaire Cabinet Flies to Beijing
Donald Trump is bringing a $870 billion billionaire delegation to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing this week — because why negotiate trade policy when you can just send the ruling class directly. Elon Musk ($823.3 billion), Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman ($40.5 billion), Apple's Tim Cook, BlackRock's Larry Fink, and GE's Larry Culp are among the 16 corporate executives on the White House's official invite list. Boeing's Kelly Ortberg is also aboard — conveniently, as Boeing is reportedly close to finalizing a 500-aircraft order for 737 Max jets timed to the summit. Read the full list.
2. People Are Calling 911 — and Getting Handed to ICE
Axel Sanchez Toledo called 911 in December to check on his sick 4-year-old daughter — and ended up Tasered, kicked, and pinned to the ground by Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputies while his girlfriend sobbed and he begged, "Please, guys, I'm not a criminal." He had a pending asylum case; the resisting-arrest charges were dropped April 29; he's still in ICE custody.
The deputies who grabbed him operate under a 287(g) agreement — a federal program that pays local cops to act as immigration agents, with Palm Beach County pulling in nearly $1 million for arresting 60 immigrants per month, the highest rate in Florida. More than 1,100 law enforcement agencies nationwide have signed similar deals.
People are dying because of this. A Virginia woman was allegedly killed by her abusive partner after she refused to call police out of fear she'd be detained. The Tahirih Justice Center reports 76 percent of its clients are now afraid to contact law enforcement. An asylum-seeker told The Washington Post she wouldn't call 911 even if her attacker came back. Read the full investigation at The New Republic.
3. Democrats Vow to Fight $1 Billion Taxpayer Tab for Trump's Ballroom
Republicans want to slip $1 billion in taxpayer-funded security spending for Donald Trump's White House ballroom into a $70 billion immigration enforcement bill — and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is promising to make every Republican senator own that vote. Schumer called it Republicans "asking working families to pay the price while Donald Trump pockets the perks." The $1 billion — earmarked for Secret Service security enhancements around the so-called "East Wing modernization project" — would ride alongside funding for ICE and Customs and Border Protection through 2029, all advanced via reconciliation to bypass a Democratic filibuster. Trump claims the ballroom itself, estimated at $400 million, will be paid for by donations from Meta, Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Palantir, Lockheed Martin, and Comcast — but the security bill lands squarely on the public. Read the full story
4. Trump Demands Supreme Court Justices Swear Personal Loyalty to Him
Donald Trump publicly demanded that Supreme Court justices he appointed — including Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — be "loyal to the person that appointed them," after the court struck down his "liberation day" tariffs as illegal. He also claimed, with zero evidence, that Democratic-appointed justices have "always remained true" to their presidents — a flat-out lie that court history disproves regularly. The rant appears driven by Trump's expectation that the court will rule against his attempt to gut birthright citizenship, a constitutionally protected right he's been trying to dismantle since day one of his second term. Read the full story
5. Supreme Court Hands Alabama a Green Light to Gut Black Voting Power
The U.S. Supreme Court just cleared the way for Alabama to eliminate one of two majority-Black congressional districts — handing Republicans a potential House seat pickup by dismantling a court-ordered map that protected Black voters. The ruling directed a lower court to reconsider the case in light of a recent decision that struck down a majority-Black district in Louisiana as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall didn't bother hiding the agenda: "My job was to put the legislature in the best possible legal position to draw a congressional map that favors Republicans seven-to-zero." NAACP National President Derrick Johnson called it plainly: "We are witnessing a return to Jim Crow." Read the full story.
THINGS TO WATCH
Redistricting is the story of the midterms. The Supreme Court's Alabama action and the Virginia emergency appeal are happening simultaneously. This is the moment to run a clear explainer connecting all the threads: the VRA gutting, the Alabama and Tennessee maps, the Virginia reversal, Trump's "Election Integrity Army" announcement, and what it all means for the 2026 House. Our audience needs to understand that this is not a series of isolated legal skirmishes — it is a coordinated map-rigging operation with a Supreme Court majority enabling it.
The Iran war's domestic economic impact is becoming a class story. Gas at a four-year high, a gas tax suspension plan that requires a Congress that won't pass it quickly, and a president who admits he didn't finish reading the peace proposal — this is a working-people's story. The cost of this war is being paid at the pump by people who didn't vote for it.
The mental fitness story has crossed a threshold. Thirty-plus physicians signing an open letter is not a fringe event. Paired with the on-camera Oval Office nod-off and the White House's embarrassing "he was blinking" response, this is now a mainstream accountability story.
The abortion pill window is closing. The three-day stay is not a victory — it is a countdown. People need to understand what happens if the Court allows Louisiana's restrictions to stand, and what that means for access in every state.
👀 KEPT OUT OF YOUR FEED
What the algorithm buried:
The only Democrat left at the FCC is sounding the alarm about what Trump is doing to Disney and ABC — and the word she's using is "censorship."
Louisiana's governor just casually admitted he's tossing 45,000 already-cast ballots — and his response when pressed was "it's not a big deal."
The Trump admin just launched a "mom" website that sends pregnant people straight to anti-abortion crisis centers — and called it a Mother's Day gift.
Don Jr. once bragged his dad would never get us into a war with Iran — Twitter's community notes just made him eat every word.
Trump couldn't help himself — find out the profanity-laden nickname he gave the White House in front of a room full of law enforcement guests, seconds after promising his wife he wouldn't.
Over 30 doctors just signed a letter warning that Trump's mental decline is a nuclear emergency — and they entered it into the congressional record.
The White House says Trump wasn't sleeping during a maternal health event — he was just blinking for a really, really long time.
Jon Stewart is absolutely torching the media for its hantavirus panic coverage — and the clips he played are genuinely embarrassing.
Seth Meyers just told a room full of TV advertisers exactly what he thinks about networks paying Trump to make their problems go away — and the Radio City Music Hall crowd loved it.
John Oliver just explained how Trump is using secret Supreme Court orders to bypass every court that rules against him — 41 times and counting.
NOTICE POLLING
Yesterday, we asked, Is MAGA a cult?
100% OF YOU SAID YES:
“How could we call them anything but, when they follow blindly? He has no care for anyone and would squash them like a bug without looking back and yet they follow. ”
- markwkoenen
“Just look up the DEFINITION of cult... I DARE YOU. ”
-michaelhogshooter
“Absolutely! I know some maga people and they are oblivious of what’s going on. And still think Trump is their savior.”
- robertbordeaux
“They will find a way to blame someone else.”
- cammyreiger
“They have no power to resist even the most absurd lies that their leader spews. They openly embrace hatred, racism, lawlessness and even immoral behavior while essentially giving him everything they have. They are enthralled.”
– helenaklm
A lot of new people joined this week. If you've been on the fence — now's a good time. Paid memberships are 50% off →
Until next time,
