Trump leaves China, short on deliverables but with signs of a stabilized relationship

2026-05-15T08:55:07.410Z / CNN

By Betsy Klein, Simone McCarthy, Kristen Holmes

Updated 2 hr ago
Updated May 15, 2026, 5:03 AM ET
PUBLISHED May 15, 2026, 4:55 AM ET

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a meeting during their visit to the Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing, China, on Friday, May 15.

Evan Vucci/Reuters

Beijing—

President Donald Trump departed Beijing Friday afternoon local time without any immediate sign that the US and China have resolved thorny challenges dogging their fractious relationship, but with a freshly stabilized relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping – for now.

The leaders covered a range of issues from Iran and Taiwan to trade, during two days that included intensive bilateral meetings. But there were also grand displays of soft diplomacy, marking the first Beijing meeting for the longtime rivals in nearly a decade.

Since Trump’s last visit in 2017, he has reimagined Washington’s role in the world, while Xi has tightened his grip on authority domestically and spurred China’s high-tech transformation.

“We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to settle, and the relationship is a very strong one,” Trump said at the start of bilateral discussions Friday, offering no concrete details on the problems in question.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/15/politics/takeaways-trump-china-visit-xi-intl-hnk

President Trump arrives in Beijing for summit with Chinese President Xi

2:42 • Source: CNN

President Trump arrives in Beijing for summit with Chinese President Xi

2:42

Given how bad relations have been in recent years, the fact both leaders came away speaking of each other in warm terms and agreeing on the importance of their ties is evidence of a shift to stabilization at a time when a jittery world is desperately seeking geopolitical calm.

The US-Israeli war with Iran loomed over the whirlwind summit. There were questions of what, if any, behind-the-scenes support Xi might be willing to extend to help bring an end to the months-long conflict, which has thrown the global economy into turmoil without a clear endgame.

Details of the sweeping trade deals Trump promised ahead of the trip remain unclear, with big pronouncements from the president and some top officials, but any substantive announcements still absent and unconfirmed by China.

And amid concerns from experts and analysts that Xi was walking into the meeting with the upper hand, the Chinese leader offered his own flex on the issue of Taiwan.

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Trump and Xi at Zhongnanhai Garden on Friday

CCTV

But the visit also provided an opportunity to reset the tone of the fractious US-China relationship, Xi rolling out a literal and figurative red carpet that charmed and delighted his guest, a warm connection on display.

“I think it will go down as a very important moment in history. And maybe more than anything else, a great moment of respect,” Trump reflected during an interview with Fox News.

Iran war loomed over visit

Ahead of talks, expectations were high that the American president could push his Chinese counterpart to help resolve the Iran conflict.

China is a close diplomatic partner of Iran and the top purchaser of its oil – and has framed itself as proponent of peace throughout the war. The topic was part of the more than two hours of discussions between the two leaders Thursday, but Trump departed without a clear sign from Beijing that it’s willing to press Tehran to work with US demands.

Instead, comments from both sides so far suggest the summit hasn’t moved the needle.

Trump told Fox News that Xi offered to help resolve the conflict and pledged not to provide Iran with military equipment. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a separate interview with NBC News Thursday, said the US did not ask for China’s help resolving the conflict.

A readout released by the White House also said the two countries agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open and that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.

It also said Xi “made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use,” and suggested China would buy more oil from the US.

A US-China energy deal may be in the works, one that sees Beijing – which imports large quantities of Iranian oil – purchase more US supplies. But whether the Trump-Xi talks will have any bearing on the conflict remains unclear, as Beijing appeared to largely have reiterated its existing position.

China has already repeatedly pledged to do what it can to facilitate peace negotiations. Xi last month called for the Strait of Hormuz to “maintain normal passage.” As a policy, China says it does not supply weapons to countries in conflict.

Beijing supports Iran’s stated commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, though it backs the country’s right to a peaceful nuclear program.

China also leaned into its own framing of the war in a statement released by its Foreign Ministry Friday morning, saying that it “should have never happened.” It also implied consistency in its message, adding China’s position was “very clear.”

Trump, meanwhile, seemed to accept limits to the pressure Beijing is likely to put on Iran.

“Look, he’s not coming in with guns … not coming in shooting,” he told Fox News when asked if Xi would influence the Iranians. “He’s been very good.”

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Pool

Taiwan friction, and a warning

For his part, Xi used the opportunity of having Trump in his home court to give an explicit warning on Taiwan – an issue Xi called the “most important” in US-China relations.

“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability,” Xi said during his Thursday-morning meeting with Trump, according to a Chinese readout. “Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.”

The language – which appears as unusually direct, though in step with Beijing’s expected rhetoric – stands out in tone from China’s otherwise upbeat assessment of the new era of “strategic stability” between the two countries touted by Xi.

That’s sure to be a deliberate choice to make one thing clear: Beijing wants to have a positive relationship, but only if the US can respect what China sees as its “red line” on Taiwan.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend a bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-ruling democracy as its own territory and has vowed to “reunify” with the island, by force if necessary. It has long decried the US’ robust unofficial relationship with Taipei and its arms sales to the island.

Despite concern from some observers that Xi would try to maneuver Trump to shift US positioning on Taiwan – or Trump would use the island as a bargaining chip – Rubio said America’s position on the issue is “unchanged.”

Speaking to NBC, the diplomat said the issue was raised and the two sides stated their positions, and then “moved on to the other topics.”

“We always respond by saying anything that would compel or force a change in what we have now would be problematic” he said. He added that the topic of arms sales “did not feature prominently” in discussions.

Trade and economic deals give Trump a win at home

Trump is returning to the White House with some economic wins that have, so far, proven short on substance in the absence of any formal announcements or confirmation from China.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the administration expects China to agree to buy “double-digit billion” worth of agricultural products from the US every year over the next three years, as a result of Trump’s trip.

However, on individual agricultural goods, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent indicated there would be no more purchases of soybeans during an interview with CNBC, stressing they were taken care of under October’s sales agreement with China.

Greer told Bloomberg News that China had also “reupped” the license for American beef exports. Over the past year, export permission for more than 400 US beef plants expired. Greer did not specify the number of licenses renewed.

President Trump also announced that his Chinese counterpart agreed to purchase 200 Boeing jets. Boeing’s CEO was part of the US delegation to China.

China has yet to confirm specific deals mentioned by the Trump team. In a readout, Beijing called for the countries to “expand exchanges and cooperation” in areas including the economy and trade, health, agriculture and tourism.

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Trump and Xi shaking hands in Beijing on Friday

CCTV

Pomp, circumstance, and a diplomatic odd couple

Trump, a former reality TV star, is keenly aware of optics and appreciates stagecraft as both a host in Washington and a guest abroad.

Xi understood his assignment.

He dispatched his vice president, Han Zheng, to meet Trump as he arrived in Beijing Wednesday evening local time. Han is widely seen as Xi’s envoy for diplomatic events and attended Trump’s 2025 inauguration, his presence this week signaling the importance with which China viewed Trump’s visit.

Asked if that moment was meaningful to him, Trump told Fox News he viewed it as a sign of respect.

“If I got out of a plane and nobody was there to greet me, I would say that wouldn’t be so cool because it’s really respect for our country. Our country is respected,” he said.

On Thursday, Trump was treated to a more elaborate welcome ceremony outside China’s Great Hall of the People, including military bands, a troop inspection, and a throng of schoolchildren waving flags and flowers. The US president appeared visibly delighted.

US President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping inspect a guard of honor during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday.

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

“We were treated very well,” Trump reflected later that day.

The president also offered rare deference to his counterpart, exerting uncharacteristic restraint, for example, during a walk with Xi around the Temple of Heaven as reporters from the US press pool tried to pepper him with questions. Trump, who is often keen to engage, offered a brief pleasantry, ignoring shouted questions on Taiwan.

He also sipped from a champagne flute during a toast at a state banquet, the teetotaler extending a meaningful gesture to his host.

Ahead of a bilateral meeting at the Zhongnanhai complex on Friday, Xi guided his guest on a tour of his gardens and offered sweeping historical references conveying subtle meaning.

Few world leaders get to see the inside of the Chinese Communist Party’s secretive leadership compound, which used to be the imperial gardens. Xi made sure to note that he had invited Trump there as a way to reciprocate his own visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Taken together, China’s meticulous stagecraft had its intended effect of projecting stability onto the US-China relationship.

Throughout the visit, Trump expressed admiration for Xi and the way he conducts himself.

“He’s not going to respond too much – he’s a pretty cool guy. He’s not going to say, ‘That’s a good point,’” Trump said of Xi.

He added: “There’s no games, there’s no talking about how nice the weather is, let’s look at the stars, let’s look at the sun. No, he’s all – he’s all business, and I like that. That’s a good thing. No games.”

CNN’s John Liu in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

特朗普：罗斯福提供资金建立习近平母校清华大学

2026年5月15日 16:27 / 联合早报

美国总统特朗普星期四（5月14日）在中国国家主席习近平为他举行的国宴上致辞时回顾两国交往历史，称美国前总统罗斯福应中国驻美大使请求提供资金，建立了习近平的母校清华大学。 （路透社）

美国总统特朗普在中国国家主席习近平为他举行的国宴上致辞时回顾两国交往历史，称美国前总统罗斯福应中国驻美大使请求提供资金，建立了习近平的母校清华大学。

习近平星期四（5月14日）晚在人民大会堂金色大厅为特朗普举行欢迎宴会。特朗普在致辞时，回顾了从美国建国初期至今的中美关系历史，并称两国人民长期以来彼此尊重、相互欣赏。

据美国之音发布的致辞全文，特朗普提到，美国开国元勋富兰克林曾在他创办的殖民地报纸上刊登孔子的箴言，直到今天，孔子的雕像仍被镌刻在美国最高法院的建筑立面上；仰慕美国前总统华盛顿的中国人士曾赠送一块石碑，以纪念他，并用于装饰华盛顿纪念碑。

特朗普说：“几个世纪以来，这种相互敬重逐渐发展成为一种体现两国人民巨大才能与潜力的关系。中国工人帮助铺设了连接美国大西洋海岸与太平洋海岸的铁路。前往中国的美国人士则帮助传播识字教育和现代医学。而应中国驻美大使的请求，罗斯福总统提供资金，建立了习近平主席的母校清华大学。”

特朗普还提到，正如如今许多中国人喜爱篮球和牛仔裤一样，如今美国的中餐馆数量已经超过美国五大快餐连锁店的总和，“这可是相当惊人的数字”。

据清华大学官网介绍，清华大学的前身清华学堂始建于1911年，本是用美国退还的部分“庚子赔款”办的一所留美预备学校。

清华大学是习近平的母校。1975年至1979年，他在清华大学化工系基本有机合成专业学习。1979年，习近平从清华大学毕业后，进入中共中央军委办公厅担任时任国防部长的秘书。

2021年4月，在清华大学建校110周年校庆日来临之际，习近平曾到清华大学考察。他当时在师生代表座谈会上说，“清华大学诞生于国家和民族危难之际，成长于国家和民族奋进之中，发展于国家和民族振兴之时”。

How will Jerome Powell be remembered as he exits as Fed chair? Experts weigh in.

May 15, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / MoneyWatch / CBS News

After steering the Federal Reserve through a series of major economic shocks, from the pandemic to the highest inflation in 40 years, Jerome Powell will leave a legacy defined by managing crisis and an unwavering defense of the central bank’s historical independence.

As Powell steps down on Friday after eight years as Fed chair, more than a dozen economists interviewed by CBS News credited his measured, pragmatic leadership for helping guide the economy through a turbulent period.

Powell’s tenure may be best remembered for his commitment to the Fed’s independence as he faced legal threats and intense pressure from President Trump to lower interest rates.

“His enduring legacy will be that he protected the Fed’s independence at a time of unprecedented challenges,” said David Wessel, senior fellow in economic studies at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution and the author of “In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic.”

Powell’s leadership assured “the American people that there was an adult of integrity in charge of the world’s most powerful economic institution,” Wessel added.

Under Powell’s leadership, the Fed performed “an admirable job of managing monetary policy through a tumultuous period, more or less achieving its dual mandate,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said.

But, he added, “Powell’s most significant achievement has come at the end of his tenure as chair, in his yeoman efforts to maintain the Fed’s independence.”

Powell will hand the chairmanship to Mr. Trump’s hand-picked successor, former Fed official Kevin Warsh. In an unusual step for a former Fed chair, Powell will remain as a Federal Reserve governor. His reason for staying on, Powell said in an April 29 press conference, is that the Fed remains “at risk” from legal challenges by the Trump administration. “The institution is being battered over these things,” he said.

Trump factor: From praise to withering criticism

When Mr. Trump nominated Powell to succeed Janet Yellen as Fed chair in February 2018, the president praised the former U.S. Treasury undersecretary as having “the wisdom and leadership to guide our economy.”

But Mr. Trump soon soured on Powell’s leadership after the Fed began hiking its benchmark interest rate in 2018 to prevent the economy from overheating. That tonal shift foreshadowed the president’s sharper attacks on Powell during his second term, when Mr. Trump would repeatedly denigrate the Fed official, calling him a “numbskull” and a “complete moron,” among other insults.

The 2020 pandemic would overshadow those concerns, as the U.S. plunged into a brief — but historically steep — recession during which unemployment soared to almost 15%. In March of that year, Powell oversaw two emergency meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which cut the benchmark rate to close to zero, helping stabilize the labor market during the crisis.

“Powell kept the economy resilient throughout the pandemic and, in combination with robust fiscal policy through COVID-era stimulus legislation, supported workers when they needed it most,” said Liz Pancotti, managing director of policy and advocacy at Groundworks, a progressive think tank.

Powell’s biggest misstep

The initial economic hit from the pandemic mutated into another critical challenge for Powell’s leadership — the fiercest inflation since the early 1980s. The surge in consumer prices would go on to wreak havoc on millions of Americans, change the political landscape and eventually mark what multiple economists described as Powell’s biggest mistake as Fed chair.

As prices were lifting off in 2021, Powell initially described the bout of inflation as “transitory,” viewing it as the result of temporary factors, such as snarled global supply chains, rather than deeper structural forces that typically drive price shocks, such as labor shortages or low borrowing rates.

Reluctant to tighten monetary policy and curb economic growth, Fed officials held off on raising interest rates until March 2022, when the Consumer Price Index had already soared to an annual rate of 8.5%.

That delay would prove a missed — and costly — opportunity for Powell, economists told CBS News.

“His record on inflation is very mixed, given that we’ve been overshooting the target for the last several consecutive years,” said Wall Street analyst Adam Crisafulli, head of investment research firm Vital Knowledge. “A series of macro shocks beyond the control of the Fed played a big role in driving inflation higher — COVID, COVID-era fiscal policy — Ukraine/Iran wars, tariffs — but history doesn’t tend to focus much on such nuance.

Powell’s hesitation in pushing for higher rates reflects the Fed’s emphasis on the employment side of its dual mandate, said Tim Duy, chief economist at SGH Macro Advisors. The mandate requires the central bank to balance stable prices with maximum employment.

Over the past five years, however, the Fed has struggled to achieve both goals simultaneously, Duy said.

“Inflation has remained above target for more than five years, while unemployment has stayed low for most of that period,” he said.

An improbably soft landing

With inflation in 2022 at a 40-year high and the labor market still suffering, economists grew increasingly concerned that the U.S. would tumble into a recession.

But Powell and other Fed officials engineered a so-called “soft landing,” in which the central bank raised interest rates high enough to tame inflation without causing a spike in unemployment. Given the Fed’s history of inadvertently triggering a recession by boosting borrowing costs too quickly, it was a significant accomplishment, economists said.

Rather than facing a painful slump, the economy continued to grow, the jobless rate declined to a 50-year low and inflation ebbed.

“Navigating the COVID-driven inflation shock without triggering a recession and maintaining — if not enhancing — the Fed’s inflation-fighting credibility is, in my view, Powell’s greatest success,” said Michael Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank.

Despite the soft landing, U.S. inflation has yet to return to the Fed’s annual 2% target — a goal that Powell in his final press conference emphasized remains a central focus.

Trump 2.0

Powell, who was reappointed as Fed chair by President Joe Biden in 2022, faced more supply shocks during President Trump’s second term. The Trump administration’s wide-ranging tariffs raised concerns about their potential impact on inflation and broader economic growth.

Then the Iran war caused oil prices to soar, leading to the highest inflation rate in almost three years. The Consumer Price Index in April reached an annual rate of 3.8%, the highest since May 2023.

“Powell’s leadership of the FOMC will likely be remembered as pragmatic, disciplined and unusually adaptive during one of the most volatile macroeconomic periods in decades,” said Greg Daco, chief economist of EY-Parthenon. “That flexibility ultimately helped the Fed navigate extraordinary uncertainty while preserving its credibility and reinforcing the importance of institutional independence.

While dealing with these macroeconomic challenges, Powell has also contended with unprecedented attacks on the Fed’s independence from the Trump administration. Mr. Trump has called Powell a “lousy” Fed chair, criticized him for failing to cut interest rates and launched a series of legal attacks.

In January, the Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into Powell over the Federal Reserve’s building renovations. Powell called the probe a pretext to pressure the Fed to lower interest rates, in accordance with Mr. Trump’s wishes.

While the Justice Department has since dropped the probe, Powell said last month that he would remain a Fed governor. In that role, he will serve as one of 12 voting members of the FOMC. And given his standing as a former Fed chair, Powell is likely to remain an influential voice on monetary policy issues, economists told CBS News.

“Powell’s ultimate story isn’t yet known,” Crisafulli said. “If he preserves monetary independence, that will be the opening line of his obituary — not the, at best, mixed track record of inflation during his tenure.”

AI加剧美国大学“成绩通胀” 应届求职绩点含金量下降

2026年5月15日 17:07 / 联合早报

成绩通胀问题在大学校园中已存在多年，如今AI风靡，评估学生作业质量变得更加困难，应届毕业生求职时的成绩指标含金量也不如从前。 （路透社）

成绩通胀问题在大学校园中已存在多年，如今AI风靡，评估学生作业质量变得更加困难，应届毕业生求职时的成绩指标含金量也不如从前。 （路透社）

（华盛顿讯）新研究表明，自从有了人工智能（AI）技术，大学生更容易获得A等成绩，但也让成绩对雇主来说变得不那么有参考价值。

美国《华尔街日报》报道，根据加州大学伯克利分校星期三（5月13日）发布的一篇论文，生成式AI机器人ChatGPT问世后，在以写作和编程等易受AI影响的大学课程中，A等成绩的比率增长幅度远超其他课程。

教授涉及AI课程的教师，给出的A等成绩增加约30%，A-和B+等成绩则有所减少。

论文作者奇里科夫指出，研究结果表明，学生依赖生成式AI是想在学业上取得更好的成绩，但不说明这些学生学到了更多知识；拿到A等，说明学生更能接触到先进科技，或更擅长使用这类技术，但不能衡量学生基础能力。

成绩通胀在大学校园中已存在多年，但AI使得评估学生作业质量变得更加困难，应届毕业生求职时的成绩指标含金量也不如从前。如今美国就业市场降温，雇主为了缩小应聘者筛选范围，纷纷提高入职门槛和平均绩点（GPA）要求。

在面向应届毕业生的求职网站Handshake上，很少有职位招聘要求应聘者提交GPA。不过，在有此要求的职位中，今年近20%岗位要求GPA达到3.5或更高，而2020年的占比仅有9%。

一些顶尖大学也开始担忧成绩通胀问题。耶鲁大学4月的一份报告直言：“成绩是为了传达学生学到什么。在耶鲁，正如许多同类院校一样，成绩已不再具备这一功能。”

AI加剧美国大学“成绩通胀” 应届求职绩点含金量下降

2026年5月15日 17:07 / 联合早报

成绩通胀问题在大学校园中已存在多年，如今AI风靡，评估学生作业质量变得更加困难，应届毕业生求职时的成绩指标含金量也不如从前。 （路透社）

（华盛顿讯）新研究表明，自从有了人工智能（AI）技术，大学生更容易获得A等成绩，但也让成绩对雇主来说变得不那么有参考价值。

美国《华尔街日报》报道，根据加州大学伯克利分校星期三（5月13日）发布的一篇论文，生成式AI机器人ChatGPT问世后，在以写作和编程等易受AI影响的大学课程中，A等成绩的比率增长幅度远超其他课程。

教授涉及AI课程的教师，给出的A等成绩增加约30%，A-和B+等成绩则有所减少。

论文作者奇里科夫指出，研究结果表明，学生依赖生成式AI是想在学业上取得更好的成绩，但不说明这些学生学到了更多知识；拿到A等，说明学生更能接触到先进科技，或更擅长使用这类技术，但不能衡量学生基础能力。

成绩通胀在大学校园中已存在多年，但AI使得评估学生作业质量变得更加困难，应届毕业生求职时的成绩指标含金量也不如从前。如今美国就业市场降温，雇主为了缩小应聘者筛选范围，纷纷提高入职门槛和平均绩点（GPA）要求。

在面向应届毕业生的求职网站Handshake上，很少有职位招聘要求应聘者提交GPA。不过，在有此要求的职位中，今年近20%岗位要求GPA达到3.5或更高，而2020年的占比仅有9%。

一些顶尖大学也开始担忧成绩通胀问题。耶鲁大学4月的一份报告直言：“成绩是为了传达学生学到什么。在耶鲁，正如许多同类院校一样，成绩已不再具备这一功能。”

This Republican says he’s Trump’s ally. He’s getting in the way of Trump’s revenge in a key Louisiana Senate primary

2026-05-15T09:00:52.338Z / CNN

By Patrick Svitek

3 hr ago

PUBLISHED May 15, 2026, 5:00 AM ET

Donald Trump Congressional news January 6th Primary elections

See all topics

John Fleming recites the pledge of allegiance at a luncheon in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.

Gerald Herbert/AP

President Donald Trump wants to take down Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment and has been a critic of parts of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Trump endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow to run against Cassidy and most other challengers dropped out.

There’s just one problem: John Fleming.

The Louisiana state treasurer, who is largely self-funding his campaign, has remained a stubborn force in the race, complicating Trump’s revenge plot and making it a near-certainty that Saturday’s primary will head to a June runoff. In doing so, Fleming is testing Trump’s political operation and the power the second-term president has over the Republican base.

“What people expect from an endorsement from President Trump is really a candidate like me, but what they got was a candidate very similar to Cassidy,” Fleming said in an interview.

Letlow’s campaign has spent the final weeks of the primary attacking him more than the incumbent, even as Cassidy pummels her on the airwaves. A super PAC supporting her has spent about 10 times more money targeting Fleming in its advertising compared to Cassidy, according to AdImpact.

“Louisiana Republicans know Julia Letlow is President Trump’s choice in this race, while Fleming is a desperate career politician trying to lie his way into another office,” said Katherine Thordahl, a spokeswoman for Letlow’s campaign, in a statement.

Cassidy appears delighted. After Fleming and Letlow participated in a debate last week that he skipped, Cassidy’s campaign issued a statement promoting the escalating “cage match” between his two challengers, complete with images of popcorn.

The Senate seat in deep-red Louisiana is expected to stay in Republican hands in November regardless of who the party nominates. But Saturday’s primary is a gauge of Trump’s sway over the GOP at a crucial time, coming three days before a higher-profile test of his revenge in Kentucky against Rep. Thomas Massie.

There is little independent polling in Louisiana’s primary and no clear front-runner despite the president’s involvement.

A detailed view of a hat that reads, Make Louisiana Great Again is seen at a campaign event for US Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), at Bourne’s Restaurant on May 6, 2026 in Franklinton, Louisiana.

Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images

Cassidy has mostly ignored Fleming and trained his attacks on Letlow, saying he sees the race as hers to lose. A Cassidy adviser, Mark Harris, told reporters Monday that Fleming was “putting on a hard charge” in the final days of the primary but that the Cassidy campaign would remain focused on Letlow.

Claims of job offers and endorsements withdrawn

Fleming first won a House seat in 2008 and served until 2017, a tenure during which he helped start the far-right House Freedom Caucus. Fleming waged an unsuccessful Senate bid in 2016 and then went to work in the first Trump administration, ultimately working in the White House as assistant to the president for planning and implementation. He was elected Louisiana state treasurer in 2023.

Fleming announced in December 2024 that he would run against Cassidy, citing the senator’s vote to convict Trump over the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

US Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) greets supporters at a campaign stop at Drago’s Restaurant Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Metairie, Louisiana.

Gerald Herbert/AP

Cassidy was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump, but one of only three left in the chamber, along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Among them, Cassidy represents the most pro-Trump state. The president carried Louisiana by 22 percentage points in 2024, his widest margin there through three campaigns.

Cassidy issued a brief statement on his vote at the time, saying: “Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.”

A physician who has advocated for vaccines, Cassidy has had new tension with the White House as the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. While he voted to confirm Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cassidy has criticized some of Kennedy’s decisions at his agency and helped sink Trump’s recent nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means.

Cassidy dinged the administration again on Tuesday after Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary announced his resignation. Cassidy said on X that Makary was “part of a broader symptom of an administration that has not paid attention to pro-life issues.”

Fleming told CNN he resisted three entreaties from the White House to suspend his campaign before the February 13 filing deadline. The White House offered “some accommodation to me, maybe a job,” Fleming said, adding that he fielded another appeal to drop out within the seven-day period after the deadline when candidates could still back out.

He said he also got a call around that time from Ralph Abraham, a fellow Louisiana Republican who was about to leave his post at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and wanted to know if Fleming would like to succeed him. Days after Abraham left the CDC, he was named chair of Letlow’s campaign.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Abraham could not be reached for comment but denied Fleming’s claim when the candidate first made it in March.

Fleming’s continued presence in the race has worn on some people close to Trump. One of them, adviser Alex Bruesewitz, said last Thursday on social media that Fleming should “do the right thing” and drop out and endorse Letlow. The same day, Letlow’s campaign started calling on Fleming to resign from a company for which he previously lobbied.

Fleming said his position as an adviser with the McKeon Group, for which he says he earns about $1,000 a month, is proper.

He can count on supporters like Ruth Pope-Johnston, a longtime GOP activist who volunteers for his campaign. She comes from the small town where he started his first medical clinic, long before he ran for office.

“John Fleming has my vote and has had my vote from Day 1 and I’ve never wavered from that,” she said. Not only that, she added, Fleming “has my undying respect.”

‘I don’t really think President Trump likes me that much’

Trump, who initially held back criticism of Cassidy in endorsing Letlow, unloaded on Cassidy after Means’ nomination for surgeon general failed, calling him a “very disloyal person” and accusing him of “intransigence and political games.”

On the campaign trail and in media appearances, Cassidy has sought to reframe Saturday’s primary as about “the present and future,” touting that Trump has signed into law four bills in which he had a leading role.

“I don’t really think President Trump likes me that much, but we work really well together,” Cassidy told reporters last week, recalling a recent conversation with a voter at Home Depot who asked about his relationship with the president.

In backing Letlow, Trump placed his bet on more of a political newcomer than her opponents. Letlow was working in higher education when her husband, Rep. Luke Letlow, died of Covid-19 in 2020 and she won a special election to fill his seat.

US Senate candidate Julia Letlow greets supporters at a campaign stop at Hammond Northshore Regional Airport in Hammond, Louisiana, on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

Gerald Herbert/AP

Letlow and Fleming have said they would not have voted to convict Trump after January 6. Letlow said during her recent debate with Fleming that it was the “worst mistake that Cassidy could have made” and Louisiana voters “have never forgotten it.”

But Trump’s endorsement of Letlow has put the president at odds with Senate GOP leaders, who are backing Cassidy, as is standard practice for incumbents. Senate Majority Leader John Thune headlined a fundraiser for Cassidy in Baton Rouge in January, days before Trump backed Letlow. But national Republicans have otherwise not been deeply involved in the primary, confident Cassidy has enough money on his own and that the seat will remain in Republican hands no matter who comes out of the primary.

Cassidy and his allies have bombarded Letlow with ads that focus on an unearthed 2020 video from when she was applying to lead the University of Louisiana at Monroe. In the video, Letlow speaks positively about diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that are now deeply unpopular with Republicans.

At last week’s debate with Fleming, Letlow said she “saw firsthand how the left completely hijacked” DEI and emphasized her votes against it once she got to Congress.

Fleming and Letlow go back and forth

Fleming has sought to cast doubt on the genuineness of Trump’s endorsement of Letlow. He claims Letlow allies, including Gov. Jeff Landry, blocked him from making his case to Trump — and when he finally got through to Trump, the president was impressed with him but had already backed Letlow. Letlow, during last week’s debate, said Fleming must not have been that familiar to Trump if it took that long to reach him.

“I don’t think Fleming’s a bad guy. I think he’s a good conservative,” said Ray Griffin, a longtime member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee who says he supports Letlow. But Fleming’s push to appear close to Trump, Griffin added, “really irks me.”

Fleming sought last week to win an endorsement from the Louisiana GOP, submitting what he said were the required number of signatures from the Republican State Central Committee to force a vote. But, according to his campaign, he was told he was one signature short for several reasons, including that four members had rescinded their endorsements. Fleming blamed Landry’s influence in social media posts.

Louisiana GOP Chairman Derek Babcock confirmed to CNN that Fleming came up short due in part to rescinded endorsements.

One of Fleming’s most frequent jabs at Letlow involves carbon capture and sequestration, the emission-storage technology that has proven controversial in rural Louisiana. Fleming has pitched himself as the strongest opponent of the projects, while claiming Letlow’s fiancé advocates for them in his job. Letlow called that a “low blow” during their debate.

Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment. But the governor has criticized Fleming on his social media, accusing him of flip-flopping on carbon capture projects and questioning whether he can be trusted on other issues, including support for Trump.

Fleming stands by one comment that’s been the subject of Letlow campaign attacks.

A Letlow ad says Fleming has called Trump “reprehensible,” a reference to a 2016 tweet where Fleming used that word to describe Trump’s lewd comments in the leaked “Access Hollywood” recording.

“I don’t care who says it, that is a reprehensible comment,” Fleming told CNN recently. He later added, “But that doesn’t change my support for President Trump. I support him as a person; I support him as a president.”

FDA blocked melanoma drug as confusion reigned under Makary

May 15, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / KFF Health News

The Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to withhold approval of a new skin cancer treatment fell like a hammer on doctors who treat melanoma and patients who saw that the drug had prolonged the lives of a third of the participants in a clinical trial.

“It was devastating news,” said Trisha Wise-Draper, a dermatologist at the University of Cincinnati who had patients enrolled in the trial.

“This is life or death for maybe 2,000 patients,” added Eric Whitman, medical director of the Atlantic Health System’s oncology service. A Wall Street Journal editorial assailed the ruling, noting that it “will have a chilling effect on drug development.”

Despite the benefit to some patients, oncologists and pharmaceutical industry analysts say there were legitimate concerns about the treatment, called RP1, that may have led the FDA to reject it in any event. The company, they noted, had ignored repeated FDA suggestions that it change the design of the trial used to seek approval for the medication.

The FDA’s decision would have raised few eyebrows before the current administration took power. But Marty Makary, who took charge as commissioner 13 months ago, altered the agency’s culture and damaged the trust it had built over decades while regulating 20% of U.S. consumer spending, said Steven Grossman, a regulatory consultant and former official at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“People have to speculate about the standards and processes by which the agency makes decisions,” he said. “And that uncertainty is bad for everybody — patients and sponsors and investors.”

Under Makary — who resigned this week — senior officials have either suppressed or pushed forward some drug approvals and policies at the behest of President Trump or HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ignoring the advice of agency professionals. In defending his actions, Makary often eschewed the agency’s traditionally measured language about its decisions.

Marty Makary appears before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on March 6, 2025, for his confirmation hearing to lead the FDA. Eric Harkleroad/KFF Health News

In response to criticism for rejecting the melanoma treatment, for example, Makary accused its manufacturer, Replimune, of “corruption,” saying it was “engaging in corporate spin” to make the FDA look bad.

“I don’t work for Replimune. I work for the American people,” Makary said in a May 5 interview on CNBC. Kennedy backed him up during a congressional budget hearing in which Kennedy mistakenly claimed that patients in Replimune’s clinical trial had also received chemotherapy.

Makary did not respond to requests for comment.

“All the norms have been thrown out the window, so we don’t know what underlines an agency decision,” said Paul Kim, a former FDA staffer and Senate aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy who’s now a pharmaceutical industry consultant in Boston. “Even when there are legitimate scientific and regulatory reasons why a drug will not be approved, we’re left guessing whether it’s legitimate grounds or just a political play.”

A doomed cancer drug

Melanoma is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, with about 112,000 new cases each year. The American Cancer Society projects that about 8,500 people will die from melanoma this year in the USA. If Replimune’s treatment, RP1, worked as well as it did in the clinical trial, Whitman said, as many as 2,500 of those patients could be saved.

RP1 is a genetically engineered virus designed to destroy tumor cells and alert the immune system to swing into action against them. Replimune sought accelerated approval — a sort of shortcut that allows a product to enter the market while a larger confirmatory trial takes place — by presenting data that showed a third of 140 people in the trial had their tumors shrink or disappear. But the agency had warned Replimune in July that it risked denial unless it changed its development plans. In particular, the FDA noted that the trial had no control arm to compare RP1 to an approved melanoma treatment. Instead, all patients were given RP1 along with Opdivo, a type of immunotherapy.

Replimune’s scientists don’t entirely understand how the drug works, but research indicates that, in addition to destroying cancer cells, it releases chemicals that revive Opdivo’s capacity to stimulate the immune system. The company argued it would be unethical to give Opdivo alone as a control arm, because all the patients entered in the trial had already stopped getting better while taking only Opdivo or other drugs in its class.

“Having a control arm would have been unethical,” Wise-Draper said. Some of her patients responded extremely well to RP1 and no longer have evidence of melanoma, she said.

Replimune currently has a larger trial that includes a control arm, but “the bigger question is whether the company will survive,” Whitman said. The FDA-accelerated approval would have persuaded investors to provide enough cash to finish the larger trial, he said.

Replimune did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But the company told reporters it is firing more than half its staff and closing some operations in the wake of the FDA ruling.

RP1 wouldn’t have been the first melanoma drug approved based on a single-arm trial. Keytruda, the best-selling Merck cancer drug, was approved to treat melanoma some 12 years ago based on such a trial design. But in its denial statement, the FDA said it wasn’t convinced that the positive effects of the combination regimen were all due to RP1 and not partly to Opdivo.

Replimune arguably could have found an ethical way to set up a control arm for its treatment, Kim said. On the other hand, the FDA could have “given them a provisional yes” with accelerated approval, he said. The whole point of the three-decade-old accelerated approval program is to “take a gamble,” Kim said. The agency’s statement, stressing the company’s methodology over the result, “is a recalibration of how confident sponsors can be with similar studies,” he said.

Vinay Prasad’s final days at FDA

Much of the criticism of the FDA under Trump has focused on Vinay Prasad, who was fired then rehired last summer and held various leadership roles at the agency. Prasad, an oncologist known for critiquing the statistical bases of studies, repeatedly intervened in approval processes for drugs and vaccines normally decided by lower-ranking FDA professionals.

Prasad, who did not respond to requests for comment, resigned for good May 1, three weeks after the Replimune decision. “There’s this lingering question of whether this was Vinay’s last stand, or an objective decision made by careful scientists,” Kim said.

Makary ran afoul of Trump administration officials over various decisions, the last being his reluctance to approve flavored vapes for smoking cessation. Trump’s anti-abortion supporters wanted him ousted for allowing a generic form of mifepristone on the market, and for failing to speed up studies they hoped would lead to the abortion drug’s withdrawal from the market.

But in the industries regulated by the FDA, ranging from gene therapy to vaccines and cancer, officials are frustrated by the agency’s uncertain direction. In past administrations, the agency generally swung on a narrow arc between loosening and tightening requirements for drug approvals. Under Makary, “it’s been swinging in every conceivable direction,” Grossman said.

“It’s very inconsistent; it’s all over the place,” Whitman said. “The inconsistency is part of the concern.”

During his tenure, Makary made a series of categorical statements that either claim credit for progress made during earlier administrations or exaggerate the agency’s ability to move forward on goals.

For example, he set a goal of ending animal testing, which is considered impractical at the moment, Kim said, and moved to aggressively implement artificial intelligence at the FDA — prematurely, critics say. Makary and Prasad also promised to reduce the standard number of required clinical trials from two to one. FDA statutes require two well-controlled clinical trials for drug approvals, but exceptions to that rule are already frequent.

“The FDA is sending signals that it wants to even further reduce the evidence needed to support drug approval,” said Aaron Kesselheim, a Harvard Medical School professor and an expert on the drug industry. “Of course, if we’re talking about vaccines, the total opposite is the case. FDA has been taking real steps to make it harder to get vaccines approved.”

The FDA fired about 4,000 staffers at the start of the Trump administration. Makary promised to hire thousands back, but considering the upheavals at HHS and the FDA, these positions may be hard to fill. “What magic trick will get that done?” Grossman asked.

“The unfortunate thing is that there has been so much chaos at FDA that this Replimune decision, which may have needed to happen, has gotten mired in the controversy,” said Evan Seigerman, leader of healthcare research at BMO Capital Markets.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

特朗普称没对习近平就台湾问题许下承诺

2026年5月15日 19:58 / 联合早报

美国总统特朗普星期五（5月15日）登上空军一号准备离开北京时，向送别人员握拳示意。 （路透社）

美国总统特朗普透露，他在北京与中国国家主席习近平会晤时谈到对台军售，但未就台湾问题向对方许下承诺。

综合彭博社、路透社报道，特朗普星期五（5月15日）结束访华行程，搭乘空军一号离开北京。他在机上对随行记者作出以上表述。

耶鲁大学在2025财年从美国国立卫生研究院获得近6亿8000万美元的拨款，在全美各大学中位列第六。 （路透社档案照片）

（纽约综合电）美国特朗普政府再对美国高等学府施压，司法部指控耶鲁大学医学院歧视白人和亚裔申请者，根据种族来挑选申请者。

司法部星期四（5月14日）发表声明说，对耶鲁大学医学院长达一年的调查显示，在考试成绩相同的情况下，黑人和西班牙裔学生被录取的概率远高于白人或亚裔学生，他们也通常以较低的学术标准被录取。

司法部没有说明这一调查结果会带来什么后果，但指民权法禁止接受联邦财政援助的机构，实施基于种族和民族的歧视措施。

耶鲁大学在2025财年从美国国立卫生研究院获得近6亿8000万美元（约8亿7000万新元）的拨款，在全美各大学中位列第六。医学院尤其依赖联邦资金来资助研究，并为学生提供助学金和贷款，帮助他们支付高昂的学费。

耶鲁大学回应时表明，对医学院严格的招生程序充满信心。

特朗普政府近期将目光聚焦于顶尖医学院的招生问题，司法部在推动高等教育改革的进程中扮演着主导角色。

就在不到两周前，司法部指控加州大学洛杉矶分校医学院存在根据种族歧视申请者的行为。今年3月，司法部还对斯坦福大学、加州大学圣地亚哥分校和俄亥俄州立大学的医学院招生情况展开调查。

目前，司法部正在起诉哈佛大学，指控哈佛未能提供自身招生情况的相关文件。

耶鲁大学在2025财年从美国国立卫生研究院获得近6亿8000万美元的拨款，在全美各大学中位列第六。 （路透社档案照片）

（纽约综合电）美国特朗普政府再对美国高等学府施压，司法部指控耶鲁大学医学院歧视白人和亚裔申请者，根据种族来挑选申请者。

司法部星期四（5月14日）发表声明说，对耶鲁大学医学院长达一年的调查显示，在考试成绩相同的情况下，黑人和西班牙裔学生被录取的概率远高于白人或亚裔学生，他们也通常以较低的学术标准被录取。

司法部没有说明这一调查结果会带来什么后果，但指民权法禁止接受联邦财政援助的机构，实施基于种族和民族的歧视措施。

耶鲁大学在2025财年从美国国立卫生研究院获得近6亿8000万美元（约8亿7000万新元）的拨款，在全美各大学中位列第六。医学院尤其依赖联邦资金来资助研究，并为学生提供助学金和贷款，帮助他们支付高昂的学费。

耶鲁大学回应时表明，对医学院严格的招生程序充满信心。

特朗普政府近期将目光聚焦于顶尖医学院的招生问题，司法部在推动高等教育改革的进程中扮演着主导角色。

就在不到两周前，司法部指控加州大学洛杉矶分校医学院存在根据种族歧视申请者的行为。今年3月，司法部还对斯坦福大学、加州大学圣地亚哥分校和俄亥俄州立大学的医学院招生情况展开调查。

目前，司法部正在起诉哈佛大学，指控哈佛未能提供自身招生情况的相关文件。