Mr. President, Don't Go To China

On Wednesday, Iran's foreign minister landed in Beijing for talks with Wang Yi, his Chinese counterpart. The same day, China's Commerce Ministry ordered Chinese firms to ignore American sanctions on Iranian oil. The Iranian state media made sure the world saw the photographs.

A week from now, the President of the United States is scheduled to arrive in the Chinese capital for a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping. Boeing's CEO is accompanying President Trump. So is Citigroup's. The aircraft order in the offing is rumored to be ‘enormous.’ The Beast, the US presidential limousine, is already on the tarmac at Beijing Capital International.

The trip should not happen, and it should not happen for reasons that ought to be obvious to everyone in the West Wing.

Mr. President, you have built real leverage on China. You knocked out Maduro's regime in Venezuela and went after Iran, two of the three pillars of Beijing's energy and influence strategy. Russia remains the third. You forced Xi to negotiate from a defensive crouch. Your State Department's national security strategy names China as the long-term threat. Conservative analysts who have spent their careers warning about Beijing, Gordon Chang chief among them, have called your approach the most clear-eyed since Reagan.

Thirteen American service members have been killed since the Iran war began on February 28. Three hundred eighty-one have been wounded. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this week that China buys ninety percent of Iran's energy, which makes Beijing the financier of “the largest state sponsor of terrorism.” Every barrel of Iranian crude that moves through a Chinese refinery pays for the missiles, drones, and proxy networks that have been killing American troops for the last two months.

Beijing's order issued on the eve of your arrival was intentional. It was to formally instruct Chinese companies to defy your sanctions. Analysts called the move “unprecedented.” Beijing reached for a law it had never used before, a 2021 rule that lets Chinese courts punish any company that complies with American sanctions. The message to Washington was a dare. Enforce the sanctions and see what happens.

Consider how the trip will be read in the Great Hall of the People. A Chinese foreign policy adviser at Fudan University, Wu Xinbo, told CNN this week that the war “has actually turned out to be favorable to China” and that the United States “no longer appears to hold a dominant upper hand.” A second Chinese source explained the calculation more bluntly. Once President Trump shakes hands with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, he cannot easily resume bombing Iran without humiliating Xi as a host who failed to protect his ally. Beijing will read the visit as a sign that Washington wants to stabilize relations even as China keeps backing Iran.

Gordon Chang put it plainly on Forbes Newsroom this week, saying the optics are ‘not good for us.’ In March, when the war was new and three Americans had just been killed, Chang argued that going to Beijing would legitimize the Chinese regime at a moment when it was weak. Two months later, ten more Americans are dead, China has openly defied your sanctions, and the case for staying home is stronger.

American CEOs will fly in on the presidential delegation, signing aircraft orders worth billions in the Great Hall, while flag-draped coffins continue to come home. Beijing gets its photograph of an American president on Chinese soil, smiling next to the man who is bankrolling the war against American forces. What does America get?

This is not the first time Beijing has paid no price for American deaths. Over one million Americans died from a virus that the CIA now assesses more likely emerged from a Chinese laboratory than from nature. TIPP polling shows 71% of Americans believe China covered up the outbreak, and 63% believe Beijing should be held legally accountable. China has never apologized, never opened its records, never accepted responsibility. The world moved on because Beijing refused to answer. A state visit five years later, while Chinese-funded weapons kill American troops, tells Xi the same lesson he learned then: there is no cost.

The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has argued that the trip “could be the most significant encounter between American and Chinese leaders since Richard Nixon met Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1972.” Just as Nixon and Mao aligned against the Soviet Union, Friedman writes, Trump and Xi should align against the rogue use of artificial intelligence. However, there is one problem. Five days earlier, Friedman published a different column declaring that Trump is the one “without the cards at the poker table,” that he will fold to Iran, and that he is destined to live up to his TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) label.

So, which is it? Is Trump the chickening-out president with no leverage, or is he the next Nixon, ready to forge a generational alliance with Xi Jinping? He cannot be both. The analogy fails on its own terms anyway. Nixon and Mao had a common adversary with a return address. The threat Friedman names this week is a technology, not a country, and a handshake cannot contain it. Nixon went to Beijing to peel China away from an enemy. Trump would be arriving in Beijing while China continues financing the regime that is fighting American forces. Friedman has the analogy backward.

Some will argue that canceling the visit now hands Xi a propaganda win, but the math runs the other way. A canceled summit is a story for a week. A summit that produces Boeing contracts and pageantry while Beijing keeps fueling the war is a story Xi will tell his Politburo for a decade.

The better course is the harder one. Postpone the trip. Tell Beijing the visit will be back on the calendar the day Chinese refiners stop buying Iranian crude and the Strait of Hormuz reopens. Tell Boeing and Citi the meeting was deferred until the host country stops financing a war against American troops. Use the leverage your administration has created. China imports about a third of its oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz and needs the Strait open more than Americans do.

Xi Jinping has not earned the privilege of hosting an American president while China continues financing Iran. You owe American service members the dignity of a president who refuses to walk that red carpet until the killing stops.

Mr. President, don't go to China. Not while Americans are dying from weapons Beijing paid for.

Global Affairs

A Negotiated Settlement For A Sovereign Iran Is Nigh Impossible—Alastair Crooke, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

Putin Should Be Challenged To Restore Local Democracy In Russia—Roger Myerson, Project Syndicate

The Consensus on China’s Economy Is Strong—and Wrong—Arvind Subramanian, Project Syndicate

Danger Of A World Catastrophe—Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

Trump: ‘Project Freedom’ On Hold Amid Iran Talks—George Caldwell, The Daily Signal

Trump Strikes Out Again—Philip Giraldi, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

National Affairs

House Majority Leader Insists The Price Of Gas Is Low—Adam Dick, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

Find Your Strait Of Hormuz Before It Finds You—Mark Pfeifle, TIPP Insights

FBI Raids Virginia Senate Leader’s Office In Corruption Probe—Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal

Lutnick Tells House Panel No Personal Or Professional Relationship With Epstein—Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal

Trump Sends Warning To RINOS Via The Indiana State Senate—Virginia Grace McKinnon, The Daily Signal

The NFL Draft And Public Buses—Benjamin Seevers, Mises Wire

Border District Dem Wants A ‘Stand Down’ For Border Security Operations—Pedro Rodriguez, The Daily Signal

President Trump Proposes Meaningful Cuts To The Education Budget—Madison Marino Doan, The Daily Signal

‘Literal Foreign Interference’ GOP Officials Push Congressional Dual Citizenship Ban—Pedro Rodriguez, The Daily Signal

Trump Is A Human Being! (And So Are People On The Left)—Al Perrotta, The Daily Signal

Campaign Ad Exposing LA Mayor Bass On Palisades Fires Goes Viral—Angelina Delfin, The Daily Signal

Mamdani Uses Taxpayer Money To Build A City-Funded Activist Army—Jarrett Stepman, The Daily Signal

Mehek Cooke Warns Ideological Decisions Are Hurting American Consumers—Mehek Cooke, The Daily Signal

Israel Advocacy Day Brings Pastors, Rabbis And Lawmakers Together In DC—Al Perrotta, The Daily Signal

Economy

Government Kills The Spirit—Ron Paul, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

📊 Market Mood — Friday, May 8, 2026

🟩 Markets Turn Cautious as Hormuz Tensions Flare Again
Renewed U.S.-Iran clashes near the Strait of Hormuz pulled global equities lower.

🟧 Oil Swings Wildly but Ends Below $100
Crude erased early gains as investors continued betting diplomacy could still prevail.

🟦 Jobs Report Becomes the Next Big Test
Markets shifted focus to April payrolls as energy-driven inflation fears complicate the Fed outlook.

🟨 Software Earnings Trigger Sharp Tech Moves
AI-linked cloud deals boosted some software names, while weaker guidance hammered others.

🗓️ Key Economic Events — Friday, May 8, 2026

🟧 08:30 ET — April Jobs Report

• Nonfarm Payrolls: expected at 65K (vs. 178K prior)
• Unemployment Rate: seen steady at 4.3%
• Average Hourly Earnings (MoM): expected at +0.3% (vs. +0.2% prior)