◼ It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has sought, from the outset of his second term, a face-to-face summit in Beijing with China’s Xi Jinping. At the top of his agenda has been his dissatisfaction with the Sino-American trade regime. But the meeting, which was initially slated to take place in April, had to be postponed while the war with Iran was ongoing. They are meeting in May, even though the war continues. Our hope is that Trump will persuade the CCP to release Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai. Reportedly, though, Trump has a new agenda item atop his list: resolving the war with Iran to his satisfaction. He seeks to enlist Xi to that end, thereby handing the Chinese Communist Party an imprudent amount of influence over American strategic affairs. Xi’s regime played a leading role in negotiating a thaw in relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023, and he will doubtless take the opportunity to augment China’s influence in the Middle East. Why Trump would conclude that Beijing has America’s best interests in mind is anyone’s guess.

◼ Secretary of State Marco Rubio went to the Vatican to meet with Pope Leo XIV following the latter’s criticism of the Iran war and Trump’s consequent labeling of him as “WEAK on crime” and amenable to Iran’s having nuclear weapons. This time, everyone was diplomatic. Rubio called the meeting “very cordial” and “very positive,” and a papal spokesman referred to the duo’s “shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity.” This fight was wholly unnecessary: Trump could have taken papal criticism in stride, as both Presidents Bush did during their Mideast wars. For now, at least, another fragile cease-fire has been brokered.

◼ Virginia Democrats drew an outrageous 10–1 gerrymander that would put the Beltway in charge of all but one of the purple state’s districts. They got it narrowly upheld in a misleadingly worded referendum, only for the state supreme court to rule that the way Virginia Democrats changed the districts violated the state constitution. Furious Democrats, however, are now advocating steps as radical as removing the entire Virginia court and packing the U.S. Supreme Court to get their way. If left unattended, this primal partisan rage will damage our political system.

◼ After being confirmed by a historically narrow margin of 54–45—the only senator to cross party lines was John Fetterman—Kevin Warsh is the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. Congratulations, and commiserations. The release of disappointingly high producer price inflation numbers on the day of the Senate vote was a reminder that Warsh is in for a rough ride. On the one hand, Warsh faces the prospect of relentless badgering by a president for whom, it sometimes seems, no interest rate can be too low. On the other, he has to reassure financial markets uneasy about inflation. With the national debt as high as it is, rising interest rates come at a steep price, but Warsh should never forget that if the Fed is seen as being soft on inflation or too deferential toward the president, then that interest bill could easily rise by a lot more. Hang tough, Mr. Chairman.

◼ Trump’s plan to add a ballroom to the White House should never have been made into a scandal. Hijacking part of the congressional budget to fund this project, though, is a different matter. The Senate Homeland Security Committee is currently considering the text of the Senate’s next budget reconciliation bill, which will fund immigration-enforcement operations. Included in the bill is $1 billion for the Secret Service to provide security enhancements to the new White House ballroom. Congress has typically funded major renovations to the White House that concern the main structure and its basic operation. But when it comes to decorating the White House or making additions, private donors have increasingly stepped in. Plenty of donors are ready and able to make up for budget shortfalls in this project. The White House should rely on them, not on U.S. taxpayers.

◼ In 2020, the idea that destruction of property cannot be considered violence was all the rage on the left. Property can be replaced, after all. And insurance will probably cover the losses meted out by the mob. That was easy for well-heeled liberals to say when the destruction was generally confined to urban neighborhoods they did not frequent. It might be harder now that we know that much of Los Angeles was put to the torch by an anti-capitalist vigilante. At least, that’s what federal prosecutors allege. According to them, 30-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht ignited the January 2025 Pacific Palisades blaze in which twelve people died and 16,000 structures burned because he was angry at the rich. He was inspired by Luigi Mangione, alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Left-wing hysteria is often ridiculous, but the accumulating consequences can be deadly serious.

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◼ Ultra-budget carrier Spirit Airlines has ceased operations. Elevated jet-fuel costs, because of the war in Iran, contributed to its collapse, but Spirit had been struggling for a while. The airline experienced two bankruptcies in as many years and was chronically unprofitable. Aggressive antitrust policy also deserves blame for Spirit’s demise. In 2024, the company tried to merge with fellow low-cost airline JetBlue to form a stronger rival to the market leaders. But the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission, led by progressive (and “New Right”) darling Lina Khan, killed the deal on the grounds that it would harm competition. By denying the merger, however, the government severed Spirit’s lifeline, resulting in an airline industry with one less competitor. The Trump administration nearly compounded this mistake by considering a bailout of Spirit in exchange for an equity stake. Fortunately, the deal fell apart once the president realized it would be a terrible investment. Government should not kill struggling companies. Nor should it rescue them.

◼ Smith College, one of the largest all-female colleges in the United States, is facing a Title IX investigation by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights after the college admitted men who identify as women, granting them access to women’s spaces such as dormitories and bathrooms. Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination, exempts all-female colleges. The exception ceases to apply when institutions select applicants based on “gender identity” rather than sex. Beyond the legal issues, we wonder just what Smith is teaching in its biology classes.

◼ California’s jungle primary throws all candidates for each office into one race. Amazingly for a deep-blue state, Republican Steve Hilton, a British-born Fox News commentator, runs near the top of the gubernatorial field. Three Democrats join him there: Xavier Becerra, Biden’s secretary of health and human services; Tom Steyer, billionaire climate obsessive; and Katie Porter, former congresswoman legendary for cussing out an aide on camera. Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Trumpier Republican than Hilton, is also a factor. The Los Angeles mayor’s race, meanwhile, features two Democrats, incumbent Karen Bass and city council member Nithya Raman. The latter is a Democratic Socialist, the former an alumna of the pro-Cuban Venceremos Brigade. Their GOP challenger is Spencer Pratt, a sometime reality-TV star. All Republicans are campaigning to throw the bums out. Pratt’s home was incinerated in the Pacific Palisades fire, and he blasts Democrats for mismanaging that emergency and the squalor of the city’s addict-infested streets. Hilton and Bianco are running against the record of departing Governor Gavin Newsom, the pretty-boy lightweight who presided over debt and out-migration. Can a state this sick turn itself over in bed? Best wishes.

◼ “You can’t earn a billion dollars, you just can’t earn that,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez insisted on a podcast, prompting ovine agreement from her interviewer. “You can’t earn that, right? And so you have to create a myth that—since you didn’t earn that, you have to create a myth of earning it.” It is, of course, not a “myth” that Americans can earn a billion dollars. Just ask Michael Jordan, or Jeff Bezos, or Steven Spielberg, or Taylor Swift, all of whom have excelled in their fields and provided services that their customers elected to buy. But there is, indeed, a “myth” in this realm, and it is the one that AOC offers up both explicitly and implicitly: that, in order to earn a billion dollars, one has either to exploit someone else or take their share of the economic pie. The economy doesn’t work like that—especially in America—and, if voters come to believe otherwise, it will derange not only our public policy but our national ethos as well. This is a nation of strivers, not of envy, and the alternative is not paradise but a descent into sclerosis and mediocrity.

◼ The Economist deemed this year’s Victory Day Parade in Moscow—which traditionally features an intimidating array of Russian military hardware—“diminished.” That was an understatement. The parade featured no heavy equipment and no major foreign dignitaries and was atypically short. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky graciously allowed the parade to continue unmolested by Ukraine’s long-range drones. As a metaphor for Russia’s battlefield complications, the scaled-down parade hit the mark. Independent estimates suggest that Russia is losing about 35,000 soldiers per month—contributing to a total of approximately 1.4 million killed or wounded in Putin’s war of conquest so far. In April, for the first time in nearly two years, Russia experienced a net loss of territory inside Ukraine. Amid the Kremlin’s deepening geopolitical isolation, Kyiv has become an investment destination for foreign nations impressed by its innovative counter-drone technologies. This is what it looks like when a great power is losing a war of choice.

◼ Britain’s Labour Party received a well-deserved shellacking in local elections that may bring a premature end to the premiership of Keir Starmer, a prime minister as dull as he is destructive. But hold the champagne. Labour enjoys an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons. If Starmer goes, he will likely be replaced by someone even further to the left, who will not have to call an election until 2029. That’s a political eternity, and it will feel like it. There will be the pain inflicted by Labour, and then there will be interminable guesswork about what comes next. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is coming close to establishing itself as the standard-bearer of the right. But the Tories, under improved leadership, are not dead yet. Nationalists fared well in Scotland and Wales, the Liberal Democrats showed that there is still room for radical “moderates,” and the Greens’ swing further leftward and toward Islamist voters remains on track. The next general election may combine a genuine multiparty contest with a first-past-the-post electoral system, a recipe for unpredictability.

◼ It was not that long ago that partisan Democrats, progressives, and liberals alike were consumed with fear over the unchecked spread of misinformation. That all seems rather quaint now that the Democratic Party has become ensorcelled by it. Myths about Israel seem to enjoy the most currency on the left. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof contributed to this mania when he repeated the extraordinary claim that Israeli security forces have trained dogs to rape male Palestinian detainees. This was not supported by equally extraordinary evidence, but the paper of record didn’t care. Israel is now pursuing a defamation lawsuit against the Times. The Times must know that such allegations, even if facially implausible, exacerbate the threat posed by violent antisemites in the West. But this story was just too good to check.

◼ A 22-foot gilded statue of the president was erected at the Trump National Doral Golf Club. Even for Miami this is a bit much. Of course citizens may decorate their private property as they wish. Reportedly a group of crypto-riche supporters of Trump’s, organized by the Evangelical minister John Mark Burns, pooled $450,000 to finance the thing. You’d think Pastor Burns, Trump’s spiritual adviser (not an official cabinet post), would concern himself with projects more metaphysical than “Don Colossus.” Burns clarified that the statue is not a golden calf. True: It’s much bigger.