Trump news at a glance: president’s China trip was heavy on hype, light on details

Trump notably failed to push back on Xi Jinping’s rhetoric over the future of Taiwan – key US politics stories from Friday, 15 May at a glance

Donald Trump returned to Washington DC on Friday after a much-hyped summit in China that was rich in pageantry and promises of stability, but offered little by way of tangible progress.

The US president had gone into the two-day talks with China’s Xi Jinping weakened by his prolonged war in Iran, and did little to change the perception that he and his nation are diminished on the global stage.

In his final remarks in Beijing on Friday, Trump did claim that the US and China had struck “fantastic trade deals”, although details were scarce, and said he and Xi had settled “a lot of different problems”.

But critics are likely to suggest that the carefully choreographed summit – attended by tech executives including Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of Apple, as well as Trump’s son Eric – was more performative than substantive, with no major breakthrough on Iran, Taiwan or the countries’ AI arms race.

Instead, as he departed, Trump posted on his Truth Social network: “China has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.!” – a reference to his long-running campaign to build a $400m ballroom at the White House.

China’s Xi Jinping delivered the sharpest rhetoric of the meeting – over the future status of the self-governing island of Taiwan, with Trump notably failing to push back.

On Friday, Trump insisted that “nothing’s changed” about the US policy on Taiwan, while admitting that he may not approve a major arms sale for the self-governing island. Speaking to Fox News on the flight back to the US, the president said he made no commitment regarding the island, adding: “I don’t think there’s a conflict on Taiwan.”

Officials in the small Georgia town of Social Circle have filed a lawsuit against federal immigration agencies over plans for a huge immigration detention facility, arguing the project threatens to overburden local services and damage the environment.

The supreme court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.

The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition .

Tensions between Cuba and the US seem set to rise further amid reports thatRaúl Castro, the country’s 94-year-old former president, may soon face the type of indictment that led to the US abduction of the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January.

The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog.

The Colorado governor, Jared Polis, commuted the nearly nine-year prison sentence of a former Colorado clerk who allowed unauthorized people to access her county’s voting systems in a case that had been an intense focus of Donald Trump and other allies who sought to overturn the 2020 election.

An advocacy organization representing US veterans has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the reinstatement of a ban on abortion services and counseling for veterans and their dependents facing certain pregnancy-related dangers and circumstances.

Democratic representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee on Friday announced that he is ending his bid for re-election, his career upended by the redistricting battles that are sweeping the country after last month’s supreme court decision.

A Tennessee school district has banned Roots, the author Alex Haley’s groundbreaking novel and one of the most renowned and influential works about the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade.

The US justice department has arrested and charged an Iraqi national accused of involvement in nearly 20 alleged terror attacks and attempted attacks across the US and Europe.

One of the largest pediatric hospitals in the US is creating a clinic that officials say will be a place for transgender youth to detransition to the sex they were assigned at birth.

Democratic state representatives in Minnesota staged an overnight sit-in in their house chamber on Thursday after the Republican speaker failed to put a gun violence prevention bill up for a vote.

Bard College’s board of trustees “voted to end” the 51-year tenure of Leon Botstein, the school’s president, last month after board members were presented with the results of an independent review of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to emails seen by the Guardian. Botstein framed his departure as a long-planned retirement in a statement on 1 May.

Catching up? Here’s what happened on 14 May 2026.