With fewer than 40 days until the midterms, Trump hosted Xi Jinping for a state dinner and offered guests a tour of his ballroom. Eric Garcia argues the spectacle leaves Republicans little to offer voters worried about gas prices, AI and the Iran war.
An NBC News poll showed Democrats with a nine-point lead when voters were asked which party they would choose for the House. Republicans were scrambling to win seats in Georgia and Michigan while defending races in Kansas, Iowa and Texas. In North Carolina, Michael Whatley trailed former governor Roy Cooper in polls; in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Trump backed against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary, trailed Democrat James Talarico in almost every poll.
Trump also featured tech CEOs Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Sergey Brin of Google. The next day, he said Xi agreed with his attempt to rebrand AI as “super intelligence.” Sen. Thom Tillis criticized welcoming Xi, citing evidence he said suggested China had at some point during the Iran conflict assisted Iran with information used for targeting. Sen. Josh Hawley said he was counting on Trump to stay tough on China. Trump called AI fears a “hoax,” while House Speaker Mike Johnson brushed off calls to regulate AI.
