President Donald Trump had for weeks been claiming that his administration was in talks with China over his tariff war, while also claiming that President Xi Jinping had called him — a claim China disputed. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later admitted that the administration had not been talking to China, but talks are now planned for this weekend in Switzerland.

“China, we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet,” the Treasury Secretary said on Tuesday, The New York Times reported.

Trump imposed a massive 145% tariff on Chinese imports, a source of contention among the Chinese and many Americans.

On Tuesday, Bessent was asked on Fox News if it was “likely” that he would be able to go back to Trump and say, “to show good faith, we could drop this down in the interim to 50%?”

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And while he said, “I’m not gonna give away our strategy,” Bessent also said, “look, everything’s on the table. It’s up to the president at the end of the day.”

Ahead of the talks with China, President Trump Wednesday afternoon was asked by reporters if he would consider lowering the high tariff “to get China to the negotiating table?”

“No,” was the president’s one-word response.

“Trump has defended the 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, claiming China ‘deserves it’ and would likely absorb the costs,” Yahoo Finance reported Wednesday. “But those comments contrast with efforts inside the administration to consider phased tariff reductions and revive trade talks.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

hours after Bessent left the door open to lowering tariffs on China, Trump says he’s not open to pulling back tariffs on China pic.twitter.com/XALqGUv6jM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 7, 2025

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The nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its report on five separate Republican proposed policies to slash federal spending on Medicaid, a program that currently serves about one in five Americans. The report finds that under the GOP proposals, millions of Americans would be kicked off and have no medical coverage.

The CBO report shows that 2.3 million and nearly nine million Americans would be kicked off Medicaid, based on the proposed Republican cuts to the critical safety net program. Those cuts would lead to no insurance for about half of the Americans removed from the program. The proposals would reduce the federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, but those savings are expected to be used to pay for the Trump administration’s tax cuts, which are largely expected to benefit wealthy Americans the most.

The President has called that legislation his “big, beautiful bill,” but the Congressional Black Caucus calls the proposals “the largest Medicaid cut in history.”

As far back as a decade ago, President Donald Trump vowed, “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican, and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”

In March of this year, a White House “fact check” insisted, “The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. President Trump himself has said it (over and over and over again).”

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The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, finds that: “No matter how these tax cuts are financed, the result will hurt most working families, especially low-income households. The most damaging way to finance TCJA [Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act] extensions would be with spending cuts for programs like SNAP or Medicaid.”

It’s unclear if the House would vote to enact one, several, or perhaps all of the proposals, although Politico reports House Speaker Mike Johnson has said a proposal that would kick 5.5 million off Medicaid is off the table.

“The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been tasked with reducing the deficit by $880 billion, and Republican leaders are eyeing changes to Medicaid to achieve a large portion of that total amount,” Politico adds. “Republicans are coalescing around work requirements for beneficiaries, more frequent eligibility checks in the program and cracking down on coverage for noncitizens. But as they look for more significant savings, divisions have only grown, with hardliners pushing for even steeper cuts and moderates increasingly wary.”

But about six in ten non-senior (19-64 year-old) Medicaid enrollees are already working. Of the 40 percent who are not, barriers include being in school, being a family caregiver, illness or disability, or being unable to find work, according to KFF.

Two top Democrats requested the CBO report: U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey.

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“Republicans continue to use smoke and mirrors to try to trick Americans into thinking they aren’t going to hurt anybody when they proceed with this reckless plan, but fighting reality is an uphill battle,” Senator Wyden said in a statement. “The bottom line is that the Republican bill is going to cut health care for kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities and working families, and Democrats are going to fight to stop it.”

One Republican who has been outspoken about limiting cuts to Medicaid to $500 billion, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, says he is open to increasing work requirements and stepping up eligibility checks—which are administrative costs—but blasted his colleagues who want to pass a bill with massive proposed reductions of up to nearly $900 billion, along with the way they are attempting to do it.

“Here’s the tactic they’ve been using: ‘Don’t worry about the Senate. They’ll fix it.’ And now we’re getting ready to take our third vote on this,” Bacon said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “We feel like we’re being pushed up to the edge of the cliff here.”

See an announcement by U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), below or at this link.

There it is: as Democrats have warned, new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that each GOP proposal to cut Medicaid will lead to millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage. pic.twitter.com/0DETEQ8J9U

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) May 7, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Where Is Duffy?’: Aviation System in Crisis, Transportation Secretary Blames Biden

Image via Shutterstock

When President Donald Trump travels to the Middle East next week, he hopes to finalize a deal for Qatar to purchase 100 Boeing widebody jets—and for the U.S. to buy a used luxury jetliner, described as one of the most lavish in the world, previously owned by that nation’s former prime minister, to replace an aging presidential Air Force One.

President Trump has said little about the mounting aviation crisis America is facing. As NCRM reported on Tuesday, the Trump administration has seen nearly double the number of aviation-related deaths in the U.S. during the first 105 days of his administration, compared to the same time period during President Joe Biden’s first year in office.

There is an immediate crisis as well: a “communications breakdown last week that resulted in air traffic controllers losing radar and radio contact with the pilots of planes they were guiding into Newark Liberty International Airport,” which “has happened at least two other times since August, a current veteran controller told NBC News,” the network reported. “And at least eight or nine times in recent months, controllers lost radio contact with pilots flying into one of the nation’s busiest airports, said the Newark airspace controller who asked not to be identified.”

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Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are looking to use “their aviation and defense industries to turn commercial deals into political capital,” in negotiations that could be worth nearly $3 trillion, according to Bloomberg News.

“For the Middle East governments, the commitments are a tool to show their allegiance to the White House and curry favor with Trump. For his part, the US president wants to burnish his credentials as a consummate dealmaker, while allaying concerns about the robustness of global alliances after Trump’s drastic tariff announcements last month spooked international governments and investors.”

Bloomberg also reports that an Air Force One “upgrade may figure into the proceedings in Doha. A private Boeing 747 jumbo that Trump toured in February, originally owned by a former Qatari prime minister, has emerged as an interim solution to the new Air Force One presidential planes whose nose-to-tail makeover by Boeing is years behind schedule.”

It is unclear if the jets that carry the President of the United States are unsafe, or merely old and in need of an upgrade, or where President Trump is getting the funds to purchase and upgrade the Qatari jet, which once reportedly listed for $400 million. Also unclear is whether there would be any national security issues.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that a Florida-based defense contractor has been named “to ready an interim presidential plane by year’s end, said people with knowledge of the situation.”

The Daily Mail posted photos of the proposed Air Force One replacement, noting that the Qatari-owned luxury jet boasts “leather furniture along with glimmering floors and ceilings,” which match “perfectly with Trump’s famously opulent taste in décor.”

“The conference room has gorgeous tan and cream chairs with deep cushions that are adjustable with the push of a button. The corridors of the plane are lined with reflective, gold-colored walls that are reminiscent of Trump’s design choices at his own properties such as Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan,” and more recently, the Oval Office as well.

On board is a “conference room with deep cushioned chairs that are adjustable with the push of a button,” and a “glimmering corridor inside the plane that jives with Trump’s famous love for anything and everything gold.”

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Image via Reuters