Unpacking everything Trump hopes to accomplish in China; Zohran’s Intifada realized

Summary

10 Minute Drill — May 13, 2026

Host: Matt Whitlock
Episode Theme:
A rapid-fire deep dive on President Trump’s high-stakes trip to China, the realization of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “Intifada” rhetoric in New York City, and a viral, calamitous interview with California gubernatorial frontrunner Javier Becerra.

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President Trump’s China Trip: Stakes, Controversies, and U.S.-China Tensions

[00:38-06:32]

• Trump Heads to China:
  • Trump arrives for a whirlwind trip: key bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping on Thursday, official events on Friday, and return to the White House late Friday.
  • The visit has “major ramifications for our conflict in Iran, the global energy trade, our trade agreements with China, and, as we’ve talked about a number of different episodes, the rest of the world…” (Host, 01:26)
• U.S.-China Relationship Context:
  • China has been “the great political football in the American political universe over the last decade.”
  • Host contrasts Trump and Biden’s China approaches, focusing on trade and accusations of being soft on Chinese interests.
  • Example policies raised:
    • Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act “relaxed rules that allowed Chinese parts into American markets as a part of their electric vehicle buildout.” (Host, 02:00)
    • Trump’s push for “a little bit more balance” in trade, but criticism over rumored China investment plan.
• Controversy: $1 Trillion China Investment Deal?
  • Reports (Rostroy) allege Trump is considering a deal for massive Chinese investment in U.S. factories.
  • Host: “A trillion dollar investment in America from China is a huge, huge problem… jeopardize our national security.” (Host, 03:18)
  • The White House denies these reports.
• TikTok and National Security:
  • Trump’s efforts to keep TikTok in the U.S. are viewed by the host as another susceptibility to Chinese influence.
  • “We know [TikTok] is a major national security vulnerability.” (Host, 04:03)
• Persistent Espionage Threats:
  • Case study: Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang admits spying for China (Host, 04:16)
  • Recurrent attempts to infiltrate Congressional staff; references to Eric Swalwell’s scandal.
  • “China has an incredibly complex spy apparatus to try and get into the U.S. Government at all levels…” (Host, 05:06)
• China’s Role in U.S. Domestic Debates:
  • Host highlights Chinese involvement in misinformation campaigns against U.S. data centers (AI race), referencing Michael Lucci:

    “Communist China hates USA data centers. The CCP wants to achieve with propaganda what they don’t dare try with bombs.” — Michael Lucci [05:21]

  • Allegations of China funding climate activism undermining U.S. energy, despite Chinese expansion of coal power.

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Zohran’s Intifada Realized: NYC Protests and Anti-Semitism

[06:32-08:13]

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Rhetoric:
  • Discusses Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada,” and how host interprets it as a veiled call for violence:

  “But what everybody else understood it to mean is time to wipe out Jewish people in the United States.” (Host, 06:47)

• Rising Incidents in NYC:
  • Quotes Combat Antisemitism Movement:
    • “For second time in a week, anti Israel mob besieges New York City synagogue, Hezbollah flags and banners bearing the red inverted triangle Hamas uses to designate targets were seen in the crowd. And demonstrators repeatedly chanted, brick by brick, wall by wall, Zionism will fall. There is only one solution. Intifada revolution.” (Host, 07:35)
  • Host draws parallels to waves of anti-Semitic violence in Europe and urges NY leadership to take it seriously.

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Supreme Court & Redistricting: Alabama, Tennessee, and Democratic Stumbles

[08:13-10:00]

• Alabama Redistricting:
  • Supreme Court allows new congressional maps; significant because it could lead to GOP gains.
  • Host: “This follows just days ago, Tennessee passed new maps that will get rid of the one racially gerrymandered district around Memphis.” (08:42)
• Shifting Political Dynamics:
  • In Tennessee, new district likely to send a Black Republican woman to Congress instead of long-serving Democrat Steve Cohen (a “white male representing the area around Memphis”).
  • Quote from guest [09:38]:

    “The woman now who is likely going to win the 9th district in Tennessee is a black Republican woman. As a result of this redistricting effort, it’s likely gonna be a black Republican woman who beats that old white man.”

• Host’s Commentary on Democratic Messaging:
  • Democrats accused of focusing on power rather than true representation.
  • South Carolina example: “Forgetting the fact that they currently have an African American representing them in the United States Senate. The problem is he’s of the wrong party.” (Host, 10:00)

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Virginia Democrats’ Legal Blunders

[10:00-11:44]

• A Comedy of Errors:
  • Recap of Democrats’ mishaps after losing a major referendum:
    • $80 million “lit on fire” for illegal effort
    • Misspelled “Virginia” and “Senator” on Supreme Court filing
    • Filed to the wrong Supreme Court (“Virginia” instead of “U.S.”)
  • Host lampoons the situation, referencing an RNC tweet:

    “On the left, you have the Virginia Supreme Court. On the right, you have a picture of the United States Supreme Court. Hope this helps. J. Jones.” (Host, 11:32)

  • Concludes that Democratic donors and voters must be demoralized by the “comedy of errors.”

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Notable Quotable: California’s Governor Front-Runner Melts Down

[11:44-14:39]

• Awkward Interview with Javier Becerra:
  • Becerra’s media inexperience exposed as he tries to set gentle terms after the cameras are rolling.
  • Exchange:
    • [12:35] Interviewer: “By the way, this is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece. Right?”
    • [12:39] Javier Becerra: “Well, look, I think these questions are fair. It’s in order to learn about you as a candidate.”
    • [12:46] Interviewer: “So long as about the profile.”
    • [12:49] Javier Becerra: “I don’t know how you define profile, but I’d like to begin the interview.”
  • Host: “Yikes. Now, again, I’ve set up a lot of these interviews. … They’re not talking about the terms of the interview, of is this going to be a softball profile?” (Host, 12:54)
  • Comparison to Katie Porter’s adversarial interview meltdown.
• Further Meltdown on Immigration Question:
  • Interview on lost migrant children:
    • [13:47] Interviewer: “During your time as HHS secretary, a New York Times investigation found the Health Department couldn’t find some 85,000 children it had released.”
    • [13:55] Javier Becerra: “That’s not accurate. What you just read is not accurate. First, that’s what I’ll say, because it was never the case that we could not find kids. You’re essentially, I don’t know if you got those talking points from Donald Trump.”
    • [14:07] Interviewer: “It’s from a New York Times article.”
  • Host: “The old ‘you got that from Donald Trump’… Oh wait, actually, it was the New York Times kerfuffle. That’s pretty rough.” (Host, 14:08)
  • Concludes: “A reminder that most Democrats are not used to any kind of scrutiny. They are used to kid glove treatment and soft profiles.” (Host, 14:08)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “China has an incredibly complex spy apparatus to try and get into the U.S. Government at all levels to get any information that they can.”
• “This is outright terrorism, an attempt to harass, to intimidate, and to carry out violence.” (Host, re: anti-Semitic protests in NYC, 07:55)
• “If you thought it was awkward for him to be asking if this was going to be a nice softball profile was the worst part of that interview, you’d be wrong. It actually got a little bit worse.” (Host, 13:39)

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Core Takeaways

• Trump’s China trip is fraught with peril, policy ambiguity, and U.S. internal anxieties about Chinese influence.
• In New York, anti-Semitic incidents surge amid rhetoric that, according to the host, mainstreams explicitly radical aims.
• Political redistricting and Supreme Court maneuvers affect party outlooks, with Republicans in a favorable position.
• Democrats’ organizational and rhetorical blunders in Virginia and California signify a party out of sorts.
• The host’s tone is sardonic, rapid, and unapologetically partisan, with frequent sarcasm and pointed barbs.

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For listeners looking for quick, digestible, and sharply opinionated insights into U.S. current events with a conservative slant, this episode of 10 Minute Drill delivers.

Transcript

[Host]

President Trump arrives in China. We break down the stakes of this huge trip. We're going to talk about Xuron's Intifada as it breaks out in the open in New York City. And then lastly, Javier Becerra, the current frontrunner for California governor, steps in it in several different ways. All of that and so much more. Today on a special Wednesday 10 minute drill. Everybody get up. Get up. The story of America is the story of an adventure.

[Guest Speaker 1]

I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. We are a nation under God and I believe God intended for us to be free.

[Host]

Today, President Trump is arriving in China after a lot of fanfare for his departure yesterday. Now, this is a whirlwind trip. While he'll arrive today, most of the events will happen Thursday and then Friday. On Thursday, we'll have the long awaited bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping, which we're gonna talk about the weight of that and what's going into that and a number of different things to consider about our relationship with China. Then on Friday, there's a cooperation tea, there's photographs, and then he will head back and get back to the White House on Friday evening. So this is a jam packed whirlwind with major ramifications for our conflict in Iran, the global energy trade, our trade agreements with China, and as we've talked about a number of different episodes, the rest of the world, because the entire world seems to revolve a little bit around America and China and our trade relationships. When you see protectionist policies coming from Europe or South America, in places like Brazil, a lot of times it's happening at the same time as they're cozying up to China. So China has been the great sort of ancillary power to the United States. We're gonna break all of that down today. The ways that they've been adversaries, the things that we need to watch for, but also what this can mean going forward. There's a lot of breaking news in the world, whether it's President Trump and China, whether it's what's going on in California, anywhere else. If you like what you're hearing on the 10 minute drill, or, or there's something you want to hear more of, please leave us a review, leave us a comment and tell us what you think. China's been the great political football in the American political universe over the last decade. You may remember that after the coronavirus pandemic took off, Joe Biden ran for office in 2020, promising to hold China accountable. We are going to hold China accountable to follow the rules. Not only did he end up not following through with that in multiple conversations, phone calls, things like that, but he actually found a lot of to cater to China, famously. For example, in a number of his policies, including for example, the inflation Reduction Act, Democrats relax rules that allowed Chinese parts into American markets as a part of their electric vehicle buildout. A number of controversial things like that. President Trump has run repeatedly also on holding China accountable, particularly with our trade relationships. And as I think everyone has seen, he's made good, at least on the part of ensuring that our trade relationships with China have a little bit more balance in them. But that's going to be a huge focus today. Another major storyline of President Trump going into this is a lot of reports about President Trump trying to secure deals for Chinese investment in the United States. Mr. Trump and Xi Jinping are reportedly considering a deal to allow China to invest $1 trillion in the US largely to build factories on American soil. Trump on the verge of making massive error against AIDS advice. Now, this was a report in Rostroy that a number of conservatives react to saying a trillion dollar investment in America from China is a huge, huge problem. We've already seen just how much China can do when they own farmland, when they have business interests even in our hemisphere. And so there's gonna be a lot of effort to push President Trump in the direction of not doing anything like this that would jeopardize our national security. The White House has pushed back on these reports, saying there's nothing to them. But it's worth being concerned after seeing how President Trump has handled the TikTok situation where a law was passed and upheld by the suprem TikTok and President Trump has fought very hard to work around that to keep TikTok in the United States even though we know is a major national security vulnerability. Now, as we've said, President Trump has tried to show a very strong relationship with Xi Jinping and the fact that he can work well with him, the fact that they have a warm, friendly relationship. But at the same time, China's adversarial actions toward the United States have not decreased with President Trump in office. Just yesterday, major reports. Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang admits acting as Chinese spy running fake news website with X lover in shocking plea deal. This is an elected mayor of a town in California, Acadia California who had a mayor that was acting as a Chinese spy. And this is not the only example of this. This from the China Select Committee. A would be spy offered a staffer on China select $10,000 for insider information on U.S. policy. Our staffer's response, report it, document it, and expose it as a select committee. We referred the matter to the FBI after documenting the outreach and collecting call transcripts. But you'll also remember Eric Swalwell had a scandal in which a Chinese spy infiltrated his office. This has happened in local governments around the country. There's been stories of this, but there's also been a lot of stories of Hill staffers, things like that China has an incredibly complex spy apparatus to try and get into the US Government at all levels to get any information that they can't. They have been adversarial for decades and that hasn't changed in any way. But we also have seen them engaged in our political system in other ways. For example, through in the last few months, campaigns against data centers to ensure that China has an edge in the AI race. This from Michael Lucci. What you need to know about American data centers. Communist China hates them. Lower utility bills are great. Jobs and growth are amazing. But never forget Communist China hates USA data centers. The CCP wants to achieve with propaganda what they don't dare try with bombs. There is a flurry of misinformation about data centers, their impacts on neighborhoods, things like that, a lot of which can be traced back to China because China wants to keep an AI advantage. And if they're able to kneecap our ability to build data centers to power AI, they'll have an edge there. There is plenty of opportunities to ask questions about data centers in your neighborhood, and there may be legitimate questions about it. But it's important to note that our adversaries are funding campaigns and misinformation against them. They feel very similar to the way that China is participating in the climate alarmism movement here in the United States, for example, through groups like Energy Foundation China. This from the Free Press Exclusive. Republicans accuse climate groups of doing China's dirty work in the United States. There was an entire Senate hearing on this issue. The fact that China has found ways to fund climate alarmism groups here in the United States. A number of groups that you've heard of large left wing dark money groups that have taken money from China from the Chinese Communist Party to try and fight against American energy. Completely ignorant or maybe completely aware of the fact that at the same time China was building coal plants every single day, making the climate significantly worse. And so again, we've seen China have very complex and in many cases very smart approaches to find useful idiots here in the United States to push their agenda and work against ours. And President Trump is aware of this as he sits down with Xi Jinping to try and figure out a path forward. One thing that we talked about when Zoran Mandami was elected the mayor of New York is his call to globalize the intifada and what that means. Now, he's tried to downplay that and suggest it's just a thematic thing about sort of Palestinian pride and things like that, but what everybody else understood it to mean is time to wipe out Jewish people in the United States. So it's not a coincidence that we've seen more and more incidents of anti Semitic violence around New York under Zoran's watch from the Combat Anti Semitism movement. For second time in a week, anti Israel mob besieges New York City synagogue, Hezbollah flags and banners bearing the red inverted triangle Hamas uses to designate targets were seen in the crowd. And demonstrators repeatedly chanted, brick by brick, wall by wall, Zionism will fall. There is only one solution. Intifada revolution. So a lot of times people that defend anti Semitism try and say they're just fighting against Israel, they're just fighting against the nation of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, things like that. They're going to a synagogue and they're carrying Hamas flags. So this is outright terrorism, an attempt to harass, to intimidate and to carry out violence. And it looks a lot like the terrible images that we've seen from Europe over the last several years, in part due to their mass migration problems. And we hope that Zoran Mamda and New York leaders will take this seriously and find ways to crack down on it before more people see this and think this kind of behavior is okay in the United States of America. On Monday night, the U.S. supreme Court voted to allow Alabama to redraw their congressional maps following their decision. Just a few weeks before outlawing racial gerrymandering from decision desk, Alabama has implemented the map its legislature passed in 2023, which changes lines in four districts. Rep. Shamari figures a Democrat faces reelection bid in a Trump 14 district, making Alabama second a likely GOP pickup. Now they're moving those primaries to August instead of next week so that they can use maps that are no longer illegal. This follows. Just days ago, Tennessee passed new maps that will get rid of the one racially gerrymandered district amount around Memphis. Now, what's important to note about this district is the Memphis area district is a majority minority district. However, the person currently representing it is this guy. That is Steve Cohen, an old white male representing the area around Memphis. It's created a unique dynamic for Democrats to message around, because the person who will run for Republicans in that district now that it's a much more fair district is a black woman, which creates interesting dynamics like this on cnn.

[Guest Speaker 2]

The woman now who is likely going to win the 9th district in Tennessee is a black Republican woman. As a result of this redistricting effort, it's likely gonna be a black Republican woman who beats that old white man.

[Host]

One thing that's important to remember here is Democrats want you to believe this is about race and representation, but it's really just about power. For example, as we talk about South Carolina potentially getting rid of one of what's now become an illegal majority minority district, you have Democrats opining, when will South Carolina ever be able to elect an African American to represent them again, forgetting the fact that they currently have an African American representing them in the United States Senate. The problem is he's of the wrong party. And so for them, it doesn't necessarily feel like the win. Checking back in on Virginia, we continue to have a comedy of errors around Democrats and the way that they're handling this horrific loss. On Friday, just to go through the sequencing of things. First, they blew $80 million on a referendum that everyone warned them was illegal. That already is gonna hurt your credibility with the base and with donors. Then they filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to show that they were doing something. But as we talked about yesterday, on the first page of that filing, they misspelled Virginia and Senator. Now, thirdly, and perhaps best of all in their actual arguments, and they made a mistake of filing it to the wrong court. They have sent this appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court even though they're looking for relief in the United States Supreme Court. So again, they sent it to the wrong place. Now, if you were to look at their actual arguments, they're also insane. They're trying to appeal to federal law for something that is very, very clearly a state issue. They're trying to appeal to a Supreme Court that they know they're going to lose to. Their goal with this was to be able to say, look at the illegitimate United States Supreme Court. But they've embarrassed themselves so much by sending it to the wrong place and having all these misspellings. They won't even have a messaging opportunity there to deal with. And here's a great tweet from the RNC highlighting their error. On the left, you have the Virginia Supreme Court. On the right, you have a picture of the United States Supreme Court. Hope this helps. J. Jones. So, again, if you're a Democrat voter or a donor who has seen their money lit on fire in this process, and then you see that Hakeem Jeffries has jumped in here to try and steer this ship and fix the mess, and you see that it's only getting worse with more and more mistakes and errors, you can't possibly be feeling very good about your party right now. Far you can't make it up segment today we go back to California, which has just been a factory of incredible content over these last few weeks. The one person we haven't spent as much time talking about in the California governor's race is the person who looks to be the current frontrunner, Javier Becerra. Now, Becerra did an interview that went mega viral yesterday for all the wrong reasons. First, he wanted to set the terms of the interview after the camera was already rolling, and it was incredibly awkward.

[Interviewer]

By the way, this is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece. Right.

[Javier Becerra]

Well, look, I think these questions are fair. It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.

[Interviewer]

So long as about the profile.

[Javier Becerra]

I don't know how you define profile, but I'd like to begin the interview.

[Interviewer]

The way I describe profile is you talk about all the things that I've done, things I want to do.

[Host]

Yikes. Now, again, I've set up a lot of these interviews. I've prepped elected officials for interviews like this before. If they sit down and the camera's rolling, they're ready to go. They're not talking about the terms of the interview, of is this going to be a softball profile? But it's important to remember, Javier Becerra has never been held up to any kind of real scrutiny. In every job he's had, he's been the seventh to tenth most important person. So he's never faced tough media. So when he sits down and says, this is gonna be a nice softball profile where you talk about all the cool things I've done and don't ask me any hard questions, it reminds me a little bit of Katie Porter with her explosive blow up when she said she didn't want to have an adversarial conversation because the reporter was asking her pretty simple questions.

[Interviewee]

I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don't want the stuff all on camera.

[Host]

But if you thought it was awkward for him to be asking if this was going to be a nice softball profile was the worst part of that interview, you'd be wrong. It actually got a little bit worse

[Javier Becerra]

during your time as HHS secretary. A New York Times investigation found the Health Department couldn't find some 85,000 children it had released.

[Interviewer]

That's not accurate. What you just read is not accurate. First, that's what I'll say, because it was never the case that we could not find kids. You're essentially, I don't know if you got those talking points from Donald Trump.

[Javier Becerra]

It's from a New York Times article.

[Host]

Yikes. The old you got that from Donald Trump. Oh, wait. Actually, it was the New York Times kerfuffle. That's pretty rough. The New York Times is not a conservative outlet by any means. But the fact that Javier Becerra was not prepared for this question, even though it has been in attack ads from Democrats for over a year now, is pretty shocking. But a reminder that most Democrats are not used to any kind of scrutiny. They are used to kid glove treatment and soft profiles.

[Interviewer]

By the way, this is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece.

[Host]

That is all the time we have for today. Thank you so much for joining us on 10 Minute Drill. Please leave us a review like subscribe, tell your friends and have a great day.