Politics
Trump and Xi skip Taiwan talk despite years of war preparations
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When President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the two leaders talked about trade and drug trafficking — but avoided the one issue that could most likely draw their nations into war: Taiwan.
Both sides have reasons to keep tensions low. Trump’s administration is seeking Chinese cooperation on border enforcement and drug trafficking, while Xi faces growing economic pressures at home. Yet even as diplomacy aims for calm, U.S. defense planners have long prepared for potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
Tensions have only deepened in recent years. Washington has approved high-profile arms sales to Taiwan, U.S. lawmakers such as then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have made high-profile visits, and former President Joe Biden repeatedly pledged to defend the island — only for aides to later clarify that the United States still adheres to its long-standing “One China” policy.
Meanwhile, China has dramatically increased military pressure on Taiwan through large-scale drills that simulate a blockade and invasion. The People’s Liberation Army now conducts near-constant air and naval operations encircling the island — exercises that have become larger, more complex, and more frequent. What once served as symbolic shows of force now resemble rehearsals for cutting off Taiwan’s access to the outside world.
TRUMP, XI MEET IN EFFORT TO RESOLVE TRADE TENSIONS SPARKED BY US TARIFFS
President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shake hands before their meeting in South Korea on Thursday. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The silence from Trump and Xi contrasted sharply with the noise of those military preparations on both sides of the Pacific.
Taiwan watchers have been left guessing about just how much the United States would come to the island’s defense if China invaded — an intentional policy known as strategic ambiguity that Trump has taken to a new level.
The president earlier this month predicted optimistically that China would not invade Taiwan.
“I think we’ll be just fine with China. China doesn’t want to do that,” he said. “As it pertains to Taiwan — and that doesn’t mean it’s not the apple of his eye, because probably it is — but I don’t see anything happening.”
Compared with other conflict zones, Trump has said little about the prospect of war in the Indo-Pacific, leaving allies and adversaries alike uncertain about how far he would go to defend Taiwan.
Some analysts who favor strong U.S. support for Taiwan were relieved the issue didn’t surface, given concerns Trump might trade the island’s interests for economic concessions — such as looser Chinese mineral export restrictions, larger agricultural purchases or cooperation on curbing the precursor chemicals fueling America’s fentanyl crisis.
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“I think it’s a good thing that Taiwan didn’t come up,” said Raymond Kuo, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. “There’s been a lot of concern in Taiwan, especially recently, that it would be sold out for some kind of U.S.–China grand bargain.”
Matthew Kroenig, vice president of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, said he viewed the omission as “neutral,” though he would have preferred the president restate the One China policy while warning Beijing to “knock off its almost daily military coercion and gray-zone activities against Taiwan.”
Kuo noted that Taiwan has sharply increased its defense spending as tensions rise, boosting its budget by roughly 75 percent in the past two years and now allocating a greater share of government funds to defense than the U.S. does proportionally. Still, he warned that production delays in U.S. weapons deliveries — including a backlog that exceeded $20 billion at the start of this year — could weaken Taiwan’s ability to keep pace with China’s military modernization.

Taiwan has sharply increased its defense spending as tensions rise, boosting its budget by roughly 75 percent in the past two years and now allocating a greater share of government funds to defense than the U.S. does proportionally. (Photo by I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images)
Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, said she wasn’t surprised Taiwan stayed off the formal agenda. “There were so many trade issues that were really top of mind for both sides,” she said. “Concerns about a ‘grand bargain’ over Taiwan always seemed far-fetched.”
But Kavanagh cautioned that the United States and China cannot indefinitely avoid the subject. “Things have escalated significantly in recent years, and the long-time understandings around the One China policy and strategic ambiguity have started to erode,” she said. “It’s important for both sides to reaffirm their commitment to peaceful means of resolving their differences.”
She added that the military balance in the region has shifted “rather quickly in China’s favor,” making U.S. deterrence less credible if tensions continue to climb. “The time to pivot to Asia has probably passed,” Kavanagh said, suggesting Washington must now focus on managing competition rather than reversing it.
Inside Trump’s administration, analysts say those competing instincts are visible. “There are really two China policies,” Kroenig said. “The trade folks are looking for deals, while the defense and national-security professionals are focused on the China threat — especially the threat to Taiwan.” That divide mirrors Washington’s broader struggle to reconcile economic engagement with military deterrence.

Taiwan expert Raymond Kuo warned that production delays in U.S. weapons deliveries — including a backlog that exceeded $20 billion at the start of this year — could weaken Taiwan’s ability to keep pace with China’s military modernization. (Daniel Ceng/AP Photo)
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Kroenig added that Trump’s unpredictability may itself be part of his deterrent strategy. “It keeps our adversaries guessing and worried,” he said. “It may be unlikely that China would attack Taiwan under his watch.”
Still, Trump’s meeting with Xi offered little clarity on where the president ultimately stands on Taiwan — or how he would respond if Beijing tested the limits of U.S. commitment to the island’s security. For now, both leaders appear content to keep the most volatile issue in their relationship unspoken. The quiet may help avert confrontation in the short term — but it leaves one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints lingering just beneath the surface.
Politics
Trump backs ICE raid tactics, says they ‘haven’t gone far enough’
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President Donald Trump said he believes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids “haven’t gone far enough” when asked about the federal agency’s tactics that have sparked protests and lawsuits.
Trump sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, who asked the president about videos of an ICE agent shoving a woman to the floor at an immigration courthouse, federal agents deploying tear gas in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood and smashing car windows.
“Have some of these raids gone too far?” O’Donnell asked.
“No. I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the – by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump replied.
Protests and confrontations between immigration rights supporters and law enforcement are seen taking place in Paramount, California, and downtown Los Angeles, on June 7, 2025, following recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security agents. (Taurat Hossain/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“You’re OK with those tactics?” O’Donnell pressed.
“Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown outta their countries because they were, you know, criminals. Many of them are people from jails and prisons. Many of them are people from frankly mental institutions,” he claimed. “I feel badly about that, but they’re released from insane asylums. You know why? Because they’re killers.”
The Trump administration has carried out immigration raids on major American cities to carry out Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conduct an arrest in Chicago, Illinois, on January 26, 2025. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS)
The White House has repeatedly said federal agents are targeting criminal illegal migrants who are the “worst of the worst.”
Fox News previously reported on a leadership shakeup at ICE amid growing friction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over deportation tactics and priorities.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have pushed for a broader and more aggressive immigration enforcement approach, targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers.
FEDERAL JUDGE LIMITS ICE ARRESTS WITHOUT WARRANT, PROBABLE CAUSE
Bovino and other DHS and ICE officials were named in a civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois in early October and accused of using unlawful force to suppress peaceful protests and press activity around the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois.
It was filed by a coalition of journalists, media organizations and individual protesters.
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Trump told CBS News he believes his immigration mission will be complete once “many” of roughly 25 million people are deported.
“Well, it takes a long time, because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country. A lotta people say it was 10 million people. But whether it was ten or – I believe I’m much closer to the right number,” he said. “Of the 25, many of them should not be here. Many of them.”
Politics
Both sides say democracy is at stake with Prop. 50 — but for very different reasons
If the ads are any indication, Proposition 50 offers Californians a stark choice: “Stick it to Trump” or “throw away the constitution” in a Democratic power grab.
And like so many things in 2025, Trump appears to be the galvanizing issue.
Even by the incendiary campaigns California is used to, Proposition 50 has been notable for its sharp attacks to cut through the dense, esoteric issue of congressional redistricting. It comes down to a basic fact: this is a Democratic-led measure to reconfigure California’s congressional districts to help their party win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 and stifle President Trump’s attempts to keep Republicans in power through similar means in other states.
Thus far, the anti-Trump message preached by Proposition 50 advocates, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other top Democrats, appears to be the most effective.
Supporters of the proposal have vastly outraised their rivals and Proposition 50, one of the most expensive ballot measure campaigns in state history, leads in the polls.
“Whenever you can take an issue and personalize it, you have the advantage. In this case, proponents of 50 can make it all about stopping Donald Trump,” said former legislative leader and state GOP Chair Jim Brulte.
Adding to the drama is the role of two political and cultural icons who have emerged as leaders of each side: former President Obama in favor and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against, both arguing the very essence of democracy is at stake.
Schwarzenegger and the two main committees opposing Proposition 50 have focused on the ethical and moral imperative of preserving the independent redistricting commission. Californians in 2010 voted to create the panel to draw the state’s congressional district boundaries after every census in an effort to provide fair representation to all state residents.
That’s not a political ideal easily explained in a 30-section television ad, or an Instagram post.
Redistricting is a “complex issue,” Brulte said, but he noted that “the no side has the burden of trying to explain what the initiative really does and the yes side gets to use the crib notes [that] this is about stopping Trump — a much easier path.”
Partisans on both sides of the aisle agree.
“The yes side quickly leveraged anti-Trump messaging and has been closing with direct base appeals to lock in the lead,” said Jamie Fisfis, a political strategist who has worked on many GOP congressional campaigns in California. “The partisanship and high awareness behind the measure meant it was unlikely to sag under the weight of negative advertising like other initiatives often do. It’s been a turnout game.”
Obama, in ads that aired during the World Series and NFL games, warned that “Democracy is on the ballot Nov. 4” as he urged voters to support Proposition 50. Ads for the most well-funded committee opposing the proposition featured Schwarzenegger saying that opposing the ballot measure was critical to ensuring that citizens are not overrun by elected officials.
“The Constitution does not start with ‘We, the politicians.’ It starts with ‘We, the people,’” Schwarzenegger told USC students in mid-September — a speech excerpted in an anti-Proposition 50 ad. “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”
California’s Democratic-led Legislature voted in August to put the redistricting proposal that would likely boost their ranks in Congress on the November ballot. The measure, pushed by Newsom, was an effort to counter Trump’s efforts to increase the number of GOP members in the House from Texas and other GOP-led states.
The GOP holds a narrow edge in the House, and next year’s election will determine which party controls the body during Trump’s final two years in office — and whether he can further his agenda or is the focus of investigations and possible impeachment.
Noticeably absent for California’s Proposition 50 fight is the person who triggered it — Trump.
The proposition’s opponents’ decision not to highlight Trump is unsurprising given the president’s deep unpopularity among Californians. More than two-thirds of the state’s likely voters did not approve of his handling of the presidency in late October, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll.
Trump did, however, urge California voter not to cast mail-in ballots or vote early, falsely arguing in a social media post that both voting methods were “dishonest.”
Some California GOP leaders feared that Trump’s pronouncement would suppress the Republican vote.
In recent days, the California Republican Party sent mailers to registered Republicans shaming them for not voting. “Your neighbors are watching,” the mailer says, featuring a picture of a woman peering through binoculars. “Don’t let your neighbors down. They’ll find out!”
Tuesday’s election will cost state taxpayers nearly $300 million. And it’s unclear if the result will make a difference in control of the House because of multiple redistricting efforts in other states.
But some Democrats are torn about the amount of money being spent on an effort that may not alter the partisan makeup of Congress.
Johanna Moska, who worked in the Obama administration, described Proposition 50 as “frustrating.”
“I just wish we were spending money to rectify the state’s problems, if we figured out a way the state could be affordable for people,” she said. “Gavin’s found what’s working for Gavin. And that’s resistance to Trump.”
Newsom’s efforts opposing Trump are viewed as a foundational argument if he runs for president in 2028, which he has acknowledged pondering.
Proposition 50 also became a platform for other politicians potentially eyeing a 2026 run for California governor, Sen. Alex Padilla and billionaires Rick Caruso and Tom Steyer.
The field is in flux, with no clear front-runner.
Padilla being thrown to the ground in Los Angeles as he tried to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the Trump administration’s immigration policies is prominently featured in television ads promoting Proposition 50. Steyer, a longtime Democratic donor who briefly ran for president in 2020, raised eyebrows by being the only speaker in his second television ad. Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran against Karen Bass in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral race and is reportedly considering another political campaign, recently sent voters glossy mailers supporting Proposition 50.
Steyer committed $12 million to support Proposition 50. His initial ad, which shows a Trump impersonator growing increasingly irate as news reports showing the ballot measure passing, first aired during “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Steyer’s second ad fully focused on him, raising speculation about a potential gubernatorial run next year.
Ads opposing the proposition aired less frequently before disappearing from television altogether in recent days.
“The yes side had the advantage of casting the question for voters as a referendum on Trump,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist who worked for Schwarzenegger but is not involved with any of the Proposition 50 campaigns. “Asking people to rally to the polls to save a government commission — it’s not a rallying call.”
Politics
Trump admin responds to ‘Dilbert’ creator’s plea to ‘help save my life’ by expediting cancer treatment
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Cartoonist Scott Adams said in a social media post Sunday that he plans to appeal to President Donald Trump for help scheduling a cancer drug treatment that he believes could prolong his life.
Adams, the creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, announced earlier this year that he had metastasized prostate cancer.
He wrote in a post on X that his healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente – Northern California, approved his application to receive a new FDA-approved drug Pluvicto.
“But they have dropped the ball in scheduling the brief IV to administer it and I can’t seem to fix that. I am declining fast,” Adams wrote.
BIDEN ‘RANG THE BELL’ AFTER COMPLETING RADIATION THERAPY FOR PROSTATE CANCER
Scott Adams, cartoonist and author and creator of “Dilbert,” poses for a portrait in his home office with copies of his book “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life.” (Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“I will ask President Trump if he can get Kaiser of Northern California to respond and schedule it for Monday. That will give me a fighting chance to stick around on this planet a little bit longer. It is not a cure, but it does give good results to many people.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to Adams’ viral post, asking how to reach him.
“The President wants to help,” RFK Jr. wrote.

Robert F. Kennedy delivered a fiery speech to WHO member states over the U.S.’s withdrawal (Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
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Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff and head of personnel, also responded to Adams, saying, “No need till [sic] wait until Monday—@realDonaldTrump, @RobertKennedyJr, and @DrOz are all tracking now, Scott.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Kaiser and the White House for comment.
Adams said in a video posted to his YouTube channel in May that he is in pain every day and has been using a walker for months.
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“If you’re wondering if I’ll get better, the answer is no, it will only get worse,” he said on his “Real Coffee with Scott Adams” show. “There’s only one direction this goes.”
Roughly 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among American men, after lung cancer.
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