Playbook PM: Trump puts China on notice again

Politico

30-05-2025

Presented by
THE CATCH-UP
Tensions between Washington and China are boiling over once again after President Donald Trump accused the country of breaking its trade agreement with Washington in a fiery Truth Social post this morning.
What Trump said: 'I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn't want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized,' Trump wrote. China 'HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!'
The view from Washington: When asked about China's post-deal restrictions, USTR Jamieson Greer told CNBC that 'this has been something that we've been discussing' since meeting with China on the truce. 'The Chinese are slowrolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable,' Greer said.
Greer also stayed on message when asked whether Trump would be granted emergency relief from the Supreme Court to overturn yesterday's major legal ruling that blocked the president from enacting tariffs. 'I think we have a very strong case,' Greer said. 'All the other countries I'm dealing with in negotiations are dealing with this like a bump in the road rather than a fundamental change.'
The view from Wall Street: The market remains uncertain. Stocks went tumbling in response to Trump's morning message on China, as anxiety-riddled investors brace for the next steps in the president's volatile trade war — and the legal complexities involved.
By the numbers: This morning, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all dropped, per CNN. Though the series of legal rulings this week against Trump's tariff powers briefly boosted the markets, 'that rally lost steam as traders bet the White House would aggressively appeal and pursue another legal strategy.'
Despite the White House's comments to the contrary, global leaders from Japan, India, Canada and other nations remain unsure how to interpret the legal blockade of Trump's executive power, WaPo reports. 'In more than a dozen negotiations with the United States, the threat of blanket tariffs as a pressure tactic may have been blunted almost as quickly as it was deployed. No one seems to know for sure.'
The backdrop: New estimates from the Commerce Department show that the April trade deficit was nearly half its size compared to March, 'driven by a nearly 20 percent drop in imports,' POLITICO's Victoria Guida reports. 'The numbers are a sign that Trump's policies may be chipping away at the global trade deficit … And tariffs were not yet pushing prices higher for consumers in April, in a boon for Trump.'
Legal limbo: 'Courts to Trump: You can't teach old laws new tricks,' by POLITICO's Kyle Cheney: 'The rulings against Trump's tariffs are the latest pushback from courts as the president seeks to harness emergency powers under seldom-used statutes.'
HAPPENING SOON — Trump and Elon Musk are set to hold a press conference at 1:30 p.m following Musk's Wednesday announcement that he's officially departing the administration.
Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at [e-mail].
7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. SCOTUS WATCH: The Supreme Court delivered Trump a major victory today, granting the administration the authority to deport around 500,000 Haitian, Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan immigrants who legally entered the U.S. under Biden-era 'human parole' programs, POLITICO's Josh Gerstein reports. The high court's one-paragraph order overturned a district judge's previous decision to halt the administration's bulk cancellation of the programs without an explanation of the legal reasoning.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented in the order, with Jackson writing that the cancellations will 'facilitate needless human suffering' and inflict 'devastation' on the migrants affected. Initiated under President Joe Biden in 2022, the programs were initially designed to allow migrants to live and work in the United States while their immigration cases played out in the federal system.
Though Republicans have harped against the programs for years, ending the legal status of these migrants could be politically fraught, Josh writes. 'Thousands of parole recipients have settled in Florida, where the Cuban community has long been politically influential and Venezuelan and Haitian communities are increasingly courted by Democratic and Republican candidates.'
2. IMMIGRATION FILES: Previously unreported DHS records show that Trump administration officials knew that more than half of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador earlier this year were labeled as having no criminal record in the U.S. and had only violated immigration laws, a new ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation found.
The details: Though Trump and his allies have touted the deportations as a way to rid the U.S. of 'the worst of the worst,' a review of records shows that 'only 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that most were nonviolent offenses, such as retail theft or traffic violations.' In a hefty case-by-case review of all of the Venezuelan deportees, the team found that just six had been convicted of violent crimes in the U.S., while more than half were not listed to have 'any criminal convictions or pending charges.' As for foreign offenses, a review of court and police records 'found evidence of arrests or convictions for 20 of the 238 men.'
The response: 'DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin largely repeated previous public statements. She insisted, without providing evidence, that the deportees were dangerous, saying, 'These individuals categorized as 'non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and more — they just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S.''
3. SCHOOL DAZE: The White House convened a group of officials across federal agencies to come up with 'additional punitive measures' aimed at Harvard University after a federal judge blocked the president's attempt to prevent the institution from enrolling international students, POLITICO's Sophia Cai and Megan Messerly report. 'The administration official said that forthcoming actions are expected from the State, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Justice departments, among others, and could happen as early as next month. … But with the low-hanging policy options already underway, the administration knows it will need to get more creative to keep squeezing the school.'
4. MUSK READ: As a major Trump surrogate in the 2024 presidential campaign, Musk's intense drug consumption was a poorly kept secret amongst staff and friends, NYT's Kirsten Grind and Megan Twohey report in a buzzy new piece. The tech billionaire reportedly 'told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall.'
While it's unclear if Musk continued his drug use after being appointed to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, 'he has exhibited erratic behavior, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview.' At the same time, his chronic mood swings, and tumultuous family life — including his 'fixation to have more children' — have worried longtime friends and 'some women are challenging Mr. Musk for control of their children.'
5. IN THE DOGE PILE: The Trump administration has proceeded with rolling back a host of Biden-era regulations, with DOGE claiming the reversals will save customers billions of dollars. But experts say 'many of those regulatory reversals will actually pile more costs on to individual Americans in the form of higher bank fees, electric and water bills, and health insurance payments,' NYT's Coral Davenport and Stacy Cowley report. Though the department touts big savings for Americans in statistics on its website, experts also 'said many of DOGE's numbers appeared to be plucked from nowhere.'
6. THE NEW TOOL BOX: After pushing for a federal data sharing program earlier this year, Trump has quietly tapped tech giant Palantir — which has extensive ties to Musk's DOGE team and Peter Thiel — to embed its products into the federal government and potentially merge the private data of Americans across various agencies, NYT's Sheera Frenkel and Aaron Krolik report. The effort 'has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and the Health and Human Services Department.' Some current and former Palantir employees are trying to provide cover for the company, 'saying any decisions about a merged database of personal information rest with Mr. Trump and not the firm.'
7. ONES TO WATCH: POLITICO's Adam Wren is out with a pair of stories examining some major political maneuvering ahead of both the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election:
TALK OF THE TOWN
Joni Ernst is facing backlash over a flippant comment during a town hall when discussing the GOP's reconciliation package. After an audience member yelled out that 'people are going to die' as a result of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP cuts, the Iowa GOP senator responded: 'Well, we all are going to die.' Watch the interaction
OUT AND ABOUT — The John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation hosted their Good Trouble Gala last night in Atlanta, Georgia. The event honored Lonnie Bunch with the John Lewis Carry On Award and Billye Aaron with the Lillian Miles Lewis Luminary Award. SPOTTED: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Reps. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Andrew Young, Shirley Franklin, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Michael Collins, Detria Austin Everson, Chris Womack, Jason Carter, Tharon Johnson, John Miles-Lewis, Sheyann Webb-Christburg, Cheryl Johnson, Karyn Greer, April Jones-Barnett, Rachelle O'Neil, Myra Dandridge, Tasha Cole, Candice Franklin and Robert Traynham.
— SPOTTED last night at the Niskanen Center's 10-year anniversary celebration at Planet Word: Rebekah Rodriguez, Will Poff-Webster, Bill Kristol, Molly Ball, Catrina Rorke, Tim Carney, Jonathan Chait, Doris Meissner, Jorge Lima and Kevin Ring.
TRANSITIONS — Sam Alleman is now director of coalitions for the Human Rights Campaign. He previously was national LGBTQ+ engagement director for the Harris campaign and is a DNC and Planned Parenthood Action Fund alum. … Jordan Brewer is joining the State Department as special adviser in the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy. He previously was manager of government affairs at the Cato Institute. … Matthew Creegan will be director of media relations at General Motors. He previously was head of executive comms at the Ford Foundation.
Send Playbookers tips to [e-mail] or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Correction: An earlier version of Playbook PM misstated the nickname for Michigan. It is the Wolverine State.