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President Trump Arrives In China For High-Stakes Meeting With Xi; Nebraska, West Virginia Primary Results Set Up Key Races In November; FAA Evaluating Flight Risks From Trump's Washington, D.C. Arch. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 13, 2026 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[07:31:07]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You're looking at live pictures right here of the tarmac in Beijing. You can see people waiting there for Air Force One to land. President Trump due to touch down any moment there. He will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping for a critical summit.

On the agenda, trade, tech, Taiwan -- but looming over the entire trip the war with Iran. China remains a key partner for Tehran. The president says he will have a "long talk" with Xi about Iran while at the same time he insists he doesn't really need China's help.

With us now is Alice Han, director of the advisory firm Greenmantle and an expert on Chinese macroeconomics. Alice, great to see you this morning.

What are the expectations -- or what should the expectations for this summit be?

ALICE HAN, DIRECTOR AT GREENMANTLE, EXPERT IN CHINESE MACROECONOMICS: Well, thanks so much, John.

I think it's very clear that this is about positive vibes. This will be I think a summit in which there is little substance but a lot of summitry.

In terms of the issues that parties care about, the real details I think will be worked out in future meetings. But I think that it boils down to three main things. It'll be interesting to see if these come out in the readout from both sides.

Number one, the trade and tariff issue. Number two, the tech export controls. And number three, the geopolitical questions. And the big, big I think question here is the Iran question. Will both sides agree on a resolution of Iran, which I'm skeptical about. But I think this is going to be the biggest question coming out of this summit.

BERMAN: So you call it a vibe summit. You know, I just listened to your podcast previewing the summit and

your co-host made the case that this is the first summit ever between a U.S. and Chinese leader where the Chinese leader comes in with something of an upper hand.

How do you feel about that assertion?

HAN: Well, you know, James and I agree on a lot of things. He's my co- host. But I think here I take a slightly different tack.

Yes, geopolitically, China has relatively I think gained advantages not just in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, but I think globally from the Iran crisis. But the U.S. still has a lot of cards to play. Remember, the U.S. is energy independent and has a lot of resources and can continue to use some of these high-level advanced export restrictions, especially on chips, to throttle the Chinese. And now we're seeing greater capabilities in AI that actually I think are causing consternation in Beijing.

So I wouldn't write the U.S. off entirely but I think on the geopolitical dimension certainly Trump I think is coming with less options on the table, and I don't think he will be met with a Beijing that is receptive when it comes to collaboration on the Iran issue.

BERMAN: So a lot of the thinktanks here, the chatter is what might President Trump give away in terms of Taiwan? How much do you think China will try to get there, and do you feel there really will be movement?

HAN: Before the Iran crisis, John, I would have expected more rhetoric over Taiwan in advance. I think the Chinese are very upset with the record arm sales that were agreed by the U.S. at the end of last year, and that has still yet to be disbursed to the Taiwanese. I think that will come up definitely as an issue at this summit.

But my sense from, you know, the newspaper readouts and just from the signals from the policymakers in Beijing is that they don't want Taiwan to be front and center issue in this summit. They want -- again, back to this vibes point -- thing to look good. They will roll out the red carpet for President Trump because they understand that Trump needs a foreign policy victory and China also needs more reprieve from some of these tariffs and export restrictions.

So I don't think Taiwan will be front and center. I think the bigger geopolitical issue actually will be Iran and whether or not Trump can convince the Chinese to put pressure on the Iranians to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

[07:35:00]

BERMAN: We will be watching that very closely just as we were watching that big stack of books behind you to make sure it didn't fall during the entire interview.

Alice Han, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a specialized -- it's a specialized bookcase, J.B. It's a specialized bookcase.

BERMAN: Still, it made me worry.

BOLDUAN: As part of all of this, which is -- back to me, Elly (PH). Back to me.

As part of all of this, some of the world's wealthiest, most influential leaders in tech are traveling with President Trump to China. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk -- they are among the delegation. And The New York Times reports that NVIDIA CEO also boarded Air Force One in Alaska late yesterday after a last- minute invite.

The president's trip -- they were just talking about this. It's going to focus on so many things, including the global race with artificial intelligence.

CNN's Clare Duffy joins us now.

And we could talk about this for a long, long time about the race between the U.S. and China on -- in the AI front. But the fact that Trump has with him these -- this level of tech giants with -- and their companies with lots of connections to China says what?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Well, I think there's a couple of things, Kate. Among these will be friendly faces in China. Folks like Apple CEO Tim Cook --

BOLDUAN: Right.

DUFFY: -- who has built this massive manufacturing ecosystem in China. Elon Musk, who you mentioned, who -- Tesla was once cited by Chinese officials as a perfect example of U.S.-Chinese collaboration and business. So some friendly faces, which may be helpful if Trump is looking to make deals here.

And there are also companies that are going to be potentially looking to get something out of this trip. You've got companies like Meta, which was just ordered by Chinese officials to unwind a $2 billion acquisition -- a Chinese AI startup. You've got Boeing, which has been in negotiations for a potential purchase of its planes by China.

So I think for Trump there are a lot of tricky issues in this summit. Obviously, Iran, Taiwan -- things that might be harder sticking points in these negotiations. But if he can come away from this summit with a win with U.S. companies that have made deals, that potentially gives him something positive to point to from these meetings.

BOLDUAN: What is the latest when it comes to Jensen Yuang and NVIDIA, and where are we with this and their chips?

DUFFY: Well, it was really interesting that he wasn't initially on this list.

BOLDUAN: Right. DUFFY: It is interesting to see that has joined at the last minute. The company is reporting earnings later today, so I had wondered if that was part of the reason he wasn't joining this group. But he has been advocating hard both on the U.S. and Chinese side to allow this resale of his chips -- his advanced AI chips in China. So far, as we know, the U.S. has essentially given the greenlight here and it is China that is saying we don't want to import NVIDIA's chips. We want to give our homegrown chipmakers more of a chance to get ahead here. That, of course, is likely to come up in this summit.

And I think, you know, broadly, as you said, the AI race is going to be an undertone here.

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE).

DUFFY: Both China and the U.S. have something to gain. The U.S. would like for China to ease its restrictions on the imports of raw materials that are needed for things like chips and data centers. And o the flip side, China would still like the U.S. to ease some of its restrictions on advanced technology that China needs for its AI ambitions.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I mean, there are -- I mean, big, big, big issues down to the most basic thing though. It might not sound so sexy but rare earth minerals is a central and huge --

DUFFY: It's huge.

BOLDUAN: -- focus on where this relationship is and goes from here, and it's all just about to really get underway.

Clare, thanks so much.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, guys.

This morning we have brand new primary results for two key Senate races. Rachel Anderson secured the Democrat nomination in West Virginia. She'll face off against Trump-backed Republican Shelley Moore Capito in November.

And in one of the most closely watched races out of Nebraska, Democrat Cindy Burbank won the Democratic Party nomination, though she says in the general election she's going to drop out and back Dan Osborn, who is an Independent who the Democratic Party sees as the best chance of defeating Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts.

Joining me now is Jackie Kucinich, the Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe.

Wow -- I mean, that's quite a thing. Give us some sense of what happened in Nebraska. I mean, it -- have you ever heard of something like this? Like, give us some sense of what's happened in Nebraska. JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, it was really interesting.

So Dan Osborn is the Independent candidate, as you said, who came really close to defeating Sen. Deb Fischer in the last election and surprised a lot of people. So -- but he is an Independent, as you said. Democrats have chosen to back him.

But there was this race between Cindy Burbank and this man, William Forbes for the Democratic nomination. Now Democrats have cast Forbes as a Republican plant. He's someone who has said he had voted for Trump three times. He -- but wasn't -- he said he was a lifelong Democrat. Democratic voters of Nebraska obviously didn't buy that. They voted for Cindy Burbank who pledged that she was going to drop out and endorse Dan Osborn for that -- for the -- to be the Democratic candidate even though he's not a Democrat.

[07:40:00]

SIDNER: Is there a sense that Democrats would sort of follow along? Because the numbers were clear though -- I mean, 80 percent. You don't get those numbers without huge support. Is there a sense that Democrats will follow along? That the voters will say yeah, let's go with the Independent?

KUCINICH: It does -- I mean, the Democratic Party in Nebraska is backing him, so they're sure hoping so because they think that he is the best -- the best person to face off against Sen. Ricketts in the general election.

SIDNER: All right, let's move to West Virginia. What did you see there?

KUCINICH: So in West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito had five challengers, I believe, and she bested them all. This is a very red state and there's no indication that she is in trouble. However, it is an anti-incumbent year so the fact that she came out on top of all of those challengers is noteworthy.

SIDNER: Look, there's some new CNN polling out as far as the president's favorability, and especially when it comes to the economy. People are -- for lack of a better word, they're pissed. They do not like what is happening to their own personal economies.

But then the president said this. He said he didn't think about America's financial situations when making decisions about Iran, even as we're seeing gas prices spike, inflation rise.

How is that going to go over with the voting population, you think?

KUCINICH: I'll tell you what, we should commit that one to memory. But we don't really need to because I think it's going to be in every Democratic attack ad going into the midterms.

Listen, you have a Republican Party, in particular, that is struggling to find a message going into these midterms and Democrats that are focused entirely on what's going on with the economy and inflation. And having the president say something like that is certainly -- I think we could say unhelpful to their cause as we continue to go into these -- this midterm election cycle. Not to mention, I mean, saying something like that you can imagine it could -- it could have some staying power in the future as we're looking even to 2028.

SIDNER: Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if Democrats use that in ads. I mean, you know, this is the sort of thing that --

KUCINICH: Yes.

SIDNER: -- can be used against the party as a whole; not just the president.

Jackie Kucinich, thank you so much for talking us through all that. Really interesting -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning concerns about testing for hantavirus. A U.S. doctor who is in a biocontainment unit in Nebraska says that experts told him that lab tests may not be easy to interpret.

Dr. Stephen Kornfeld says his nasal swabs tested in the Netherlands came back with two different results.

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DR. STEPHEN KORNFELD, STAYING IN BIOCONTAINMENT UNIT AT UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: They did it in two different labs. One lab was negative and one lab was faintly positive, so I was told the test was intermediate. But I think since it wasn't a negative it's sort of being looked as a potential positive. And the Dutch authority communicated these results to the CDC and here I am.

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BERMAN: That sounds pretty confusing.

And Dr. Kornfeld is one of 16 passengers at the Nebraska facility. Two more Americans are being monitored in Atlanta. The WHO says they are expecting more cases beyond the current 11 being tracked.

Let's get right to CNN's Jacqueline Howard. What's the latest you're hearing, Jacqueline?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Yeah, John. Well, what we're hearing is that this quarantine period -- the monitoring -- it will be some time. These passengers from the cruise ship kind of have a long road ahead because the World Health Organization recommends that passengers be monitored -- actively monitored at home or within a quarantine facility for 42 days from their last exposure.

Now, when you look at the timeline here that last exposure -- meaning the last time they may have been exposed to the virus -- was on May 10. So this monitoring period will take us through June 21. So passengers will be actively monitored to June 21. And John, as we just heard from one passenger there -- you know, this time can feel uncertain. This can be a frightening period for many people.

And for another passenger, Jake Rosmarin, here's what he had to say to our colleague Anderson Coopera about his experience. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE ROSMARIN, FORMER CRUISE PASSENGER NOW IN QUARANTINE: It was -- honestly it was extremely terrifying for me. Um, obviously, it's not a virus I knew much about. I know that Gene Hackman's wife had passed away from it but it's -- and I remember that happening, but I don't remember the virus itself. When I started to learn more about the virus it became a little less scary, especially knowing that human-to- human transmission was relatively low.

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HOWARD: And John, health officials say the risk to the general public still remains low.

[07:45:00]

And, of course, hantavirus is a virus that we know. It's not a new virus like what happened with the COVID-19 pandemic.

And another positive sign here is that among the 16 passengers in Nebraska, so far none of them have shown symptoms. And among the two passengers who are being monitored here in Atlanta, Georgia, one remains asymptomatic and the other, who was experiencing symptoms, tested negative. So these are some positive signs that we're seeing among these passengers.

BERMAN: Let's hope it stays that way, Jacqueline, as those people remain in this containment facility. I hope they have a lot of streaming shows to keep them occupied over the next several weeks. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There's always more streaming content to through.

The president's plans for a triumphal arch in Washington -- does it now pose an aviation risk? The FAA is now investigating as it will sit so closely to Reagan National Airport.

And Waymo is recalling thousands of its self-driving cars because of a software glitch; one that could have them driving right into floodwaters.

We'll be back.

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[07:50:28]

SIDNER: All right. Now to a CNN exclusive. The Federal Aviation Administration is evaluating possible risks to flights in and out of D.C. from President Trump's proposed triumphal arch. The 250-foot arch will be barely two miles from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. FAA regulations require any structure over 200 feet and near airspace to go through a review.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty joining me now with this exclusive reporting. What are you learning this morning about this?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Sara. This is all about proximity and size essentially. The president's proposed arch -- it is, as you noted, over 200 feet and it sits so close to DCA National Airport just outside of Washington, D.C. Both of those factors necessitate a formal review by the FAA.

Now, according to documents obtained by CNN, we saw that the Department of Interior has now triggered and formally requested this study to be done as the president pushes forward to have his proposed arch start to be built.

They also note in these documents that the arch is planned to be 250 feet. But what the -- but when you combine elevation of the site it now is growing essentially to over 279 feet.

Now, the FAA -- as part of this study, they'll be looking at the ground elevation, the airport runway lanes, the airport elevation, and also looking at whether the cranes that are needed to build this arch will affect airspace as well.

Now, also adding to all of this, the size and proximity -- the fact that this is a very complicated corridor just outside of D.C. The fact that airports -- the airport is right outside D.C. The pilots have to really navigate a tough corridor along the Potomac River going right and left, really looking out for other monuments there. And it's also the site of a very high-profile crash just in the last year -- that midair collision of an American Airlines flight with a helicopter.

This is a very busy airport. Over 900 departing and taking off flights daily. So this is a very complicated site.

And experts that I talk to in aviation said that they're really anxious about adding one more structure that pilots might have to navigate around.

Now, if a hazard is determined by the FAA, Sara, they will potentially ask the administration to make adjustments to the proposal, potentially lowering the height of the structure and maybe even adding in lights that would make it easier for airports and the pilots to navigate and make it safer for the airlines and, of course, passengers.

The White House notably says that they believe that the arch will have no affect on flights to and from the airport. But, of course, the president has been very clear the size matters to him here. He wants this to be the tallest arch in the world -- Sara. SIDNER: We'll have to see if it affects safety. And like you said, it is a gauntlet trying to get through there with all the other monuments and other things -- helicopters and the number of flights coming in and out. A lot to watch.

Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much for your reporting -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Waymo is recalling nearly 4,000 of its self-driving vehicles across the United States. The company says it's opting for a voluntary recall right now over a software glitch that could cause the vehicles to drive into flooded roads -- drive onto flooded roads.

And there have been Waymo cars caught on camera, of recent, in places like Austin, Texas last month stalling out in flooded streets during rainstorms. And in San Antonio, Waymo service has been suspended altogether after a vehicle went onto a flooded road and then was swept into a creek. No passengers were in the car at the time but it's prompting a wider review now by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. The company currently operates in 11 U.S. cities.

So the man accused of stealing Beyonce's unreleased music will avoid trial. Kelvin Evans is his name. He entered a guilty plea Tuesday in an Atlanta court, according to CNN affiliate WSB. And as part of that plea, Evans will face two years in prison and three years' probation.

Police say that he was caught on security camera video breaking into an SUV back in 2025. This was just two days before Beyonce's Cowboy Carter tour stop in Atlanta. And two people from her choreography and dance team -- they called 911 to report a theft of their rental car and then saying that her unreleased music, laptops, and other items had been stolen -- John.

[07:55:00]

BERMAN: All right. You are looking at live pictures from Beijing. That, of course, is Air Force One. President Trump just touched down there for this two-day summit with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. You can see the greeting party there on the tarmac there waiting for the president to deplane, which will happen shortly.

It's a long flight. Air Force One touched down in Anchorage, Alaska on the way to Beijing to make a refueling stop.

But there they are. And, of course, we will watch and wait for the president to get off and listen to see what he has to say.

Let's go to Kristen Holmes who is standing by in Beijing for the very latest -- Kristin.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John. I mean, look, we're watching a critical moment happen here and we know what President Trump expects and we know that President Xi wants to give it to him -- the pomp and circumstance.

So President Trump here. This is just the very first arrival. He's going to see President Xi Jinping later at an event. He'll go sleep. Obviously, we're 12 hours ahead, so he'll go sleep at his hotel. And then tomorrow will be the grand ceremony when he sees President Xi and they really roll out the red carpet.

But here he is getting a celebration as well. We are told there's going to be a military band. There's going to be the military honor guard. There are 300 Chinese youth that are waving Chinese flags that are going to likely surround the president as he gets into his motorcade.

Just a reminder, they ship -- they being the Secret Service and the White House -- ship over a motorcade for President Trump days in advance. It has that bulletproof vehicle, the Beast, in it. So he'll get into that and then drive to his hotel.

So in addition to the vice president of China who is going to greet him, he's going to be greeted by both the U.S. ambassador to China, who is David Perdue, a close ally of his, and the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. And there will likely be music around this marching band.

And again, this kind of pomp and circumstance -- this is what President Trump likes. He likes a celebration like that.

And you can actually hear in his voice when he talks about the ballroom, he often brings up the idea of can you imagine bringing President Xi to this ballroom? It has to be this grand ballroom. That's because of the experience he had back in 2017 when he was on the ground in China and President Xi really rolled out the red carpet.

Now I did rewatch the arrival at the airport in 2017. It was almost the exact same makeup that you're seeing here today. So you'll see, again, these youth who will kind of surround the pathway there as he walks to the Beast and wave their flags. And you'll have an honor guard standing by as well as this military band playing.

Now one big difference that you're going to see here than we saw in 2017, John, is Melania Trump, the first lady. The first lady was there back in 2017. She was part of this historic trip. That's also what made it such a memorable trip because she had her own agenda.

President Trump, this time, is just traveling by himself with his cabinet officials and at least two of those CEOs. Some of the top CEOs in America that are traveling with his group or delegation we expect to be on Air Force One. It's unclear right now if all of them traveled on Air Force One. There was a little bit of misinformation about that and people posting conflicting information about who actually was on Air Force One and who was on the support plane that travels with President Trump that usually holds extra overflow staff, extra overflow security, and all of that.

So you see them now opening the door, John, and we'll wait and see how long President Trump takes to actually come out and greet everyone. He's been on a long flight, and he didn't talk to the press at all, which is incredibly notable. A guy who loves talking to the press, particularly when he's on a 20 or so hour flight. He did not do that this time around. BOLDUAN: That was actually going to be my question because I was -- we, of course -- as we woke up to the news -- you know, woke up to knowing that you guys were all flying over, waiting and kind of expecting are we going to get some information or a gaggle if nothing else from the president -- and we did not, as you say, get that coming in.

What are you hearing from the administration though about, like -- set the stage for what they are setting as expectations -- goals that they want when the leaders of the world's two largest economies are about to sit down for the summit.

HOLMES: You know, Kate, it's interesting because I think if we had this conversation and there was no Iran war we'd be talking about a much different set of goals and the one that President Trump -- and the goals that President Trump had hoped would be the topic of conversation here.

We're talking about a lot of economic goals. The U.S. kind of flexing its muscle using tariffs to try and get more deals both in the private and public sector from China. But, of course, with the Iran war overshadowing all of this it really seems like the goal here is just to bring stability to this relationship, which has been largely stable since October. Since the two leaders sat down for that brief meeting when President Trump was in Asia the last time around.