This is the May 14, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s an honor to be your friend.”
— President Donald Trump to Chinese president Xi Jinping
CHART OF THE DAY
Source: Pew Research Center survey of 5,103 U.S. adults conducted April 20-26, 2026. Margin of error: +/- 1.6 percentage points
ON THIS DATE
In 1961 the Freedom Riders — civil rights activists challenging segregation on interstate buses — were attacked by violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama.
Freedom Riders sit on the ground after a mob chased their bus out of the city and set it on fire.
WHAT THEY SAID
Richard Haass on Taiwan
“Taiwan is Xi Jinping’s legacy, and he wants to take the president’s pulse. For the Chinese, the summit’s single biggest priority is to get a better sense of what, given Iran and everything else, Donald Trump is prepared to do about Taiwan.”
David Ignatius on Russian strikes
“The congressional vote today comes as Russia is striking Ukraine with unusual ferocity. After what President Zelenskyy called one of the war’s largest attacks — more than 800 drones launched at Ukraine, with Kyiv under assault for much of the day — any congressional expression of support, even absent new funding, will be welcomed in Kyiv.”
Steve Rattner on U.S.-China trade
“We’re at a moment when both China and the United States need things from each other. Washington wants Beijing’s help keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and restoring access to rare-earth minerals China has used as a trade weapon, while Beijing wants to limit further U.S. tariffs and restrictions. And if you look at the trade war under Trump 2.0, China has largely been the winner and the U.S. the loser, because that leverage forced Trump to back down from his steepest tariff threats.”
Rep. Ro Khanna on “playing politics” with healthcare
“It’s unfortunate that the vice president is playing politics with people’s healthcare, because hundreds of thousands of Californians stand to lose coverage. If the administration is serious about fraud, it should look at areas like Medicare Advantage or Pentagon contracting — not use fraud as a justification to cut Medicaid benefits that working families rely on.”
Dr. Deborah Kenny on the American education system
“The pervasive use of phones and computers in schools has got to be replaced with reading. There’s a lack of urgency around this crisis, and it is a moral outrage.”
Democrats preview a possible House majority with Jamie Raskin’s new anti-corruption push
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is introducing anti-corruption legislation aimed at putting new checks on the White House.
The package of bills, shared first with MS NOW, responds to what Democrats see as rampant corruption within the Trump administration.
“We are in a new age of political corruption, where that’s the entire point of some politicians taking office,” Raskin told MS NOW.
“Donald Trump’s political corruption is not peripheral or marginal. It is the central object of the entire administration,” the Maryland Democrat continued.
EXTRA HOT TEA
83%
— The share of U.S. school districts in which reading scores went down between 2015 and 2025. “I cannot be more emphatic,” one education fellow at the American Enterprise Institute told The New York Times. “This is an enormous problem.”
ONE MORE SHOT
Catherine, Princess of Wales, visited the Salvador Allende nursery school in Reggio Emilia, Italy, known for its influential approach to early childhood education. The trip was the future queen’s first overseas royal visit since undergoing cancer treatment.
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
The post In Trump 2.0’s trade wars, China has largely been the winner and the U.S. the loser appeared first on MS NOW.
