Today’s notice: Trump’s day with Chinese pomp and circumstance. The latest on the White House plan to restrict mail-in voting. William Paul’s hangover. Russia sanctions bills are so hot right now. The housing bill fight has not ended, despite Trump’s wishes. How the CDC punked itself on hantavirus. And: Sitting this one out in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Latest

Diplomacy is on in China. Donald Trump is attending a state banquet, the final event of the president’s first full day in Beijing. Trump has spent multiple hours with China’s Xi Jinping, attending a bilateral meeting that a White House official called just “good.” The official, in the U.S.'s rather vague readout, said the pair discussed expanding market access for American businesses in China and agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should be open without Iranian tolls. Missing? That Xi would do more to pressure Iran to come to the table.

Taiwan is a major issue for Beijing, despite its absence from the U.S. readout. China’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson said on X that Xi warned Trump that if the “Taiwan question” wasn’t handled properly, “the two countries will have clashes and even conflict.”

Pageantry and Chinese military might were on display during the Great Hall of the People greeting ceremony, where Trump met with Xi for the first time. Trump inspected the military guard and the band playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Children waving flags and flowers elicited claps from Trump, who said he wanted the greatest greeting Xi could give.

On the U.S. side, Cabinet officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, USTR Chief Jamieson Greer, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and senior advisers Stephen Miller, James Blair and Steven Cheung stood with more than a dozen CEOs including Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Apple’s Tim Cook.

Ahead of Trump’s arrival, Jasmine overheard a U.S. official verbally sparring with their Chinese counterparts about letting in at least two more media representatives into the Great Hall of the People. In question: Famed “Rush Hour” and “Melania” director Brett Ratner and his cameraman Ari Robbins, who rode on Air Force One with the president to Beijing.

Trump became the first president in decades to tour the Temple of Heaven, a major cultural site. As the two leaders got along, skirmishes between the U.S. and the Chinese security and press circulated on X. “Spirited discussions” is how the reporters traveling with the president put it.

Open tabs: House Approves Year-Round E15 Sales (NOTUS); FBI insiders: Kash Patel is ‘padding the stats’ to boost his record of arrests (MS NOW); Trump Administration Pushes I.R.S. to Identify Undocumented Immigrants (NYT); White House Explores 250 Pardons to Mark America’s 250th Birthday (WSJ)

From the White House

Exclusive: White House closely involved in implementing voter lists and restricting mail-in voting. Top administration officials have held discussions in recent weeks with leaders at the Justice Department, DHS and the U.S. Postal Service about implementing Trump’s March executive order that would require USPS to create red tape for state elections officials to go through before they can mail ballots to voters. NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery has the details.

Names to know: Jose reports that discussions have involved DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon and her deputies; Postal Service CEO David Steiner; and Heather Honey, the DHS deputy assistant secretary for election integrity who was a prominent 2020 election denier.

“It is standard process for administration officials to coordinate on implementing President Trump’s executive orders,” a White House spokesperson said. “We do not comment on private meetings that may or may not have happened.”

From the District

“I had too much to drink and said some things that don’t represent who I really am,” William Paul, the son of Republican Sen. Rand Paul, posted yesterday afternoon after NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reported on his antisemitic ranting at Republican Rep. Mike Lawler at a D.C. bar Tuesday night. “I’m sorry and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem,” Paul wrote.

From the Hill

The Senate races to pass Russia sanctions all of a sudden. “You want to capture the momentum, and what we want is not a bill, we want a law,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told NOTUS. He is the cosponsor of a long-dormant Russia sanctions bill with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham that just got a shot in the arm. NOTUS’ Joe Gould and Igor Bobic detail why: A discharge petition in the House is expected to force a vote on another Russia sanctions bill that the bipartisan Senate sponsors worry cannot survive in their chamber.

The theory is the Senate passes its version, and then the sanctions supporters in the House could also vote for it.

About that: Senate Majority Leader John Thune told NOTUS there is little room on the calendar for a Senate vote, saying, “I don’t see it.”

While we’re on the topic of House–Senate strife: Housing is still a sore spot. “The House lost, the Senate won,” is how one congressional aide described the mood of the Senate after Trump urged House Republicans to set aside their concerns and pass the upper chamber’s bill cracking down on Wall Street investors’ ability to buy homes.

But the House isn’t giving up. Republican leadership is teeing up a slightly altered version of the same bill for a vote as early as next week, NOTUS’ Raymond Fernández and Oriana González report. An administration official described the fight as the “narcissism of small differences.”

From the CDC

Hantavirus self-own: Why is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention taking serious heat for its handling of hantavirus when state public-health officials pretty much uniformly told NOTUS’ Margaret Manto the agency has been properly engaged on the recent outbreak? Margaret digs into a confusing PR crisis.

One data point: Many communications professionals working for Health and Human Services, including at the CDC, were casualties of DOGE cuts, Margaret writes. It’s unclear how many of the communications staffers who were let go rejoined the agency when some of the DOGE’d were rehired.

A CDC spokesperson: “CDC’s Division of Media Relations has the capacity and expertise to manage all activities required to inform the American people.”

The Big One

Allentown blues: “People like me, normal people, dealing with the cost of living, we’re not voting,” Pennsylvania voter Heather Cassidy, a three-time Trump voter, told NOTUS Avani Kalra recently when asked for her take on the midterms. After spending some time in the state’s swingy 7th Congressional District, Avani explores an issue that could play a huge role in November but doesn’t get talked about a lot: voter apathy.

The Republican approach to voters like this: “We’ve done a lot around housing in particular,” Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, the 7th District incumbent, told Avani. He’s touting a bill with bipartisan support (and Trump’s) that Congress still cannot pass.

The Democratic approach: Somewhat TBD. A competitive primary is still raging, and Avani reports on voters who remain unconvinced any of the Democratic candidates can make good on the promises flying around.

The fundamentals point just one way: Democratic victory. Prices are up, Trump’s economic approval rating is way down and special elections have shown robust Democratic enthusiasm just about every time, everywhere an election is called. But turned-off voters remain a problem for everyone, and a possible wild card.

NEW ON NOTUS

Follow-up: No one is disclosing their finances in Louisiana. The three top Republican contenders in Saturday’s Senate primary will not have disclosed their personal finances before voters get a chance to pick one of them, NOTUS’ Dave Levinthal reports. The state’s treasurer, John Fleming, said he would, but now argues the disclosure requirements are too detailed for him to hit the deadline.

More: Denise Powell Rides Wave of Outside Spending to Victory in Nebraska, by Christa Dutton

NOT US

• Inside Marty Makary’s Downfall at the FDA, by Liz Essley Whyte and Josh Dawsey for The Wall Street Journal
• The Progressives Propelling Abdul El-Sayed Forward in Michigan, by Eli Day for The American Prospect
• From ‘The Hills’ villain to LA mayoral contender: Spencer Pratt’s viral video-fueled campaign, by Jonathan J. Cooper for The Associated Press

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The newsletter was produced by Kelly Poe, Brett Bachman, Andrew Burton and Kim Breen. Photo from The Associated Press.