 | BY CATHERINE KIM | | 
Then-President Donald Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping on Nov. 9, 2017 in Beijing. | Pool photo by Thomas Peter | COVERT OPS — The U.S. and its allies are making contingency plans for the possibility that former President Donald Trump could return to office. America’s geopolitical rivals could end up turning that possibility into a reality. Throughout Trump’s time in office, he talked tough on China, escalating a trade war between the two countries and reportedly launching a CIA campaign to sow distrust of China’s government among its citizens on social media. Ironically, China is now reportedly conducting a similar operation that could help Trump return to office. According to reporting in The New York Times , covert Chinese social media accounts have recently masqueraded as Trump supporters , sharing pro-MAGA memes and mocking President Joe Biden. Even if the goal is simply to deepen political division in the U.S., the Chinese accounts are helping amplify Trump’s agenda and feeding energy into the MAGA-sphere. It’s a surprising twist — China tacitly promoting the campaign of a former president who was a thorn in their side. Trump is also famously unpredictable, a liability that could and has destabilized the U.S.-China relationship, according to Rorry Daniels, managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute. But as China appears to see it, his unpredictability could also move in another direction. After years of a sputtering diplomatic relationship under Biden, that seems to be a chance they’re taking. “It’s a mixed bag for Beijing. Are they going to get the Donald Trump that’s super angry at them? Because China was the origin point of Covid, and Donald Trump feels Covid lost him the election,” Daniels said. “Or are they going to get the Donald Trump that’s just interested in tactical dealmaking and with whom they can put together a package that’s satisfactory?” President Xi Jinping has made the country’s geopolitical aspirations clear, stating his desire to “lead the reform of the global governance system.” It’s been tightening diplomatic relationships with countries in Central America and Africa, improving infrastructure around the world through its Belt and Road Initiative, brokering deals between countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, and building a military presence in the Pacific. A second Trump presidency could create strategic opportunities for China’s expansion plans, since Trump’s isolationist tendencies offer an opening for them to fill the vacuum. “China is very adept at taking up the mantle of global power and leadership in its own way when America pulls back — and Donald Trump would likely be a president that would pull America back from the international system, not invest more into it,” Daniels said. Trump’s willingness to be seen as a dealmaker — with little regard for national security concerns — could also be a boon for China. Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, points to Trump’s flip-flopping on TikTok as a prime example: A high-profile financier’s interests in TikTok appeared to be enough to change his mind on banning the social media app, which he acknowledges is a national security threat. There’s far less wiggle-room with the Biden administration, which has effectively set up policies that are “much more effective at containing China’s worst impulses,” Stokes said. And luckily for Xi, Trump has a soft spot for strongmen. Even amidst his threats of tariffs, the former president has never held back on his praise for Xi, recently calling him a “very good friend of mine during my term .” Biden does not share the same admiration: He’s publicly called Xi a dictator, a term that has received vigorous pushback from China’s foreign ministry. “There is a sense that Donald Trump really does enjoy and appreciate or admire authoritarian leaders and authoritarian systems,” Daniels said. “He’s impressed by the way leaders like Xi Jinping can move the systems toward their will.” While China will never outright announce their support for a candidate, one thing is clear from their attempts at election interference : deepening political division and eroding trust in democracy, according to Patricia Kim, a fellow from Brookings Institution. China has reason to show the world that its version of leadership has more to offer than American democracy — and it just happens that the expected chaos of a Trump second presidency could work in their favor. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at ckim@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ck_525 .
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| | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, the newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world, including WEF in Davos, Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to UNGA in NYC and many more. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW . | | | | | | | — Two Florida men plead guilty to insider trading charges related to Trump media firm: Two Florida brothers pleaded guilty today to insider trading charges , admitting making over $22 million illegally before the public announcement in 2021 that an acquisition firm was taking former President Donald Trump’s media company public. Michael and Gerald Shvartsman entered their pleas to a single count of securities fraud in Manhattan federal court, where Judge Lewis J. Liman set sentencing for July 17. — Boebert campaign reveals her emergency surgery for blood clot: The campaign of GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert said the Colorado lawmaker went to the hospital after experiencing “severe swelling in her upper left leg” and underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot. Doctors indicated the lawmaker is expected to make a full recovery following the procedure and diagnosed her with May-Thurner syndrome, a rare condition that affects blood flow. Boebert is in the midst of a competitive bid to win a new seat in Colorado after opting to run in the newly open eastern Colorado-based seat once held by former Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.). — Pro-Israel group looks to oust two members of ‘The Squad’: Another pro-Israel group has jumped into competitive Democratic primaries to try ousting two high-profile incumbent progressives . The Democratic Majority for Israel PAC today endorsed Westchester County Executive George Latimer — who is running against Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York’s 16th District — and St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell, who is looking to unseat Rep. Cori Bush in Missouri’s 1st District. Both Bowman and Bush are members of “The Squad.” Since joining Congress in 2021, both have established themselves as outspoken progressives. It’s the latest pro-Israel group to get involved in these races. In recent months, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee endorsed both Latimer and Bell, as did the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
| | EVERY ELECTORAL VOTE MATTERS — Former President Donald Trump and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen are calling on the state’s Legislature to change the way Nebraska doles out its Electoral College votes , a move that would almost certainly benefit Trump in his 2024 presidential bid, reports NBC News. While most states dole out all their Electoral College votes to the statewide winner of the presidential vote, Nebraska and Maine give out one electoral vote to the candidate who wins each congressional district. Republicans have long sought to change the law, which has given Democratic presidential candidates a shot at winning one Electoral College vote — from the Omaha-based congressional district — in the otherwise red state. That’s happened twice, including in 2020, when Joe Biden won the district’s electoral vote over Trump, meaning Trump’s 58% support statewide got him four of the five Nebraska electoral votes. Republicans are upping the pressure on the state’s nonpartisan, unicameral Legislature to make the change before this fall’s presidential election. SCORING POINTS — The sister of the young Michigan woman whose killing has become the latest flashpoint for Republicans on illegal immigration is pushing back on former President Donald J. Trump, criticizing him for using her sister’s death to score political points and contradicting his claims that he contacted the family, writes the New York Times. At an event in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Tuesday, Mr. Trump described Ruby Garcia, 25, and her killing at length. The man charged with her death was in the United States unlawfully, according to immigration officials, something that Mr. Trump seized on in his remarks to describe Ms. Garcia as a “beautiful young woman who was savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal.” He also told the crowd that he had spoken to her family. But that wasn’t true, the sister, Mavi Garcia, said, adding that the family was upset by what they heard while watching the remarks in real time.
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A Palestinian woman sits on a cart next to a box of food rations provided by World Central Kitchen in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 14, 2024. | Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images | AID IN PERIL — The Biden administration has reached out to the United Nations to help distribute aid from a U.S. military-built pier to desperate civilians in Gaza — but the arrangement might be in peril after an Israeli drone strike that killed seven aid workers in the enclave on Monday, POLITICO reports. Before the deadly attack, the U.S. had been closing in on a formal agreement with an aid group to distribute food and other resources in Gaza once the military pier is established, according to two U.S. officials and two senior aid representatives whose organizations work in Gaza. One of the UN organizations in discussions with the U.S. government about the project is its food assistance arm, the World Food Programme, according to one of the U.S. officials and the two senior aid representatives, who are familiar with the talks. The administration is also in talks with other UN organizations to help with the project, the U.S. official said. All of the people were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. But the Israeli strike on a convoy operated by the World Central Kitchen, the aid group founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, has complicated those discussions, according to a second U.S. official and the senior aid representatives. WFP and other groups are now pressing for additional reassurances from the U.S. for the safety of their aid workers, one of the people said. And the second U.S. official said aid groups are now questioning who they can trust. RUSSIAGATE — Europe’s Russiagate scandal may be about to claim its first political victim. In a letter obtained by POLITICO, leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party pile pressure on a lawmaker to come clean regarding Czech media reports that he accepted €25,000 (roughly $27,000) from a pro-Russian network that’s trying to influence European public opinion ahead the European Parliament election in June. The letter urges the lawmaker, Petr Bystron, who is the party’s foreign policy spokesman in the German Bundestag, to send a written statement to party leadership by 2 p.m. on Thursday detailing any involvement in the scheme.
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| | | WHO KILLED RAY SUZUKI — The writer of one of the most infamous (and gross) reviews in the history of the music publication Pitchfork doesn’t exist. His “byline” — Ray Suzuki — was a pseudonym used by writers as late as 2010. The Suzuki saga provides a fascinating look into the first decade or so of digital media . It began as a punishment — when writers (all then working for free) forgot to include a byline with a news submission, Pitchfork editors would tag it Suzuki. It turned into a way to include the veneer that there were more writers at Pitchfork than were actually working there, added “for seasoning.” It then became something that writers would occasionally affix to a review with which they did not want their name associated. As Pitchfork professionalized, the Suzuki byline died off, with an occasional reappearance. It’s the sort of thing that no longer happens at digital media startups, but it’s a good reminder of how freewheeling these places used to be — and how much the media landscape has changed. Nate Rogers reports for The Ringer.
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On this date in 2009: A large crowd in Des Moines listens to speakers at a rally of citizens showing their support of the Iowa Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage. | Steve Pope/AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here . | |
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