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Donald Trump leaves China After a Successful Summit with China's Xi Jinping; British Health Secretary Resigns and Loses Confidence to Keir Starmer. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired May 15, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to all our viewers joining us from all around the world, I'm Lynda Kinkade. Just ahead,

U.S. President Donald Trump is on his way home after meeting with China's leader Xi Jinping. We'll have a live report from Beijing.

The President says Xi wants to see the Strait of Hormuz open and offered help to resolve the war with Iran.

And British Prime Minister Keir Starmer facing increasing challenges to his leadership. One now former cabinet minister says he's lost confidence in the P.M.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Lynda Kinkade.

KINKADE: It is 3:00 p.m. in Beijing where U.S. President Donald Trump has left the Chinese capital after his two-day summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Air Force One will fly to Alaska for a refueling stop before heading back to Washington, D.C. later tonight.

President Trump says he invited President Xi and his wife to visit the White House in September. The two leaders met today at the Chinese Communist Party headquarters in Beijing with the talks going on longer than expected. President Trump says they made a lot of trade deals for both countries.

They did not mention Taiwan, which has been a thorny issue for both sides. The Chinese leader saying on Thursday that it could be very dangerous if it wasn't handled properly. Here's what President Trump had to say about the war with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar, we want that to end, and we don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open. We're closing it now, they closed it and we closed it on top of them. But we want the straits open, and we want them to get it ended, because it's a crazy thing. They're a little bit crazy and that's no good, can't have it. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.

But we discussed a lot of other things also and I think we're very much in agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Let's bring in CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Steven Jiang. Good to see you again, Steven.

So President Trump has now departed Beijing after what appears to be a very successful summit, both sides very much sticking to script. What's going to come out of this and how is this being reported there?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, I think in the coming hours, hopefully we'll hear more details. Perhaps first from Mr. Trump, who is now on the diplomatic protocols with Air Force One already in the air. He actually got another high-level send-off ceremony at the airport just a short while ago with the top diplomat from China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, personally showing up on the tarmac to bid him farewell with also one of his favorite scenes apparently during this trip.

All these enthusiastic children jumping up and down, shouting cooperation. That, of course, is the one thing the Chinese still insist should be the main theme in this relationship.

Now, Chinese readouts and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping himself, have time and again in the past 24 hours using this term constructive strategic stability. Quite a mouthful, but this is important for them because that's not only an acknowledgement of the rivalry part of this relationship, but also how they want to try to make sure the competition is moderate while the differences can be managed.

In terms of how this translates into tangibles, one thing, as you mentioned, Mr. Trump inviting Mr. Xi and his wife to the White House in September. He actually said twice, but also remember China's hosting the APEC leadership summit in November. So already we have potentially two more face-to-face meetings between the two leaders.

That's important because one thing that's been sorely lacking in recent years is a durable stabilizer in this relationship. Now with both sides agreeing to this more structured and the regularized summit track, this could be exactly that.

But on the other issue that's really a top priority for President Trump, trade and economic front, we are still waiting to hear more details. But the Trump team has been dropping some major hints, of course, with the President himself saying China has agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets and his trade representative saying there's also double- digit billions dollars' worth of agricultural purchases being agreed on.

[03:04:57] But already, of course, people are talking about the upcoming concerns will be, one, if these commitments and agreements will be followed through, and two, if by having the Chinese to fork out these money to buy these things, and in a way placating the Trump team, are they actually, you know, instead avoided talking about the real issues, the underlying structural issues that's been the root cause of these trade imbalances between the two economies for quite some time, which also have been widened in recent months. So there's still a lot to find out, Lynda, especially when it comes to details.

KINKADE: Yes, we will await the final readout and no doubt some comments on Air Force One on the return home for U.S. President Trump.

Steven Jiang in Beijing, it's been a busy couple of days for you. We appreciate you. Thanks so much.

Well, Max Baucus is the former U.S. ambassador to China and a former U.S. senator from the state of Montana. He joins us now from Shanghai. Great to have you with us, Ambassador.

MAX BAUCUS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: Thank you.

KINKADE: So Ambassador, you've long argued for engagement with China. What do you believe this trip has achieved?

BAUCUS: Well, it's good that they met. It's good they shook hands a lot. It was very charming. He's trying to be as open toward President Xi as he could.

President Xi kind of set the stage, I think, with the relationship by being not quite as chummy, not quite as friendly. But the main thing is they met, they shook hands, and I think President Trump learned a lot about President Xi. It's in the details.

There's a lot of announcements, but in my experience, we have to see exactly what happens, that is, what the execution is, and what the details actually are. Are there planes to be purchased, soybeans to be purchased, maybe some oil to be purchased? We'll see.

There was no announcement on trade sanctions, there was no announcement on tariffs. NVIDIA probably will still be subject to scrutiny by the Chinese whether it can sell chips into China. Taiwan is still very much on everybody's mind, certainly on President Xi's mind, and my guess is we'll have to wait and see the degree to which President Trump, or President Xi, backs off on arms sales to Taiwan and or makes some statement that he gives China some more flexibility on Taiwan.

KINKADE: Yes, I wanted to ask you about that, because President Xi certainly said the issue of Taiwan was a number one priority for China, and he warned that the mishandling of Taiwan could lead to clashes, even conflict. Donald Trump was asked specifically about that by a reporter and didn't respond. What is your read of that situation on such a thorny subject, especially in light of the fact that military assets from the region have been withdrawn?

Oh, I think we may have just lost our connection with the Ambassador.

Ambassador, are you still there? Ambassador, do you have my question on Taiwan? I just want to get your read out on that situation, given that Donald Trump didn't answer.

BAUCUS: I heard your question. Basically, I think President Trump's going to think long and hard about President Xi's position on Taiwan.

That is to say, I think President Trump's going to back off on his agreement to ship more arms to Taiwan. There are two packages going through Congress right now. The first package is smaller.

That may go through, but the real question is this subsequent package of arms to Taiwan. My guess is President Trump's going to really give that a second thought, maybe not push it as strongly. If he does, it's going to be very much at his peril.

If he does, the Chinese are going to take note, and that's going to cause a huge rift, I think, in the relationship.

KINKADE: We heard, as you mentioned briefly, potential trade deals. Donald Trump said a lot of trade deals have happened. We heard potential deals might happen involving Boeing, soybeans, oil.

From your experience, Ambassador, how much weight should we put on those economic deals and the tariff adjustments after the tense trade war last year, when it's set against the deep strategic disagreements like Taiwan and, of course, the technology restrictions?

BAUCUS: Well, the trade announcements are important, but we'll see how important. There was some talk that the United States had purchased up to (inaudible). It's 200 maybe.

There was also an announcement about soybeans purchase.

KINKADE: Ambassador, we might leave it there.

BAUCUS: How much oil is the U.S. going to purchase? We'll have to wait and see. That's a poor case.

KINKADE: Ambassador Max Baucus, we appreciate your time. We're having a few connection issues with the audio there in Shanghai, but appreciate you joining us.

[03:10:04]

Well, the U.S. delegation held talks with Cuban officials in Havana Thursday under a shadow of tension between the two countries. Leading the U.S. delegation was the CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who met with Cuban intelligence officials from the Ministry of Interior.

Cuba says that their country is not a threat to the U.S. and should not be listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. has promised millions of dollars in aid to Cuba contingent upon reforms to its communist system. And it comes as President Trump says he's open to talks with the Cuban government, but to not specify what that would entail.

Well still ahead, the Iran war took center stage as President Trump wrapped up his final day of talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. New details and a live report from the Middle East next.

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[03:15:00]

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KINKADE: Welcome back.

President Trump is renewing his call for Iran to give the U.S. its stockpile of enriched uranium. He suggested it's a top priority, even though he does not believe it's necessary, except, quote, from a public relations standpoint.

He warned that the U.S. is closely monitoring Iran's nuclear sites and any efforts to extract the material which he referred to as nuclear dust.

Joining us now is Paula Hancocks, who joins us live from Abu Dhabi. Paula, good to have you with us.

I want to get your reaction first to the Xi-Trump summit. We heard both sides want the Strait of Hormuz open on the ground in the Gulf. How realistic is that, given what's at play?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly the one country that would have been listening to all these statements very closely would have been Iran.

Iran is a very close ally, partner of China. We know that China is the number one purchaser of Iranian oil. And we saw just last week that the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, headed to Beijing to talk with officials as well about the situation here in the region.

So clearly, there is a lot of closeness between those two countries, both political and also economic.

Now, we did hear more, obviously, from the White House than we've heard from Beijing in these readouts. But we've been hearing President Trump and the White House readout saying the presidency agrees that the Strait of Hormuz must be open, also that they have offered to help if need be when it comes to a negotiated peace deal. Let's listen to what the U.S. President said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: President Xi would like to see a deal made. He would like to see a deal made.

And he did offer, he said, if I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: He did say that.

TRUMP: Yes, he did say that. And look, anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some kind of a relationship with him.

But he said, I would love to be of help. If I could be of any help whatsoever, he'd like to see the Hormuz Strait open. He said, if I could be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANCOCKS: Now, the White House readout of some of these meetings also said that the Chinese side, that Xi himself was saying that he objects to any militarization of the Strait of Hormuz. We haven't heard that specifically from Beijing, those statements have far fewer details and are far more deliberate about talking about Iran.

We have heard, though, from the foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing, a statement there, and I'll read part of it to you saying, quote, "This war, which should never have happened, has no need to continue. Finding an early path to resolution would benefit both the U.S. and Iran, as well as countries in the region and the world as a whole."

It went on to say that now the ceasefire has allowed negotiations to start, that the door should not close on those negotiations and any maritime restrictions should be lifted. Of course, the Strait of Hormuz being closed does affect China, but Iran did say some 30 ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz since Wednesday night, including Chinese vessels. Lynda?

KINKADE: Yes, a key distinction there. Paula Hancocks for us in Abu Dhabi, our thanks to you.

The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing questions about his leadership after the Labor Party suffered losses in recent elections. That story and much more after the break.

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[03:20:00]

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KINKADE: Welcome back, I'm Lynda Kinkade. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

U.S. President Donald Trump is flying home after wrapping up his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. He says they agreed that Iran should reopen the Strait of Hormuz. President Xi warned that the issue of Taiwan must be handled properly or it could be very dangerous.

U.S. House lawmakers rejected a resolution on Thursday aimed at limiting President Trump's war powers against Iran. The measure failed on a tied vote, largely along party lines. It's the second time in as many days that Congress has failed to rein in the President's war powers. Under a new Supreme Court ruling, women in the U.S. can continue to

access the mainstream abortion drug by mail and telehealth visits. Well, at least for now, justices sent the case back to the state courts in Louisiana, where officials are pushing to limit the drug to in-person prescriptions. The case could ultimately make its way back to the Supreme Court.

U.K.s Health Secretary has stepped down, citing a lack of confidence in Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In his resignation letter, Wes Streeting said he believed continuing to work for the government would be, quote, "dishonorable and unprincipled." He cited Labor losses in recent elections in England, Scotland and Wales, which, as he put it, left nationalists in power in every corner.

[03:25:07]

He said that could ultimately threaten the break-up of the United Kingdom. Some speculate that Streeting might challenge Mr. Starmer for leadership of the Labor Party.

In Greater Manchester, Mayor Andy Burnham may also be seeking the top spot. He announced on social media that he's seeking permission from the Labor Party to stand for a seat in Parliament, a prerequisite for joining the leadership battle.

Joining us now from London is John Rentoul. He is the Chief Political Commentator for The Independent and a visiting professor at King's College London. Great to have you with us.

JOHN RENTOUL, CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, "THE INDEPENDENT", AND VISITING PROF., KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning.

KINKADE: So the Labor leadership revolt continues. Wes Streeting has resigned as Health Secretary, saying he's lost confidence in Keir Starmer. What's the chance he'll launch a leadership contest?

RENTOUL: Well, not very high in the immediate few days, because there is a sense in the Labor Party that it wouldn't be fair for him to go ahead when Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester, is not available as a rival candidate. There's a feeling that, you know, all the available candidates ought to be able to take part.

But that just means that Labor is going to go through weeks, if not months, of further leadership turmoil with a weakened Prime Minister and no guarantee of a good outcome at the end. So this has been absolutely disastrous for the Labor government.

KINKADE: Yes, and we're hearing nearly 90 Labor M.P.s are reportedly calling for Starmer to resign. And that's more than what would be needed to trigger a contest, right?

RENTOUL: Yes, but they don't all want to replace him with the same person. So one candidate needs to have 81 nominations to stand against Keir Starmer. And so far, I think, you know, there would be 81 who would support Wes Streeting, but he wouldn't be guaranteed to win a leadership contest, because that's not decided by M.P.s, that's decided by Labor Party members around the country. And they much prefer Andy Burnham.

But Andy Burnham's got to get into Parliament, he's got to fight a by- election. He will probably lose that by-election to Nigel Farage's party, Reform, the anti-immigration party, in which case, you know, the Labor government will have gone through all this for nothing.

KINKADE: Wow, that's pretty dire. So if he can't win a by-election, he's not even in with a chance. Is there anyone else that would be considered at this point in time?

RENTOUL: Yes, there's Angela Rayner, who was Deputy Prime Minister until last year, when she had to resign because of her tax affairs. She's now resolved that tax problem without being found to have done anything seriously wrong, although it was a careless mistake. She's now paid the back taxes.

But, you know, she hasn't declared herself yet, and she's extremely unpopular with the general public. There's just, I mean, every way that the Labor Party turns on this, it just meets a blank wall of a problem.

And it leaves Keir Starmer in number 10 as Prime Minister, but severely weakened.

KINKADE: Yes, certainly a sitting duck, as they say. I just want to play some sound from the British Education Minister. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIDGET PHILLIPSON, BRITISH EDUCATION MINISTER: The Prime Minister has my support in the job that he is doing, he's got the backing of Cabinet too. And I do recognize where colleagues are coming from.

Like them, I want us to do better. The Prime Minister gets it, I get it. And I get it very profoundly.

You know, I had some very difficult local election results in my community just last week. I know people are feeling really sore, really hurting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: So if there's 90 MPs potentially against the Prime Minister, how many are supporting him? Well, not all the rest, is the fair thing to say.

RENTOUL: But I mean, that's bad enough. I mean, that means, you know, a quarter of Labor MPs have gone on the record, something they can't take back, to say that they don't think Keir Starmer should be the Prime Minister, which is why his authority has been so, so damaged, and he couldn't yesterday carry out a full reshuffle of his Cabinet.

He had to replace Wes Streeting as the Health Secretary, with a relatively junior minister who's never had a departmental job, because he couldn't afford to shake up his big beasts in the Cabinet. So it's not looking good.

The only way that this might work out well would be if Andy Burnham does win that by-election, proves he can defeat reform in the most unlikely, most difficult circumstances. But then he's still got to set out an alternative plan for government.

[03:30:07]

And there's no evidence that I've seen so far. I mean, he's been a very good Mayor of Manchester, but there's no real evidence that he would be a good Prime Minister.

KINKADE: So stepping back, John, you're essentially saying that the best case scenario is weeks of prolonged internal leadership debate, and then it's over. That's the best case scenario?

RENTOUL: Yes, absolutely. And maybe, you know, maybe, I mean, Keir Starmer may not, may not survive eventually, and eventually he'll be replaced, but not necessarily by someone who can improve the situation, because the Labor Party will be so divided and so weakened by the turmoil that the general public will have, will have given up on it.

I mean, it is an absolute disaster situation. They've repeated the same mistake that the Conservatives made in 2022, which was to get rid of a sitting Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, without knowing who they're going to replace him with. And that ended up with Liz Truss as Prime Minister for seven weeks, and the Conservative Party absolutely ruining its reputation.

KINKADE: Well, we'll see what the revolving door brings tomorrow. John Rentoul in London, I appreciate you. Thank you.

RENTOUL: My pleasure.

KINKADE: The International Trade Center, a joint agency of the UN and the WTO, says Trinidad and Tobago account for a third of all Caribbean exports to Africa. CNN's Eleni Giokos looks at one Caribbean auto repair company vying to become a major manufacturer of car batteries within Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENI GIOKOS, "CONNECTING AFRICA" CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What began in 2015 as a car rental service in Trinidad and Tobago quickly evolved to become a maintenance hub and one of the leading internal combustion engine car battery distributors across the Caribbean. After attending a 2024 trade mission to Ghana, Nu Wave Automotive says it's now ready to expand into the African market.

MICHAEL SEALY, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER, NU WAVE AUTOMOTIVE LTD.: One of the major takeaways was scale and then opportunity. It really gave us a point to really pivot the business into a larger market.

GIOKOS (voice-over): The company says it's investing about $50 million into building a battery manufacturing facility in Ghana's Teme industrial area.

SEALY: One of the things we do is distribute batteries. So when we went to the trade mission, one of the main projects was to export batteries to Ghana and when we met with several persons, we recognized that Ghana imports their batteries. So there was a clear opportunity to manufacture and assemble batteries.

GIOKOS (voice-over): Nu Wave says that in ECOWAS, an economic union of 15 countries in West Africa, the car battery market size is $150 million. The company says to further tap into this market, it wants to limit Ghana's reliance on importing batteries by providing local manufacturing alternatives.

Nu Wave says its goal is to have the plant up and running by the middle of next year. Once operating at full capacity, the company says they'll be able to produce a million batteries a year and employ up to 1500 people directly and indirectly.

SEALY: Because Ghana has in excess of 3.2 million gas and petrol vehicles, we are starting with lead acid batteries for cars and trucks, generators and that type of thing.

The plan is to move on to lithium later on. There's a lot of synergies between Trinidad and Ghana. And we just want to make it happen.

You have to move from conceptualization to actualization. We want to be trendsetters, we want to be game changers. We want to be the first Caribbean company to really have a huge impact in Africa, starting with Ghana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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KINKADE: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines right now.

President Trump says Chinese leader Xi Jinping has agreed to order 200 Boeing jets. Trump has yelled the move in a clip from an interview with Fox News that released Thursday. Trump says he believes Xi's comments amounted to a commitment to move forward with the purchase.

Oil prices have jumped after President Trump said China had agreed to purchase crude oil from the U.S. China has not confirmed that energy purchase. WTI, the global benchmark for crude oil, is currently around $103 a barrel; Brent Crude, the U.S. benchmark, is trading at around $107 a barrel.

A Trump-branded cell phone will start shipping to customers this week. The company behind it, Trump Mobile, announced the development on Thursday following months of delays. The gold-plated device sells for about $500, it strongly resembles a Chinese Mi device, whose price tag is less than half that amount.

[03:40:07]

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, wrapped up her first overseas trip since completing her cancer treatment. Her solo trip focused on her work with the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood. CNN's Max Foster reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Principessa Caterina, two words you keep hearing here in Reggio Emilia, Princess Catherine. Of course, she's just visited. She was here for less than 48 hours, a huge presence when she arrived thousands of people.

But what started out as a fascination in her actually turned into something the other way around; her fascination into this town because she came here to learn about how the very youngest people in society, under fives, are educated. So she wanted to find out about this way of teaching, which isn't sticking children in the classroom and instructing them, but by giving them objects, taking them outside and letting them explore.

Using all their senses, you know, smelling, seeing, tasting everything that's around them, whatever it is, but allowing them to lead the learning and learn for themselves without being told what to do. The Princess feels that if you can get that early learning correct, then you can solve many of our toughest problems in society, for example, addiction. And she now feels this is a global mission for her to encourage the world to take early learning more seriously.

And she wants to take those ideas back to the U.K. and keep going on trips like this. And I've never seen her actually quite as enthused as she was meeting the young kids here and the difference that the system they use here, the Reggio approach, because she's been through this period of recovery from cancer. She's gone through this life-changing experience, as an aide described it to me.

And now she wants to throw herself into her work even more, but she has to balance it with that recovery. But what I think we're going to see is her back on the global stage, travelling the world, trying to promote what she sees as a key cause for her and indeed the planet up there with climate change.

Max Foster, CNN, Reggio, Emilia, Italy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, Britain's King Charles attended a special performance Thursday at the Royal Opera House. He was one of the guests at a joint performance of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera. The King is a patron of both.

The performance also debuted new stage curtains at the Opera House with the King's cypher. They replaced the ones with the Queen Elizabeth's, which had hung there for 27 years.

Thanks so much for joining me, I'm Lynda Kinkade. "World Sport" is up next and there's much more "CNN Newsroom" with my colleague Salma Abdelaziz at the top of the hour. Stay with us, you're watching CNN.

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