Trump defends Iran war before UN General Assembly
Chinese President Xi Jinping is arriving in Washington on Wednesday for a state visit, the WSJ Politics newsletter reported, following weekslong talks over the trip’s designation. President Trump is scheduled to greet Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at 6 p.m. ET at Joint Base Andrews ahead of their White House visit, after holding policy meetings from 11 a.m. ET to 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the newsletter said.
Alongside the visit, the newsletter reported on Republican midterm headwinds. Less than six weeks before the midterms, the Iran war Trump defended before the General Assembly has become one of the Republican Party’s “biggest vulnerabilities,” according to the newsletter. In takeaways from his speech, the newsletter reported that Trump “didn’t seem fazed” about the fallout of his UN remarks and that he argued his most important mission is preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, with the political price “a small one to pay.”
Harris campaigns alongside Michigan Senate candidate El-Sayed
Kamala Harris, the former vice president, campaigned alongside Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, in Detroit on Tuesday, the WSJ Politics newsletter reported. The newsletter described Harris as “the vice president in an administration that still divides Democrats” who “lost an election that led to a civil war within the Democratic Party.”
“The United States Senate should be a stopgap on the abuses of this administration, and I would suggest to you that this fellow sitting to my right would be one of them when elected,” Harris said, referring to El-Sayed, the newsletter reported.
The Detroit appearance is a relatively rare 2026 campaign stop for Harris, the newsletter said. Some polls indicate Harris is the leading 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, according to the newsletter. Harris has additional stops planned, including one with Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia, the newsletter reported. At the Detroit event, Harris briefly took a question from reporters about President Trump’s decision to remove several news outlets from the press pool, calling it “abhorrent.”
Other Democratic candidates have not been clamoring for Harris’s endorsement — the newsletter characterized the response as “a bit of the opposite.” Harris performed well with Black voters in 2024, the newsletter noted, and her support could be vital for El-Sayed in Michigan. The campaign of El-Sayed’s rival, former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, painted Harris’s appearance as a sign of desperation, the newsletter said.
Democrats are working to project new candidates and a new direction heading into 2027 and beyond, the newsletter reported. Harris is tied to the unpopular former President Joe Biden and had her own 2024 campaign missteps, the newsletter said, but she remains one of the Democratic Party’s most recognizable figures. Ossoff’s public support of her carries weight, according to the newsletter.
Zelensky requests winter military package
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has asked Trump for a “winter package” of military equipment, including Patriot antimissile systems, the WSJ Politics newsletter reported.
HHS shifts Minority Health funds to cover RFK Jr. security
The Department of Health and Human Services shifted about $12 million from its Office of Minority Health to help cover security expenses for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the WSJ Politics newsletter reported. The cost of security for the health secretary grew from roughly $10 million in fiscal year 2025 to $17 million in fiscal year 2026, people familiar with the matter told the newsletter. The Office of Minority Health was created under former President Ronald Reagan after a landmark report found that Black infants in the U.S. were more likely than white babies to die and that Black life expectancy was shorter, the newsletter noted.
Curtis requests Trump Jr. probe
In background, Sen. John Curtis (R., Utah) requested a probe of President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., over a “lavish afterparty” wedding gift from a Russian businessman connected to the Kremlin, the newsletter reported. Curtis sought an investigation into “the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit, preferential treatment, or access by domestic and foreign interests,” the newsletter said.