Morning Frame is a daily digest for news-obsessed, confident, and charming readers. It highlights what stories are emerging, crossing partisan bubbles, and fading. Powered by Narrative Prism software, which ingests thousands of bits of media every day.
Friday, September 25, 2026
President Donald Trump hosted a lavish state dinner Thursday night celebrating Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with a guest list that included a who’s who of billionaire oligarchs and media titans, including David Ellison. He is the new owner of CNN, of course, the network which was banned from covering the state dinner along with MS NOW and Politico. Close observers of Trump’s political rhetoric over the past decade or so know that he’s a fierce critic of “communism” and “socialism,” which made his celebration of the leader of the Chinese Communist Party so bizarre, or hypocritical or just abjectly bullshit in the context of where MAGA consistently stands on this issue. Lest we forget that Trump insisted networks take his primetime address on July 16, in which he claimed clear evidence that China interfered in the 2020 election, which makes the current summit and Trump's supplication to Xi seem even more distasteful. Meanwhile, even conservative voices blasted Trump for showing off his “auto-pen” image of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Even at the highest level of diplomacy, Donald Trump can not refrain from being a childish troll. Shameful.
01. Trump’s Press Ban Lets Chinese State Media In and Keeps CNN Out
Yesterday, a judge ordered the passes back, which the White House initially defied but then relented. By last night, the ban seemed back on as CNN still couldn’t get into the state dinner, while Chinese state media could.
Betsy Klein of CNN got to the White House gate Thursday morning, a few hours after Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the passes restored, and still couldn’t get in. While she waited outside, Chinese state media were already on the driveway and inside the briefing room. Trump later joked to Xi that the Chinese have the friendliest press corps.
Klein eventually got in around noon, while the other two outlets got in during the day. By then Trump had posted that CNN and MS NOW “refused to cover” Xi’s arrival and have “such poor Ratings.” That evening CNN sent in names to cover the dinner arrivals, and while the White House cleared the photojournalist and the audio tech, they barred the reporter and producer, per CNN’s own reporting. The other networks got their reporters and producers in, while MS NOW’s reporter was turned away.
David Ellison, whose company owns CBS and is about to own CNN, was on the guest list inside, along with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Justice John Roberts. The network pool, Fox News included, didn’t film any of it. Chinese state TV had video of Xi’s arrival, per The New Republic, and Collins and Jake Tapper both had to cite Chinese state media for what Xi told Trump about Iran and Taiwan.
Jen Psaki was the only host Thursday night who mentioned Ellison’s name. CNN didn’t say it once in the six hours we tracked. Fox News primetime had one line, on Special Report, about there being no pool coverage. Fox & Friends never got to any of it in its first two hours Friday morning.
TAKEAWAY: Comparing the manner in which the White House treated the Chinese media compared to domestic outlets is not just another performative conflict ginned up to distract from high gas prices and a disastrous war. It’s an outrage. A scar on US history that should earn bipartisan condemnation, though Trump’s favorite morning show, Fox & Friends, entirely looked the other way. Shameful.
02. Trump’s Anti-Communist Message At Complete Odds With State Dinner for Chinese Communist Dictator
Yesterday the story was the red carpet reception at Joint Base Andrews. Today it’s a taxpayer-funded ad against communism and a state dinner that gave preference to Chinese media over American news outlets.
The campaign ad started running locally on Fox News overnight Wednesday, in the replays of Watters, Hannity, and Gutfeld. It features Trump saying America will never be a communist country, a singer goes “Love Me” over pictures of him, and the small print at the bottom says paid for by the U.S. government. The whole buy was a little over $13,000 as of Thursday afternoon, mostly in Washington, D.C., per a Politico report. The White House defended it as a public service announcement.
Thursday night Trump raised a glass to Xi in the East Room. Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters were both in attendance, though both warned in June that New York was going communist. Their shows were guest-hosted by Jason Chaffetz and Brian Kilmeade, and neither one said where the hosts were, or reported that they were ostensibly raising a glass to Xi.
A guest on Kaitlan Collins’s show said it plainly. Trump uses communist as a slur against Democrats and then hosts the head of the Communist Party. On Fox & Friends, former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo defended Trump paying respect to Xi, then said Xi came here “to be a proud leader equal rival to the United States of America.”
TAKEAWAY: Remember when Trump undermined the GOP midterm anti-socialism message when he offered every adult American a $5,000 check if the Republicans stayed in power? Well, yesterday he undermined his own anti-communism messaging by metaphorically fellating the Chinese dictator, just two months after he claimed they interfered in US elections. Nothing matters anymore.
03. Republican Break With Trump on Iran Reaches the Senate Floor
Yesterday, a pro-Trump radio host read out the party’s private polling. Today it’s a senator saying the White House knew the midterms were coming.
The Senate voted Thursday afternoon on a war powers resolution to end U.S. hostilities with Iran. It lost 49 to 50 when four Republicans voted yes, which included Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and Thom Tillis.
John Fetterman was the only Democrat who voted no. Bill Cassidy, who is leaving the Senate after getting primaried by MAGA, Inc., voted no and dismissed reporters by saying he had a flight to catch. Jon Husted told Politico on Tuesday the war needs to end as quickly as possible, but Thursday he curiously voted to let it go on.
Murkowski defended her no vote to Politico, saying the administration “should have thought about these things before you went into Iran. They knew the midterms were coming.”
The same day, the NRSC went to donors asking for $8.9 million to help Republican candidates hold seats in Alaska, Iowa and Ohio, all three states Trump won by double digits, per Axios. They also reported that the GOP expects to make painful spending decisions by early October, and that Trump’s promise to campaign every week “didn’t happen.” Thomas Massie told Collins that Republican candidates “don’t want him in their districts.”
Morning Joe opened its 7 AM hour on it Friday morning and went through Husted, Sullivan and Marshall, the Republicans who criticized the war or ICE and then voted with Trump. Fox News never mentioned the vote in any hour we saw and neither did CNN’s morning shows.
TAKEAWAY: It’s not necessarily news anymore that the polling shows a potentially disastrous midterm for the GOP. And it’s not even news anymore that Republicans are further distancing themselves from Trump. What’s notable is that the President continues to act like all’s well politically, and even continues to behave in a manner that is making things go from bad to worse. Can a death spiral become more death spirally? Sure seems like it.
Scott Jennings told Anderson Cooper that a federal judge’s orders should be followed “immediately.” This came on the evening that a Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to immediately end a ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which was initially defied by the Trump administration.
Jennings isn’t just CNN’s in-house Trump defender, but he’s also being considered for White House press secretary per multiple reports. Cooper asked him if he thought keeping the cameras out of the state dinner with Xi was a smart move. “No, it wasn’t,” Jennings replied, calling it a “miss.” “When judges make decisions, we ought to follow those immediately. I’m glad we’re back on the [White House] grounds tonight.”
That “we” means Jennings and CNN. He said all this on the network suing the White House over access, while he is reportedly up for the job of defending it. If that job opportunity is real, he just made it harder to get.
The data tells the real, better stories beneath the headlines.
Tucker Carlson Says Trump Dismissed War Concerns With ‘We All Die Anyway’: “In the end we all die anyway, so it doesn’t matter.” That’s how Trump replied to Carlson’s warning to the president about Israel and the Iran war, per Carlson. (NPR)
Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Backfire: The DHS investigation of illegal votes in Nevada went from claims of 16,000 to 185 to ZERO, according to the New York Times report. This is yet another stumble for an administration trying to find proof of widespread fraud and coming up empty. (The New York Times)
Iran Proposes Seven-Day Peace Plan: Iran’s foreign minister put forth a new plan that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, restart nuclear talks, and lift the U.S. blockade. (The New York Times)
Based on transcripts from the 6 and 7 a.m. hours of Fox & Friends, CNN This Morning, News Central, and Morning Joe.
A CNN reporter stood at the White House gate Thursday morning holding a court order that said she could come in, and the Secret Service said no. Chinese state media had already been allowed inside, and some of them were taking pictures of each other at the briefing room podium. Trump joked to Xi about how friendly the Chinese press is compared to the American press.
By dinner, CNN was back on the grounds and still couldn’t cover the arrivals. David Ellison could because he was one of them, and is about to own CNN. He ate sea bass a few tables from the president while the network’s reporter waited outside. At roughly the same time, a government-paid ad ran locally on Fox News with Trump promising America will never be communist. Fox News hosts who say that kind of thing for a living were at the dinner, feteing the communist leader.
What are we doing, people?
The Morning Frame tracks which political stories are spreading, which are stalling, and how you can tell the difference. Powered by Narrative Prism.