Good morning! Today is Thursday, May 14th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. As President Trump lands in Beijing for the first U.S. presidential visit to China in nearly a decade, Evan Sankey argues the Iran war has quietly become a policy of deprioritizing Asia—and that the administration must engage Taiwan and other first-order political questions, not just renew last year's trade truce. The Senate narrowly defeated a War Powers resolution to halt the Iran war by a 49-to-50 vote, and Harrison Berger reports that some Senate Democrats privately view the war as a political win-win for the midterms—even as Republicans signal openness to a bipartisan coalition ahead of today's House vote. Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein revisits Washington's Farewell Address to examine the asymmetries of the U.S.–Israel relationship, from the Qualitative Military Edge to Ambassador Huckabee's recent invocation of a "biblical right" to land from the Nile to the Euphrates. and now for the details. Our coverage this morning centers on Washington at a crossroads — a president preparing to land in Beijing while his administration remains entangled in a war with Iran, a Congress unable to muster the votes to rein that war in, and a new chairman taking the helm at the Federal Reserve. We begin in the Indo-Pacific, where President Trump arrives in China today for the first visit by an American president in nearly a decade. The summit, originally scheduled for April, was pushed back a month and a half because, in the president's own words, "we've got a war going on." Writing for The American Conservative, Evan Sankey argues that the Iran war is functioning as an implicit policy of deprioritizing Asia. An amphibious assault ship and a marine unit have been pulled from Japan. Precision weapons the United States would need in any fight with China have been transferred from the Indo-Pacific and rapidly expended. Sankey contends the administration should aim higher than simply renewing the trade truce reached in Busan last October. The primary causes of U.S.–China rivalry, he writes, are political — mutual paranoia over Taiwan, Chinese suspicion of American encirclement, and American concern about being pushed out of Asia. Outsourcing China policy to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sankey argues, reflects a techno-economic framing that leaves the deeper questions unaddressed. He points to the deep freeze between Beijing and Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in November that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan — the first time a sitting Japanese prime minister has said so aloud. Sankey's conclusion: a stable U.S.–China relationship requires engaging Taiwan and other first-order political questions directly, not papering them over with talking points. For a wider conversation on these themes, Andrew Day and Harrison Berger spoke this week with geopolitical analyst Brandon Weichert about the Iran war, Trump's China visit, and the Russian thinkers urging Vladimir Putin to escalate against Europe. That conversation is available now on TAC Right Now. Turning to Capitol Hill, the Senate on Wednesday narrowly defeated a War Powers resolution that would have halted the Iran war absent congressional authorization. The vote was 49 to 50 — the seventh such attempt to fail in the upper chamber. Republican Senators Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski crossed over to support the resolution. Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania crossed the other way to help defeat it. As Harrison Berger reports, the Trump administration's military campaign now enters its 74th day without a formal legislative check, and the House is scheduled to vote today on a separate resolution sponsored by Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. In a companion piece, Berger examines why such resolutions keep falling short. War powers enforcement, he notes, has historically required trans-ideological coalitions — the 2019 Yemen resolution, the only one ever to pass both chambers, needed Republicans like Senator Mike Lee and Representative Thomas Massie voting with Democrats. Yet in the weeks leading up to today's House vote, Democratic leaders have framed the conflict as a "MAGA Republican war of choice." House Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Gregory Meeks told a Drop Site News journalist to "go and talk to some Republicans" herself when pressed on whether GOP votes were available. Berger notes that Republicans like Representatives Warren Davidson and Lauren Boebert have signaled openness, and that Representative Brian Mast — a hawk — has warned colleagues the vote count could shift. Berger also reports something striking: a top foreign policy aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told an antiwar organizer that a substantial number of Senate Democrats believe Iran must ultimately be dealt with militarily, but prefer that Trump be the one wagi
