Trump's tariff truce, nuclear test orders, SNAP pain

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

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🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

President Donald Trump spent several days this week in Asia, dining with world leaders and hammering out the details of trade agreements. The visit culminated with a face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. While both sides agreed to back off of their most aggressive trade positions, the visit was overshadowed by Trump’s directive that the United States would resume nuclear weapons testing.

Back at home, the federal government shutdown has created a cliff for SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, which 42 million Americans rely on for food assistance. With that benefit slated to run out at the end of October, how are Democrats and Republicans in Congress reacting?

Host Elahe Izadi speaks with White House economic policy correspondent Jacob Bogage and David J. Lynch, who covers trade for The Post. You can purchase David’s latest book, “The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make It Right),” here.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff and Josh Carroll. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Foreign leaders have learned after a decade now of dealing with president, former president, and now President Trump.
0:08.2	They've learned what he likes.
0:09.8	And so the reception was heavy on gold ornamentation.
0:13.2	It was heavy on flattery.
0:15.3	It was heavy on pomp and circumstance.
0:17.8	Yeah, there were some pretty fancy golf clubs, too, I think I saw.
0:20.8	There were some golf clubs. The South Korean president literally gave him a crown.
0:25.4	A replica, we should say. A replica. A replica. A replica. A replica of the crown worn by a long-dead
0:30.0	Korean leader. It makes you wonder what kind of gift you'd get if you were a leader on the
0:34.7	world stage. I'm biting my tongue, but I was thinking of
0:38.2	various whiskey bottles from duty-free shops and far-flung airports. From the newsroom of the
0:48.9	Washington Post, this is Post Report's weekly politics roundtable. I'm Ella He Izadi. It's Friday, October 31st.
0:57.3	Today, we'll dig into President Donald Trump's big trip to Asia and the tariff news to come out of it.
1:03.6	And we're going to talk about a big shutdown fight on Capitol Hill, this time over food assistance.
1:10.6	I'm joined this week by Jacob Bogage, a White House economic policy correspondent for The Post,
1:16.0	and David J. Lynch, who covers trade for the Post.
1:19.6	Jacob, David, thanks so much for joining me today.
1:22.4	Glad to be here.
1:24.9	So Trump just wrapped up this big trip to Asia this week where he was meeting with leaders from multiple countries, South Korea, Japan.
1:33.7	And the meeting I think a lot of people were paying attention to was this meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
1:40.4	That happened Thursday morning local time. David, you're the trade expert here.
1:46.0	What did Trump need to accomplish on this trip?
	...

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