Wednesday, May 13, 2026
The Briefing with Albert Mohler
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
4.8 • 8.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s edition of The Briefing, Dr. Mohler discusses what to watch for as President Trump goes to Beijing, Chinese spies in U.S. political offices, the theater of international diplomacy, and the end of Dr. Marty Makary’s tenure as FDA Commissioner.
Part I (00:13 – 12:57)
Statecraft on the World Stage: What to Watch For as President Trump Goes to Beijing
Part II (12:57 – 18:19)
Chinese Spies in U.S. Political Offices: China is Seeking to Subvert the American System, Which Includes Infiltrating America With Its Own Agents
- California Mayor Will Plead Guilty to Working as Agent of China by The New York Times (Pooja Salhotra)
- He Offered a Lawmaker’s Aide Quick Cash. Was He Spying for China? by The New York Times (Dustin Volz)
Diplomatic Security and President Trump’s Visit to China: Honor, Dignity, and the Deeply Serious (and Sometimes Absurd) Theater of International Diplomacy
- How to Avoid Fistfights and Poisonings at a World Leaders Summit by The Wall Street Journal (Lingling Wei)
Dr. Marty Makary Spends His Ninth Political Life: Dr. Makary is Out as FDA Commissioner – This Could Be a Big Win for the Pro-Life Movement
- Hawley Statement on Resignation of FDA Commissioner Makary by U.S. Senator for Missouri (Sen. Joshua Hawley)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Wednesday, May 13, 2026. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. You've got to watch the time zones. When President Trump lands in Beijing, it will be Beijing time, Beijing calendar, May the 14th. |
| 0:23.9 | That's because the president leaving the United States and traveling to Beijing on Air Force One |
| 0:28.7 | will be crossing the international date line. And he's going to be crossing history as well. |
| 0:33.5 | This is a big, big event. And when we're talking about state visits at this level, and especially when we are talking about what's going to be happening over the next several days, there in China, we're talking about the two biggest political and economic and military players on the world scene, having a conversation through the leader of the Communist Party, who is the premier there in China, |
| 0:56.2 | Xi Jinping, and Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. Now, of course, as you think about this, |
| 1:03.0 | there's so much at stake. Let's just consider, first of all, the entire context of diplomacy. |
| 1:09.4 | Diplomacy reminds us that the relationship between great power nations, |
| 1:13.6 | even nations as big as the United States of America and China, |
| 1:16.6 | forces in terms of alliances and all the rest, |
| 1:19.6 | and of course all kinds of conflict baked into the entire situation. |
| 1:24.6 | All this reminds us that we are human beings |
| 1:26.6 | and that eventually the only way to have |
| 1:29.9 | a meeting between China and the United States is to have human beings in the room. And eventually, |
| 1:36.5 | the most important of those meetings will mean that the singular leader who represents China |
| 1:42.7 | as head of state and the singular leader who represents the as head of state and the singular leader who represents |
| 1:45.9 | the United States of America as head of state will meet together in what is often referred to as a |
| 1:52.0 | summit meeting. You understand the summit, you understand the imagery, the metaphor, the very top of the |
| 1:57.6 | mountain. That is where these two individuals, politically speaking, will be meeting. |
| 2:02.5 | Or to put it another way, when you think about how diplomacy works, it's one thing to have diplomats at a lower level meet with one another, |
| 2:10.6 | delegations from one country to the other, international meetings where there are representatives. |
| 2:16.0 | It's another thing when you have elected |
| 2:18.3 | representatives, or in the case of China, high-level Communist Party representatives who meet together. |
... |
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