Today’s notice: Trump’s toughest nickname challenge yet. What to expect from Xi Jinping’s state visit. A scoop about RFK Jr. and cancer screenings. A big shift for Republicans on the campaign trail. And: What’s going on in Montana?
THE LATEST
How smart is Super Intelligence? Still a believer in unfettered artificial intelligence development, Donald Trump has a new phrase he plans to repeat to drown out the growing bipartisan backlash to the technology.
“Welcome to the new world of super intelligence — SI — let’s see if that goes. It sounds much better,” Trump said in his United Nations address. “The word ‘artificial’ makes intelligence fake. It makes it sound fake, and it is not fake.”
Trending
This president has a way with words more potent than most. Trump’s nicknames for his opponents and turns of phrases have changed political discourses before. “I’m sure it’s branding,” a former Trump official told our Ben T.N. Mause. “‘AI’ is toxic.”
But when it comes to SI, it may be wise to heed Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
This is an industry that absolutely needs someone to lead it to a kinder, gentler public perception. Active participants in the AI debate see more than a nomenclature problem. “Names certainly can matter — renaming the ‘estate tax’ the ‘death tax’ proved politically impactful,” veteran lobbyist Bruce Mehlman told us. “But shifting from AI to SI seems less likely to alleviate concerns over electricity costs, cyber risk or societal safety, especially in the next two months.”
Polling bears this out. Public faith in this tech is tanking, even as confusion about it remains high. “My sense is that adding a word in front of AI, whether it is general intelligence or super intelligence, isn’t a distinction that matters to the public,” Lee Rainie, an expert in public opinion around AI at Elon University, told us. “Experts cannot agree on what the definition of artificial general intelligence is or the definition of artificial super intelligence. Asking people to sort these differences out isn’t a very reasonable thing to do.”
Does super intelligence sound less scary … or more scary? This was the term used in some of the original books about what to fear from this technology. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has used it to describe the most dangerous outcomes from AI development for a while now. In fact, he and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) invited reporters to a call today about the lawmakers’ efforts to legislatively corral what they call “superintelligence,” defined as “machines humans cannot control.”
More: Federal Lawmakers Score Major Paydays From Books • Appeals Court Rejects Post-9/11 Restrictions on Capitol Steps Protests • Trump Backs Ban on Diesel Exports Amid Growing Calls From Republicans
Open tabs:
- Another U.S. service member dies amid Iran war, Pentagon tally shows (WaPo)
- RFK Jr.’s Enhanced Security Was Funded With Money From Minority Health Office (WSJ)
- Hospitals Shutter Youth Gender Clinics in Deal With Trump Administration (NYT)
- What is in the US-Greenland-Denmark security deal? (Reuters)
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
State visit: Expectations are not high for major diplomatic news from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Washington starting today, The Washington Sun’s Jasmine Wright and Ben T.N. Mause report. The visit is expected to be big on diplomatic pomp, however, as it is Xi’s first official state visit since 2015. “I think the status quo with China is not great by any stretch, but it’s better than the alternative: a tariff war and a limited supply of our rare critical minerals,” said one U.S. official. “So I think that the expectation is it’s mostly going to be kicking the can.”
FROM THE HILL
First on The Sun: Mitch McConnell presses Trump on Taiwan. The Republican senator from Kentucky is leading an effort to make sure Xi’s visit does not lead the White House to offer any concessions over Taiwan, our Joe Gould reports. A letter from McConnell and other Republicans who are sometimes thorns in Trump’s side — Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — demands that the Trump administration get moving on more than $1 billion in direct military aid already authorized and a $14 billion arms deal for the island. “We are concerned by President Trump’s description of Taiwan as ‘a very good negotiating chip,’” the letter reads.
FROM HHS
Scoop: RFK Jr. privately backs controversial cancer-screening tests. In a private meeting last winter, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’d like the Preventive Services Task Force to recommend multi-cancer blood tests, sources tell The Sun’s Paige Winfield Cunningham. The tests can detect early-stage cancer when it’s more treatable but can also give false alarms that push patients toward additional interventions they wouldn’t have otherwise sought. Leading medical associations don’t recommend for or against them for people without symptoms, Paige writes.
Four companies that make or sell early-detection cancer tests or scans are involved in the Make America Healthy Again Summit next week, including as corporate sponsors.
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
That thing that was not supposed to happen has happened. Trump’s iron grip on Republican electeds really has slipped, The Sun’s Igor Bobic reports. In the past week, a Republican congresswoman denounced Trump’s immigration policies, a Republican senator called for a probe into his son’s wedding and two Republican Senate candidates urged him to swiftly end the Iran war.
The law of political gravity, it seems, still applies. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to change those midterm polls. “Unless it has been part of your brand for some time, I’m not sure voters will really buy it,” a longtime Republican strategist said.
PODCAST
From your favorite podcast app: On this week’s Washington Sun Cast, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina) gave The Sun’s Kadia Goba a stern “no” when asked if he was confident Democrats will win the House majority — though he was “confident we will put forth our best effort.” The party will win, he says, if everybody “really goes to work.” The longtime congressman also talked about his role in keeping South Carolina as the first Democratic primary state for 2028 and what makes a good fish fry.
NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN
Is Sam Forstag the next Montana Democrat? The state has had its share of national party figures, but is generally seen as a conservative, small-government bastion. The Sun’s Anna Kramer traveled to the western part of this vast state to trail Forstag, a former Forest Service smokejumper and local union leader turned congressional candidate, who is making the case that Trump’s particular version of small government is not the right fit for Montana.
DOGE cuts and Trump’s public land policies have left their mark on a state that relies on the federal workforce: “The current administration is screwing up so badly that it’s really creating an opening,” a retired Republican state lawmaker told Anna.
But Forstag is also asking a lot of this electorate. The Cook Political Report rates the seat as “likely R,” and Forstag is running with the unabashed endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), two names Republicans are thrilled to run against. Is the next Montana Democrat that kind of Democrat? Anna goes deep in her story.
More: DOJ Charges Utah Postal Worker for Dumping Mail Ballots • The U.S. Will Admit ‘Primarily’ White South Africans as Refugees • Firm That Handles Trump Social Media Accounts Accuse Co-Founder of Embezzlement
NOT US
- Troy Jackson, Maine’s Accidental Candidate, by Rebecca Traister for New York magazine
- The ‘New Word’ Trump Hates, by Idrees Kahloon for The Atlantic
- In South Texas, Bobby Pulido urges voters to see beyond red and blue, by Daniela Altimari for Roll Call
- How the Absence of Shame Weakens Democracy, by Jay Caspian Kang for The New Yorker
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The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.
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