Trump’s Dance With China, Bannon Gets the Boot, Appropriating the ‘Resistance’

Coming up on today’s show:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday and Friday. President Xi is looking to elevate his status at home and will stand strong on issues like trade and North Korea, but President Trump has said he is willing to handle North Korea without China’s help. Isaac Stone Fish, a senior fellow at the Asia Society and a former Newsweek correspondent in Beijing, explains what you should expect.

• On Wednesday, the National Security Council removed Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist, from the Principals Committee, which is typically reserved for high level cabinet officials. Shannon Green, former senior director for global engagement on the National Security Council, discusses the significance of Bannon’s removal. 

• Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is one of a number of attorneys general in blue states that are pushing back on the Trump Administration’s agenda on a range of issues. She joins The Takeaway to explain why she opposes the president’s travel ban, and the administration’s position on immigration. 

• Not everyone in the blue state of Massachusetts is against President Trump’s policies. Thomas Hodgson, the sheriff of Bristol County — located about 50 miles south of Boston — recently called for the leaders of sanctuary cities to be arrested. He weighs in today on The Takeaway. 

• In Massachusetts, two of the state’s poorest communities have filed lawsuits challenging the president’s executive order that threatened to strip federal aid to sanctuary cities. Elizabeth Ross, The Takeaway’s producer at public radio station WGBH, reports that these suits could offer a blueprint for other small sanctuary communities looking to challenge President Trump’s immigration agenda.

• In a new investigation, The Center for Public Integrity found that dozens of the companies that received federal contracts had violated federal wage laws in the past. Maryam Jameel, labor and environment reporter for The Center for Public Integrity, has the details.

• An ad featuring Kendall Jenner standing with protesters and offering a Pepsi to a police officer has sparked outrage among individuals offended by the company’s appropriation of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the use of a white woman to do so. But this is just one ad among many that have sought to capitalize on the “resistance” in order to connect with consumers. Dustin Lonstreth, chief marketing and strategy officer at CBX, a brand agency in New York City, explains.