Democrats and media talking heads have voiced their opposition, on multiple occasions, to President Donald Trump’s efforts to prevent narco-terrorists — by whatever means necessary — from continuing to flood the United States with fentanyl and other drugs.

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

The federal government has been shut down for nearly one full month — and although Democrats have done their best to reassure the public that the blame for that lies with Republicans, the fact remains that Democrats are the ones refusing to accept a clean continuing resolution that would reopen the government or even vote on a measure that would make sure military service members continue to receive pay.

And while some of the conversation on the Sunday morning talk shows was focused on the shutdown and how to bring it to an end, a lot was also focused on Trump’s efforts to take out drug runners before they were able to reach the United States.

On ABC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said that recent strikes on boats that reportedly contained drugs and were headed toward the United States were, at best, “questionable.”

“The White House and the Department of Defense could not give us a logical explanation on how this is legal,” he said.

Sen. Mark Kelly tells @MarthaRaddatz that the U.S. military’s recent strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat is “questionable.”

“The White House and the Department of Defense could not give us a logical explanation on how this is legal.” https://t.co/c5ou1EVNTV pic.twitter.com/EVP53aCZfd

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 26, 2025

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) supported President Trump’s actions, telling host Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that he believed Trump was acting well within his authority to strike the boats carrying drugs and traffickers.

He went on to tell Brennan that he saw it as “a real possibility” that Trump would also authorize strikes on land in Venezuela in order to stop the flow of drugs into the United States. Graham said that he expected the president to brief Congress about his next moves, adding, “I support that idea. But I think he has all the authority he needs.”

U.S. land strikes on Venezuela are “a real possibility,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says, telling @margbrennan President Trump plans to brief Congress about potentially expanding the U.S. military operations “from the sea to the land.”

“I support that idea. But I think he has… pic.twitter.com/q7iBG7D0H7

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 26, 2025

Graham also responded to criticisms of Trump from within the Republican Party — namely from Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and James Lankford (R-OK) — telling Brennan, “Rand Paul, I just fundamentally disagree with. To the other senators, you deserve more information and you’re going to get more information. But there is no requirement for Congress to declare war before the commander-in-chief can use force.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is pushing back against criticism by Democrats and some Republicans, including Sens. Rand Paul and James Lankford, that the Trump administration is not providing enough information to Congress about its strikes on alleged drug boats off the coast of… pic.twitter.com/KjrqzPW36x

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 26, 2025

“It’s time for Maduro to go. I hope Maduro would leave peacefully, but I don’t think he’s going to stay around much longer,” Graham added. “The game is changing when it comes to drug traffickers and drug cartels. We’re going to use military force like we have in the past to protect our country … And if I were Maduro, I’d find a way to leave before heat goes down.”

On the U.S. potentially expanding its operations to on the ground inside Venezuela and whether that would include U.S. troops, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says “It’s time for Maduro to go. I hope Maduro would leave peacefully, but I don’t think he’s going to stay around much… pic.twitter.com/42tYbYWOrE

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 26, 2025

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) referred to the targeted strikes as “sanctioned murder.” He told host Kristen Welker, “This is murder. It’s sanctioned murder that he is doing.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego on the strikes on drug boats: “This is murder. It’s sanctioned murder that he is doing.” pic.twitter.com/n4i9WWj9RA

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 26, 2025

Gallego claimed that a declaration of war would be necessary if Trump planned to continue to target such boats.

Trump is blasting Venezuelan ships out of the water to make himself feel tough.

Either send the Coast Guard onto these ships or come to Congress for a declaration of war. Plain and simple. pic.twitter.com/7zZ5td7RLz

— Senator Ruben Gallego (@SenRubenGallego) October 26, 2025

Meanwhile, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Welker on “Meet the Press,” Democrats’ refusal to put an end to the shutdown are starting to cause real problems: “Chuck Schumer is trading off his polls. What’s different than when he passed a clean CR in the spring? It’s his polls … We’re starting to eat into muscle here … I don’t know what the purpose is. I’m not sure they do.”

“Chuck Schumer is trading off his polls. What’s different than when he passed a clean CR in the spring? It’s his polls,” says @SecScottBessent on the Democrat Shutdown.

“We’re starting to eat into muscle here… I don’t know what the purpose is. I’m not sure they do.” pic.twitter.com/Bt0ej6d8yF

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 26, 2025

Top Chinese and U.S. economic officials on Sunday hashed out the framework of a trade deal for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to decide on later this week that would pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur had eliminated the threat of Trump’s 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting November 1. Bessent also said he expects China to delay implementation of its rare earth minerals and magnets licensing regime by a year while the policy is reconsidered.

Chinese officials were more circumspect about the talks and offered no details about the outcome of the meetings.

Trump and Xi are due to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, to sign off on the terms. While the White House has officially announced the highly anticipated Trump-Xi talks, China has yet to confirm that the two leaders will meet.

“I think we have a very successful framework for the leaders to discuss on Thursday,” Bessent told reporters after he and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and top trade negotiator Li Chenggang for their fifth round of in-person discussions since May.

Bessent said he anticipates that a tariff truce with China will be extended beyond its November 10 expiration date, and that China will revive substantial purchases of U.S. soybeans after buying none in September while favoring soybeans from Brazil and Argentina.

U.S. soybean farmers “will feel very good about what’s going on both for this season and the coming seasons for several years” once the deal’s terms are announced, Bessent told the ABC program “This Week.”

Greer told the “Fox News Sunday” program that both sides agreed to pause some punitive actions and found “a path forward where we can have more access to rare earths from China, we can try to balance out our trade deficit with sales from the United States.”

China’s Li Chenggang said the two sides reached a “preliminary consensus” and will next go through their respective internal approval processes.

“The U.S. position has been tough, whereas China has been firm in defending its own interests and rights,” Li said through an interpreter. “We have experienced very intense consultations and engaged in constructive exchanges in exploring solutions and arrangements to address these concerns.”

Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, his first stop in a five-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in Thursday’s face-to-face with Xi in South Korea.

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After the weekend talks, Trump struck a positive tone, saying: “I think we’re going to have a deal with China.”

Trump had threatened new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade curbs starting on November 1, in retaliation for China’s expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.

China controls more than 90% of the world’s supply of the materials, which are essential for high-tech manufacturing from electric vehicles to semiconductors and missiles. The export controls and Trump’s threatened retaliation would disrupt a delicate six-month truce under which China and the U.S. reduced tariffs that had quickly escalated to triple-digit rates on each side.

The U.S. and Chinese officials said that, in addition to rare earths, they discussed trade expansion, the U.S. fentanyl crisis, U.S. port entrance fees and the transfer of TikTok to U.S. ownership control.

Bessent told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the two sides have to iron out details of the TikTok deal, allowing Trump and Xi to “consummate the transaction” in South Korea.

On the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Trump hinted at possible meetings with Xi in China and the United States.

“We’ve agreed to meet. We’re going to meet them later in China, and we’re going to meet in the U.S., in either Washington or at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said.

Among Trump’s talking points with Xi are Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans, concerns around democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, and the release of jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

The detention of the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has become the most high-profile example of China’s crackdown on rights in Hong Kong.

Trump also said he will seek China’s help in U.S. dealings with Moscow, as Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on.

Tensions between the world’s two largest economies flared in the past few weeks as a delicate trade truce, reached after a first round of trade talks in Geneva in May and extended in August, failed to prevent the United States and China from hitting each other with more sanctions, export curbs and threats of stronger retaliatory measures.

China’s expanded controls of rare earths exports have caused a global shortage. That has prompted the United States to consider a block on software-powered exports to China, from laptops to jet engines, according to a Reuters report.

(Reporting by Xinghui Kok and David Lawder; Writing by David Lawder, Mei Mei Chu, Yukun Zhang and John Mair; Editing by Tom Hogue, Will Dunham, Ros Russell and Edmund Klamann)