Badlands Daily: 5/15/26 - Trump in Beijing, Ratcliffe in Havana, Shapiro Empire Crumbles

CannCon and Chris Paul close out the week with a Friday show built for the big picture. Trump wraps his China summit with Xi, and the White House readout makes no mention of Taiwan, which Chris Paul reads exactly as it should be: the Taiwan crisis is a media fairy tale being dismantled in real time. Xi pledges no weapons to Iran and expresses interest in buying American oil to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz. While Trump is in Beijing, CIA director Ratcliffe quietly lands in Havana to meet with Cuban officials and Raul Castro's grandson, with CBS simultaneously reporting the US is moving to indict Raul Castro himself. CannCon maps the Venezuela and Iran regime change playbook onto Cuba and asks if 90-mile-away Cuba is next. The House Oversight Committee subpoenas Arabella Advisors' 1630 Fund over the Chorus Program, which paid social media influencers up to $8,000 a month to push Democrat talking points without disclosure. Chris Paul delivers a precise diagnosis of the Daily Wire's collapse, explaining how the Ben Shapiro network was never a product of real political analysis but of algorithm boosting and paid talking points. Chris then lays out his full theory of Trump's discombobulator strategy, explaining how Trump taking every position forces public opposition that resolves false narratives over time.