Face the Nation spotlights Trump backlash, redistricting and nuclear risks

Face the Nation devoted its Sunday hour to a Washington split screen: voters angry about prices, lawmakers arguing over redistricting, and a former defense chief warning that America’s rivals are growing more dangerous. The May 17 broadcast aired at 10:30 a.m. ET on CBS and streamed at 12:30 p.m. ET on Paramount+ and CBSNews.com, with interviews featuring U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Taiwan’s representative to the United States, Alexander Yui, elections analyst Anthony Salvanto, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Tom Suozzi, and Robert Gates.

The program opened with President Donald Trump’s trip to China and the political backlash at home over inflation and the economy. A CBS News poll cited on the show found seven in 10 Americans frustrated or angry with the administration’s approach to the economy, while only 27 percent approved of Trump’s handling of inflation. The broadcast also noted Trump’s Saturday defeat of Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy in a Republican primary and said a runoff would follow in the safely Republican seat, a reminder that even in red states, party loyalty can still be tested by internal revolt.

Fitzpatrick and Suozzi used their segment to press the case that bipartisan branding still has to mean something concrete. CBS framed redistricting as a fight that could leave Republicans roughly nine seats closer to keeping House control, and Fitzpatrick said gerrymandering is “one of the most, if not the most, corrosive things to our democracy.” He said the House Problem Solvers Caucus met that week to take measurable steps against the practice, and he proposed tying Help America Vote Act funding to redistricting reforms, including independent citizen commissions. Fitzpatrick said only seven states currently use those commissions, underscoring how limited the reform model remains even among lawmakers who talk about consensus.

That proposal runs into the same partisan wall that has defined the redistricting fight for years. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 was enacted after the 2000 election controversy in Florida, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission says it has administered more than $4.35 billion in HAVA formula funding to states and territories since 2003. But using that money as leverage would require Congress to accept conditions on a funding stream built to shore up election administration, not redraw political maps, and neither Fitzpatrick nor Suozzi suggested that either party is close to surrendering its preferred map-drawing advantage.

Gates widened the frame from domestic politics to military risk. He said the United States faces nuclear-armed adversaries in both Europe and Asia, warned that China and Russia together may eventually deploy nearly twice as many strategic nuclear warheads as the United States, and described China as a “near peer” competitor that is catching up militarily and already ahead of the United States in shipbuilding. The contrast was stark: lawmakers selling procedural reform on one end of the program, and a former defense secretary arguing that the strategic balance itself is shifting on the other.