Archives par mot-clé : video

McConnell’s shining moment

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Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court is a huge victory for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellGraham to expand Russia sanctions bill to include aiding Assad McConnell ‘open’ to new Russia sanctions Trump’s Labor pick endorsed by Hispanic lawyers MORE (R-Ky.), a frequent target of conservatives who saved Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat for the right.

When Scalia died suddenly in February 2016, in seemed certain that then-President Obama would be able to tilt the court to the left with his third appointment.

Instead, McConnell issued a statement within hours that essentially shut the door on an Obama appointment, stating “this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

The Senate GOP backed McConnell up, and Donald TrumpDonald TrumpDan Rather hits journalists who called Trump ‘presidential’ after Syria missile strike Trump learned from Obama’s mistakes and took action Is it possible — is the world seeing a new Donald Trump? MORE won the presidential election in an upset of Democrat Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonClinton predicts ‘bright future’ for a more progressive Democratic Party McConnell’s shining moment Susan Rice, not Devin Nunes, made the real ethical mischief MORE.

Months later, Trump nominated Gorsuch. McConnell made good on his promise to see the judge confirmed, even triggering the controversial « nuclear option » to break Democrats’ blockade and end filibusters for Supreme Court nominees.

“When the final chapter in Mitch McConnell’s book is written, this will place very prominently,” said Sen. Roger WickerRoger WickerMcConnell’s shining moment As US healthcare changes, preventative screenings can’t stop A guide to the committees: Senate MORE (R-Miss.).

“It prevented the court from going in a completely opposite direction, so in that sense, it’s a huge victory, consequential for decades,” he added.

McConnell on Friday, moments before the Senate confirmed Gorsuch, said the decision to keep the seat open was “the most consequential decision I’ve ever been involved in.”

The strategy leaves McConnell as an unlikely hero of hard-line conservative activists who have sometimes criticized him over as an establishment figure too willing to craft deals with Democrats.

Aside from shaping the makeup of the court for years to come, McConnell’s strategy also had a political payoff for Republicans.

Wicker, who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the last election cycle, said McConnell’s strategy helped Republicans keep their Senate majority in the face of long odds because it motivated conservative voters to show up on Election Day.

“It was impactful,” Wicker said. “It’s all the more remarkable because he did it on an audible.”

Wicker said McConnell made an instant call to keep the seat vacant when he heard of Scalia’s death “on a weekend, with no advisers around him and with no opportunity to even get the leadership together on a conference call.”

“He called an audible, and it was pitch perfect,” he said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck GrassleyChuck GrassleySenators offer bill to boost police training in cyber crime McConnell’s shining moment America, and the Tech Sector, need the world’s best and brightest MORE (R-Iowa) noted in an interview this week that he didn’t meet with McConnell about the vacancy until the Tuesday after Scalia’s death.

Conservative leaders who in the past have sometimes been antagonistic with McConnell praised the confirmation of Gorsuch — though their compliments were somewhat backhanded.

Daniel Horowitz, senior editor at the Conservative Review, said McConnell’s handling of the nomination impressed past critics on the right.

“With McConnell he seems to lead from behind on most issues and that’s why the Gorsuch issue really stood out,” he said. “Republicans feel so hurt and burned on judicial nominees. There was nowhere to move on that. They had to stand and fight on that.”

He said conservatives would like to “see the Neil Gorsuch degree of intensity on the budget battle.”

“Why don’t we see that on healthcare?” he added. “He doesn’t speak out publicly on the issues of our time for the most part.”

Chip Roy, the former chief of staff to Sen. Ted CruzTed CruzRepublicans suddenly sweating election in deep-red Kansas district McConnell’s shining moment Cruz: Trump should make the case for military action in Syria MORE (R-Texas), who frequently battled with McConnell during his first few years in the Senate, said conservatives are delighted with the outcome but warned that the GOP leader shouldn’t rest on his laurels for too long.

“The Senate leadership did its job and conservatives across the country are glad to see Gorsuch confirmed but conservatives are going to expect much more, such as following through on the repeal of ObamaCare and standing firm on the next circuit court nominees,” he added.

McConnell will also go down in history as the majority leader who pushed through a change in the Senate’s rules that ended the the minority party’s ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominations. It’s a surprising position for the Kentuckian, who is known as an institutionalist.

Some Republicans this week lamented that the battle over the court had become so contentious.

Sen. John McCainJohn McCainMcCain: Rand Paul doesn’t have any influence in the Senate Trump picks top economic adviser McConnell ‘open’ to new Russia sanctions MORE (R-Ariz.) said whoever thought using the nuclear option would make the Senate a better place “was a stupid idiot” and Sens. Susan CollinsSusan CollinsMcConnell’s shining moment GOP senator lobbying colleagues to keep legislative filibuster Members jam with Wynonna Judd, Keith Urban at Grammys on the Hill MORE (R-Maine) and Bob CorkerBob CorkerMcConnell ‘open’ to new Russia sanctions Senators say White House hasn’t laid out Syria strategy McConnell’s shining moment MORE (R-Tenn.) voiced concerns that it could someday lead to the legislative filibuster being abolished, too.

McConnell’s hardball handling of Scalia’s seat also raised questions whether it might blow up relations with Democrats and hurt the chances of passing Trump’s legislative agenda later this year and next.

Schumer on Friday warned it “will make this body a more partisan place.”

“It will make the cooling saucer of the Senate considerably hotter, and I believe it will make the Supreme Court a more partisan place,” he added, making reference to the Founding Fathers’ vision of the Senate as a more deliberative body that would cool the populist passions of the House.

Yet McConnell’s nuclear move also followed the decision by Senate Democrats in 2013 to get rid of the filibuster for all nominations besides those to the Supreme Court. That also involved using the nuclear option.

McConnell on Friday said Democrats have already told him privately they are ready to move on from the fight over Gorsuch and other nominees and begin working on areas where they agree with Trump’s legislative agenda.

“I hope a lot of the Democrats who have been telling me privately they want to move past that will be able to do that publicly when we get back,” he said.

Updated: 2:51 p.m.

Trump confronts the contradictions of his foreign policy rhetoric

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President Trump found himself in unfamiliar territory Friday, generally praised by members of the political and foreign policy establishments but attacked from some quarters of Trump nation for seeming to betray the “America First” pledges that carried him to the White House.

Trump’s decision to fire cruise missiles at a Syrian air base in response to Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack against civilians won support from some people he had routinely disparaged over the past year, among them Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Hours before the U.S. attacks, Hillary Clinton had urged just such a response.

But some Trump loyalists saw the president as taking a potentially fateful turn away from what had made him so attractive to his anti-establishment, anti-globalist supporters. Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham tweeted, “Missiles flying. [Florida Sen. Marco] Rubio’s happy. McCain’s ecstatic. Hillary’s on board. A complete policy change in 48 hours.” Farther out on the nationalist fringe, Paul Joseph Watson, an editor at Infowars.com, tweeted, “It’s been fun, lads, but the fun is over.” Watson clarified that he was not turning on Trump completely but was off the train with regard to Syria.

There was always a contradiction in Trump’s campaign rhetoric on foreign policy. He was the get-tough leader who would “bomb the hell out of ISIS” and portrayed himself as a dramatic contrast to what he called the weak and ineffective leadership of Barack Obama. But he was also the reluctant interventionist and criticized rivals who advocated deeper military involvement in Syria.

In his speech to a joint session of Congress, Trump promised to be president of this country, not the rest of the world. On Thursday night, Trump ended his address announcing the missile strike with the traditional “God bless America,” and then, after a brief pause, “and the entire world.”

What the U.S. strike reveals about the president’s foreign policy remains unclear. Was this a one-off action, meant only to tell Syrian President Bashar ­
al-Assad not to use chemical weapons again? Or could the strike lead to deeper U.S. involvement in Syria, depending on reactions by the Syrian regime, Russia, Iran or Islamic State forces?

Trump’s sharp turn in a matter of days was so dramatic and unexpected that it produced whiplash among many foreign policy experts. That he could pivot so quickly is a reminder that Trump is a president without a deeply rooted national security philosophy or worldview, someone who was decisively swayed by the terrible images of dead and dying children that were broadcast around the world after the chemical attack.

[Trump officials say strikes were in national interest]

Obama had drawn a famous “red line” in Syria in 2012, warning Assad against the use of chemical weapons. His failure to take military action after Syria launched a gas attack in the summer of 2013 marked one of his greatest foreign policy failures and became a symbol of presidential equivocation and weakness.

Notably, Trump was not among those criticizing Obama at the time. Instead, he warned Obama not to take military action, even when chemical weapons had been used. This week, the chemical attack gave Trump an early opportunity to draw a distinction from his predecessor, even if it contradicted the view he stated in 2013.

Among Trump loyalists who had been sharply critical of Obama on this and other issues, the new president’s decision to attack was welcomed as a sign of how significantly things have changed. Conservative talk show host Bill Mitchell tweeted that Trump’s action “obliterated Obama’s eight years of [weakness] in one bold stroke.”

But the nervousness within Trump’s coalition was also evident, even among those who did not offer outright criticism. Nigel Farage, the former leader of Britain’s UK Independence Party and a Trump ally, expressed qualms about what the missile strikes might foretell. “Many Trump voters will be worried about this intervention,” he tweeted. “Where will it end?”

Tom Donilon, who was national security adviser in the Obama administration, described the retaliatory strike as “limited and appropriate” and said Trump and his advisers should make it clear that this was about the use of chemical weapons only and not a broader indication of U.S. policy. But he also said Trump’s team must now decide on concrete goals for their Syrian policy. “That’s up to the president to make that clear to his military leaders,” he said.

Jake Sullivan, an Obama administration official who was Clinton’s policy adviser during the campaign, said he was struck that Trump, in his statement Thursday night, went beyond the issue of chemical weapons and called on other nations to join the United States to help end “the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.” That, too, marked a big departure from the campaign.

“Those are big questions that require thoughtful and considered responses, and I’m hopeful that the team around him will deliver those,” Sullivan said, agreeing that the United States should help lead that effort. “So far, we just haven’t seen or heard from Trump anything to suggest how the United States could get involved.”

[Questions left in the wake of Trump’s decision to hit Syria]

The president is shaped and influenced by what he sees on television. After viewing the horrendous images of suffering and death from the chemical attack, Trump said he had changed his view of Assad — even though similar images existed from the Syrian regime’s chemical attack in 2013. It seemed as if the reality of being president had settled in on him in unexpected ways. How might he react if confronted by other horrible cases of non-chemical civilian casualties inflicted by Assad?

Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster, said short-term reactions to the president’s action are likely to focus on his decisiveness rather than the implications for his Syria policy. “But those reactions will be good for about a week, and then after that it really depends on how events unfold in Syria,” Garin said. “Voters generally and Trump voters specifically are not eager for a sustained military engagement in Syria. And if the bombing turns out to have produced no apparent result, or draws the U.S. into a more complicated situation, the possibility for blowback against Trump is significant.”

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said Trump might be able to bring along his loyalists, even if he takes additional military steps in the Middle East. “If he frames it as a clear effort to promote and protect American interests in a compelling way, then I think a lot of his supporters will follow along,” Ayres said. “But he needs to have a compelling rationale and explain it clearly.”

Amid the statements of support Friday, some members of Congress asked Trump to seek new congressional authority for use of military force in the Middle East, though when Obama sought that in 2013, he met strong resistance on Capitol Hill.

There was no sign that Trump is prepared to do that, but U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the United States was “prepared to do more” in Syria, leaving open the question of a future role for Congress. That would put the president in a more difficult place politically, not only with the nationalists in his base, who overwhelmingly oppose such a step, but with the broader public.

“If there is a debate about authorization of military force, that starts to change the complexion because it does begin to look like a big, long-term commitment to military forces operating in the Middle East,” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “That is not what people want.”

Awesometacular: Jeremy Jahns on the ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Marketing Campaign

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Collider and Verizon Go 90 are happy to present a brand new show, Awesometacular with host Jeremy Jahns! This weekly show recaps the most exciting news in movies, video games, and television.

Jeremy talks about the marketing campaign for Ghost in the Shell, plays Tomb Raider, learns about the Planet Hulk comic, discusses Darth Maul’s character arc, and the MovieFanz return to review 1999’s American Pie.

  • Jeremy Jahns discusses the marketing for Ghost in the Shell and if that contributed to its box office performance. Then he goes toe-to-toe with Collider’s Mark Ellis in a round of “That Can’t Be Right” where impressionist Jamie Costa says a quote from a movie as someone who definitely didn’t say it, and they must guess the movie.
  • The MovieFanz are back and this time they’re reviewing the 1999 release, American Pie. Also, Jeremy and Collider’s Kristian Harloff discuss the tragedy of Darth Maul in the Star Wars franchise.
  • Jeremy and Pamela Horton play 2013’s Tomb Raider. Then Jeremy and Collider’s Jon Schnepp talk about Planet Hulk. After that, Jeremy discusses The Walking Dead Season 7 finale.

awesomtacular-game-segment

Six Ways Video Tech Will Change in the Next Decade

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Video remains one of the most popular mediums for content consumption in the world, but like all technologies, video tech is undergoing constant forms of evolution. Users can’t seem to get enough of it, with YouTube reporting a 100 percent increase in mobile video views every year, so what does the future hold for this technology with practically unlimited potential reach?

As evidenced by these online marketing rock stars, the most successful companies tend to be the ones who adopt the latest technology trends before their competitors, so you need to be proactive if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

Regardless of whether you’re trying to plan for your company’s next video marketing campaign, or if you’re just a consumer who wants to watch their favorite TV shows and YouTube channels more easily, you need to be ready for what’s next in video tech.

Video Tech Upgrades to Come

These are some of the most important ways video will evolve in the near future:

  • Vertical videos. For years, almost all videos existed in landscape mode, thanks to movie theaters and televisions conditioning us to appreciate horizontal video. Vertical videos, which were easy to capture but offered a non-traditional mode of viewing, were once considered laughable and amateurish. Now, thanks to the vertical nature of our smartphones and recent pushes by apps like Snapchat, vertical videos are becoming more accepted and normalized. Expect to see more apps and trends that favor the development of vertical videos over their horizontal counterparts.
  • Streaming feeds—everywhere. In the early days of the Internet, any kind of video streaming was choppy and unpredictable. Now, with mobile devices capable of relatively fast speeds and a camera in every user’s pocket, it’s likely that we’ll see an explosion in streaming capabilities over the course of the next few years. Apps like Facebook are already starting to take advantage of this with new streaming options, and users are highly engaged in this new mode of viewing. The next step is to see streams everywhere, thanks to affordable stationary cameras, more sophisticated mobile devices, and, of course, ever-rising user demand for more streaming video.
  • Better quality and faster streaming. We’ll also see a step up in the quality and speed of streaming. The next phase of mobile connectivity, 5G, is expected to be rolled out by 2020 and will offer about five times the speeds we currently see with 4G technology. This should be no surprise, considering Internet speeds and mobile speeds seem to increase exponentially and predictably. 5G will accommodate better Internet of Things technology, but also faster video transmission—even as our cameras get better and more capable of streaming ultra-high definition images.
  • Better storage and recall. Though we’ll be relying on streaming more and more in the near future, we also need better ways to store our videos and retrieve them for fast viewing. Cloud storage technology will become better in the future, but it still relies on physical storage on some level—that’s why new storage technologies like SMR and helium drives could help us make the next leap forward.
  • 360 and immersive video. Virtual and augmented reality took massive steps forward in 2016, but they’re still technologies in their infancy. Headsets like Oculus are becoming more common, and 360-degree imagery and video is starting to enter the mainstream. Once VR headsets become the norm, and not the cutting-edge-new, we’ll see a sharp rise in both demand and capabilities for immersive videos.
  • More intuitive search systems. Finally, we’ll start seeing more intuitive, comprehensive search systems to help people find the videos they need. This will branch into a number of different directions, including searches that scan the Web more thoroughly, better tagging features, better voice search systems, and even search functions that rely on visual cues to find related videos. As the number of videos online continues to grow exponentially, search systems that provide fast and accurate results will become even more necessary.

How to Plan for the Future

It’s hard to build a marketing strategy around a technology that hasn’t been released to the public, but there’s no harm in thinking ahead. Start planning video content that could take advantage of these new technologies, but are also feasible with modern equipment and apps. Trends build fast, so the more proactively you can think and plan, the better. 

Edited by Alicia Young

Mountain America Credit Union Receives Diamond Awards for Outstanding Marketing, Business Development …

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/EINPresswire.com/ — WEST JORDAN, UT–(Marketwired – April 07, 2017) – Mountain America Credit Union was recently honored with nine Diamond Awards recognizing outstanding marketing and business development achievements in the credit union industry.

The awards were presented by the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Marketing Business Development Council, a national network comprised of over 1,200 credit union marketing and business development professionals. Awards are given in 30 categories ranging from advertising to community events and beyond.

Mountain America earned Diamond Awards in nine different categories. The Epic Visa® Campaign won in four categories: Commercial Video — Single or Series, Complete Campaign, Cutting Edge and Video. Additional awards included:

  • Business/SEG Development for a business partner video highlighting special employer group benefits
  • Direct Mail — Single or Series for the Fortune Cookie Visa campaign
  • One-Time Event for a kid-focused event with members of Real Salt Lake
  • Digital Advertising for the Grass is Greener campaign
  • Financial Education for a VIP Night at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

« We have so many talented, hard-working members on the Marketing team. I am always impressed to see their skills and creativity shine brightly, » says Sharon Cook, chief marketing officer at Mountain America. « Every year the bar is raised and every year the team steps up to help Mountain America achieve its bold vision of growth for our membership. »

« The credit union industry has no shortage of marketing and business development talent, but as the name of the award suggests, these professionals shine the brightest, » said Chair of the CUNA Marketing Business Development Council’s Diamond Awards Committee and VP Marketing Communications at 1st MidAmerica CU Amber Scott. « Bold, inventive and fearless in the face of uncertainty, the 2017 Diamond Award winners inspire us to aim higher and try new approaches. »

Award winners were recognized at the council’s 24th annual conference held March 29-April 1 in San Antonio, Texas. For more information on the Diamond Awards or to view the entire list of winners, go to www.cunacouncils.org/awards.

For more information about Mountain America Credit Union, visit www.macu.com.

About Mountain America Credit Union
Mountain America Credit Union has more than $6.4 billion in assets and serves more than 650,000 members, wherever they are, through online and mobile banking, in 86 branches across five states and with access to more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs and 5,000 shared-branching locations nationwide. With roots dating back to the 1930s, Mountain America offers a variety of financial products and services for consumers and businesses, including savings accounts, auto loans, checking accounts, mortgage loans, business checking, student loans, SBA loans and retirement options. Visit www.macu.com for more information.

CUNA Marketing Business Development Council
The CUNA Marketing Business Development Council is a member-led community of marketing and business development professionals dedicated to providing relevant resources and tools essential for success to its members. The CUNA Marketing Business Development Council is one of six CUNA Councils, a network of more than 6,800 credit union professionals. For more information, visit www.cunacouncils.org.

Wozniak formula for success? Direction, engineering, marketing + video

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Mark Reynolds Journal Staff Writer mrkrynlds

SMITHFIELD, R.I. — One of the founders of Apple, Steve Wozniak, spoke Thursday afternoon at Bryant University, describing the early days of the computer giant and passing lessons along to a largely student audience.

Wozniak told a large gathering of students and guests that his path to designing the first Apple computer started with mathematics, in third grade.

After his mother worked with flash cards to help him with his multiplication tables, his teacher told him he was the first boy to beat the girls.

« So I knew I was good at something and whatever you’re good at, you value and you keep it up, » he said during his exchange with Bryant’s president, Ronald Machtley.

Dressed casually in a blazer, sporting some loud track shoes, Wozniak weaved advice into his commentary. 

Business direction, marketing and engineering are key ingredients for a good company, said Wozniak.

He criticized Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on various fronts, but also credited Jobs’ business forte.

« When you’re young you have the greatest mental energy and the greatest physical energy of your life, » said Wozniak, who urges young entrepreneurs to make the most of their youth and to work hard. 

He described a time in his life when he held down a job at Hewlett Packard and worked on computer designs at night. He came home, consumed a TV dinner, watched Star Trek and then got to work.

« I always encourage people to know as many disciplines as you can, » he said. « Not just one tiny, tiny specific one because it’s always so much more rewarding to you in the end. »

Wozniak highlighted robotics and artificial intelligence as areas ripe for future development and investment.

But he warned about the risks of machines — such as automobiles — being dependent on the Internet, which is vulnerable to hackers.

« There is a lot of danger in there, » Wozniak said.

Wozniak said he does “a lot” to keep companies from learning about him. He doesn’t use Gmail and he uses virtual private networks to mask his browsing activities.

“I want to be in a random world,” he said. “Not just see Wozniak stuff.”

Brett Paley, a Bryant senior, was among a handful of students who questioned Wozniak.

Paley wanted to know what needs to transpire for virtual-reality goods to get into the marketplace.

Wozniak’s answer was one word: “games.” He described how important advances in video games, which have the most powerful computer chips around, provide highly valuable tech for the military.

“Video games, » said Wozniak, « can lead the technology industry in virtual reality.”

Putin, security council discuss keeping Russia air force presence in Syria

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MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the country’s security council on Friday and discussed keeping Russia’s air force presence in Syria following the U.S. missile strikes, the Kremlin said.

« The meeting expressed deep concern about the unavoidable negative consequences stemming from the aggressive action for the fight against global terrorism, » it said in a statement.


It added that the council had discussed keeping a Russian airforce presence in Syria to support the anti-terrorist operations of the Syrian army.

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; writing by Sujata Rao)

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump welcomes China’s Xi for ‘very frank discussion’ in first summit

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping here Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, kicking off a two-day summit that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said would include “very frank discussions” over North Korea and trade.

Speaking to reporters after greeting Xi at the airport, Tillerson said the U.S. side would press the Chinese delegation to “find ways to exercise influence on North Korea’s actions to dismantle their nuclear weapons and their missile technology program.”

“China can be part of a new strategy to end North Korea’s reckless behavior and ensure security, stability and economic prosperity in Northeast Asia,” Tillerson added.

Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, greeted Xi with a handshake as the Chinese leader and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrived at the resort for a series of bilateral talks, and a fancy opening night dinner with Trump and his top aides.

Trump arrived aboard Air Force One shortly after Xi. While flying, Trump told reporters on the plane that he believes “China will be stepping up” to deal more firmly with Pyongyang.

On trade, Trump reiterated his long-standing grievance over a large U.S. trade deficit to China.

“We have been treated unfairly and have made terrible trade deals with China for many, many years,” he said. “That’s one of the things we are going to be talking about.”

The un­or­tho­dox location of the summit is intended to lessen the formality of the first meeting between the two leaders, White House aides said, and help establish a working relationship, if not rapport, between Trump and Xi after moments of tension during the U.S. election season.

Xi will spend just over 24 hours here, including a working lunch on Friday, officials said. Xi and the Chinese delegation will not stay overnight at the resort but rather at a nearby hotel.

The trappings of the president’s personal property will not mask the seriousness and urgency of the long list of topics that will be discussed.

Trump has offered conflicting signals about his state of mind heading into the summit. He told business leaders in Washington this week that he had a “lot of respect” for Xi, but last week on Twitter he predicted the meeting would be a “very difficult one” because of the U.S. trade deficit with China.

In an interview with the Financial Times last weekend, Trump said he would exhort Xi to put more pressure on Pyongyang to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile testing, which has violated U.N. Security Council resolutions. But he added that if Beijing failed to act, the United States would consider unilateral responses.

An administration official told reporters on Tuesday that the “clock is very, very quickly running out” and all options are on the table, though the White House has declined to be specific. Hours later, North Korea executed another ballistic missile test that prompted a curt response from Tillerson, who said in a statement that the United States had spoken enough about North Korea and would have no further comment about its provocations.

“It’s an urgent and global threat, and we see the North Korean weapons programs as increasingly destabilizing, both for Northeast Asia and for the globe,” Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told reporters Wednesday.

Among the administration’s options, experts said, are sanctions on Chinese banks that do business with Pyongyang in a bid to restrict the flow of capital to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s regime.

“It’s certainly going to come up,” said a senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to preview the discussions. “Ninety percent of North Korea’s external trade is with China. Even though we heard that China’s political influence may have diminished with North Korea, certainly its economic leverage has not. It is considerable.”

On trade, Trump elevated grievances over China’s trade surplus to a centerpiece of his campaign, accusing Beijing repeatedly of devaluing its currency, even though economists have said the country has in recent years artificially inflated its value.

As a candidate, Trump threatened to slap large tariffs on Chinese goods, though he has tempered such rhetoric since taking office, as more moderate views of his chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have balanced the harder-line nationalist views of senior adviser Stephen K. Bannon and Peter Navarro, director of the National Trade Council.

At their dinner, Trump joked that Xi had yet to make any concessions in their early talks, but he added that the two “have developed a friendship.”

Some U.S. foreign policy analysts cautioned that the summit is premature, given that Trump has yet to fill hundreds of higher-level staff positions at government agencies, including the Pentagon and State Department, and the administration’s China policy has not yet been clearly developed.

The more informal setting at Mar-a-Lago also represents a risk, some analysts said. Trump entertained Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his estate in February, but only after the leaders of the two allied nations had first met at the White House. They then flew to Mar-a-Lago and played 27 holes of golf at two nearby Trump-branded golf courses.

Unlike Abe, Xi did not stop at the White House, nor will he and Trump hit the links. Xi banned party leaders from playing golf and shut down scores of courses in China in a crackdown on corruption.

In 2013, President Barack Obama invited Xi to Sunnylands, a lush estate in Southern California, for a first summit in an attempt to break the ice. The meeting had mixed success, helping lead to later breakthroughs on climate efforts and a reduction of Chinese cybertheft against U.S. businesses. In other areas, however, including maritime security and human rights, relations between Obama and Xi soured.

“Our presidents should stop trying to use a personal touch with Chinese leaders. It doesn’t work,” said Michael Auslin, an Asia expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “They have their interests, we have our interests. A D.C. meeting shows we can focus on interests, which is what the Chinese expect. Sunnylands was a failure by every measure. This has the same potential.”