Former President Trump's team is trying to build on the GOP's recent gains among Latinos with a strategy in Florida that's aimed at voters of Cuban, Venezuelan and Colombian descent — and that casts Trump as a victim of overzealous socialists.

• This strategy was a big reason Trump chose Hialeah, Fla., as the site of his counter-programming rally during last week's Republican presidential debate, Axios' Sophia Cai and Martin Vassolo report.
• "A lot of folks that fled Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba ... understand full well what political indictments look like," said Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo Jr., a Trump supporter.

🔎 Between the lines: Trump's strategy centers on South Florida. Next year, his team also will target Latino voters in South Texas, Arizona and Nevada with Spanish-language ads on the economy and border security.

• Hispanics in those three states are more likely to support Democrats than those in Florida.
• President Biden's team is planning an aggressive campaign for Latinos — particularly in the swing states of Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

🖼️ The big picture: Nationwide, Republicans have made gains among Latinos in recent years — they got 39% of the Latino vote in 2022, their highest in almost 20 years.

• Trump made gains in Latino support in 2020; his 11-point gain among Latinos in Florida helped color the state red.

The other side: It's unclear whether Trump's "victim" strategy, which plays well in Florida, will resonate with Mexican Americans and other Latinos whose families' backgrounds don't involve fleeing authoritarian leaders.

• Go deeper.

Yesterday's successful meeting in the Bay Area between President Biden and China's Xi Jinping could mark a significant thaw in relations, Axios China author Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian writes.

• The superpower leaders seemed to share the belief that the downward spiral in U.S.-China relations over the last several years is unsustainable.
• Xi told Biden: "Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed."

They met for four hours at Filoli Historic House & Garden in Woodside, Calif. (San Mateo County), on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco.

• Both said they're committed to building a stronger relationship and working together in as many realms as feasible.

☎️ What happened: Biden achieved the goals he laid out ahead of time, including a resumption of military-to-military contact and an agreement to maintain closer lines of communication with Beijing.

• "[M]iscalculations on either side ... can cause real, real trouble," Biden said.

Biden said they're "blunt with one another so there's no misunderstanding":

• "And in the months ahead, we're going to continue to preserve and pursue high-level diplomacy with [China] in both directions to keep the lines of communication open, including between President Xi and me."

The leaders agreed to crack down on the supply chain for illegal fentanyl, which often begins in China and ends with overdose deaths in the U.S.

• The agreement is aimed at limiting the manufacturing and export of fentanyl precursors from China to Mexico, where it then enters the U.S., Axios' Caitlin Owens and Alison Snyder write.

Reality check: On a much bigger issue, Biden reiterated that the U.S. will keep helping Taiwan try to deter a Chinese attack.

The bottom line: The months of intense diplomacy required to make this meeting happen paid off.

• Meeting takeaways ... Get Axios China.

Another encouraging sign that post-pandemic inflation really is done and dusted:

• Wholesale price inflation — the prices businesses charge to one another — is down to pre-COVID levels.

This metric is considered something of a leading indicator of the prices that consumers end up paying, Axios' Matt Philips writes.

• Get Axios Markets.

Nearly every respondent (95%) in a new Axios-Generation Lab-Syracuse University AI Experts Survey described AI's audio and video deepfake capabilities as "advanced," Axios' Margaret Talev reports.

• 🚨 "This is a really authoritative alarm here: 'Hey, we have a deepfake problem,'" Generation Lab CEO Cyrus Beschloss said.

Download the data ... Get Axios AI+, our daily tech newsletter.

A majority of registered voters (52%) in a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday said they'd like to see other candidates enter the presidential race.

• An astounding 72% of independents said that, along with 58% of Democrats. But only 29% of Republicans are dissatisfied with their field.

Explore the data.

Spencer Zwick, the money maestro for Sen. Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential bid, is joining Nikki Haley's 2024 fundraising team, Axios' Hans Nichols has learned.

• Why it matters: Establishment Republicans are lining up behind the former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor as the GOP's best candidate to stop former President Trump in the Republican primary — and ultimately beat President Biden in November.

Thousands of Starbucks workers from 200 unionized U.S. stores will go on strike today during the coffee giant's Red Cup Day, which last year was the chain's highest single sales day of all time.

• Starbucks Workers United, which represents 360+ unionized stores and 9,000+ Starbucks employees, is calling it the Red Cup Rebellion.

On Red Cup Day, customers get a reusable holiday cup with certain fancy beverages.

• Starbucks told Axios' Kelly Tyko that it expects "customers interested in our reusable red cup will be able to participate in the giveaway, as planned," and that the union action is at a "small subset of our U.S. stores."

Go deeper: Kelly's guide to Red Cup Day.

Formula 1 roared into Vegas with parties, concerts and celebrities ahead of Saturday night's race down the Strip.

• Daniel Ricciardo, a star F1 driver, told reporters yesterday: "I think being in Vegas sober is already unique! ... I feel like we're living in a movie."

Above: F1 cars are depicted last night on the new Las Vegas Sphere (366 feet tall, 516 feet wide), which'll be closed all weekend for F1 hospitality.

• The Sphere worked with F1 on what colors can't be displayed during the race to avoid distractions. Aston Martin partnered with The Sphere to show its cars. (AP)

Go deeper ... Video: F1 for beginners.