Principals

1. Executive vs. legislative
2. Trump’s Gaza proposal
3. Gabbard’s Senate ally
4. Shein, Temu in trouble?
5. Trump targets Ed Dept
6. Americans’ health priorities

PDB: Trump in ‘no rush’ to speak to Xi

USAID puts almost all staff on leave … Senate votes on Turner for HUD … Bloomberg: China weighs Apple probe

Republicans insist they’ll check Trump

President Trump’s reshaping of Washington is getting little pushback from the Republican Congress, but GOP lawmakers insist they will draw some lines, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Over the past few days, Trump’s exerted dominance over the Hill: Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. passed through committees, there’s been no GOP outcry over the dismantling of USAID, and a trade war with allies prompted little other than warnings. That could eventually change. “Whether it’s on nominees, or whether it’s on policy. I can see things where [Elon] Musk — he’s coming up with good ideas — he could go too far,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who challenged Democrats who accuse him of being scared of Trump to look at their own record during Joe Biden’s presidency. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va, said Congress should stand up if needed to protect its “power of the purse.”

Trump’s Gaza plan sparks outcry

Trump’s proposal that the US “take over” Gaza was met with swift rebuke in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia rejected “any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land.” One Arab official also questioned whether his remarks — made alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — would risk the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Bloomberg reported. Trump did get some support from far-right politicians in Israel, while Netanyahu called the idea “something that could change history.” In the US, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., called Trump’s proposal — which would involve permanently resettling Palestinians in Gaza — “ethnic cleansing by another name.” Immediately after the press conference, even some people close to Trump weren’t sure whether the president was entirely serious, but his top aides quickly amplified the idea.

— Morgan Chalfant and Shelby Talcott

Inside Cotton’s campaign for Gabbard

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a traditional Republican national-security hawk, may not superficially have a lot in common with Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s selection for director of national intelligence. But the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman is behind the successful campaign to shepherd her nomination through the panel, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. She made it out of committee despite misgivings by some on the right about her meetings with now-ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and sympathy with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and despite her refusal to call whistleblower Edward Snowden a “traitor.” “We have certainly had our differences on this or that issue, but I also know that she’s committed to the badly needed reforms that I’ve championed,” Cotton said. Gabbard now faces a floor vote.

DHS weighs Shein, Temu crackdown

The Trump administration is considering adding the discount retailers Shein and Temu to the Department of Homeland Security’s list of companies that use forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott reports. It would be a significant blow by the administration to a pair of Chinese brands familiar to many Americans; sources told Semafor that there hasn’t been a final decision. The threat comes as the US Postal Service announced it has stopped accepting inbound packages from China and Hong Kong, a move certain to stagger Shein and Temu. Both companies have denied using forced labor, but a 2023 House report found that Temu was shipping goods made with forced labor on a “regular basis,” and Shein was using a regulatory loophole to bring products into the country duty-free (Trump has since tightened controls, amid his tariff push).

Trump wants Ed secretary ‘out of a job’

Trump mused openly about doing away with the Education Department, though he acknowledged that he may need to work with Congress. He told reporters he hoped his education secretary nominee, Linda McMahon, would put herself “out of a job.” The White House is working on an executive order that would direct the secretary to submit a plan for dismantling the department, while also asking for legislative action by Congress. One likely roadblock that Trump acknowledged: teachers unions. “We are very concerned this move would undermine and hurt, not help, the lives of millions of working and middle class kids whose public education is improved by federal dollars,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Semafor in a statement, though she noted “we’d be happy to have a conversation with the president.”

— Morgan Chalfant

Americans want focus on health costs, food safety

Americans want government health officials to channel their energy toward improving health care access and cost; ensuring safe water and food; and reducing chronic diseases, according to new research from Gallup and Emory University. The Department of Health and Human Services is preparing for a leadership overhaul after Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s nomination to lead the agency advanced on Tuesday. The December survey signals that Kennedy’s focus on the food supply is popular, particularly among Republicans: 24% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents polled said that safe food and water should be the government’s top health priority. Pluralities of US adults said that over the last 10 years, the country has lost ground addressing the opioid epidemic; improving Americans’ mental health, diet, and health care access; and preventing disease, according to the survey.

Blindspot: Economy and AI

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: Americans are feeling optimistic about the economy.

What the Right isn’t reading: Google removed commitments not to apply artificial intelligence to weapons or surveillance from its ethics guidelines around the use of the technology.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Democrats initially open to Elon Musk’s plan to cut government spending are now running away from it. “Sadly, this has become a way for the wealthiest person alive, who gets billions in federal money, to hack the federal government data and payment system at the expense of the American people,” said Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio.

Playbook: A senior Trump administration official justified President Trump’s comments about moving Palestinians from their homeland: “Currently there is a war taking them off the planet — so are we serious about trying to find a solution so that people don’t keep dying for decades and decades and decades? Yes.”

Axios: Trump’s statements on Gaza were premeditated and reflect ideas he’s been talking to staff and family about. “He’s moving the goalposts of crazy,” a longtime adviser said. “He’s gonna throw out there whatever he feels like throwing out there.”

White House

• President Trump said he is in “no rush” to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, after Beijing imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US. The two could speak as soon as today.
• More than 20,000 federal employees have agreed to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer ahead of a Feb. 6 deadline.

Congress

• The Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as attorney general in a 54-46 vote. The chamber also confirmed former Rep. Doug Collins to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 77-23.
• Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham plans to brief GOP senators today about the upper chamber moving first on a budget resolution laying the groundwork for reconciliation, after the House’s effort was delayed. — The Hill

Outside the Beltway

• The Trump administration began flights of detained migrants from the US to Guantánamo Bay.
• President Trump is headed to the Super Bowl. — Punchbowl

Business

• Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are teaming up on legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
• Restaurants are starting to feel the national egg shortage.

Courts

• LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order ending federal support for transgender health care for young Americans.
• FBI agents sued to prevent the Justice Department from compiling a list of agents who worked on Trump-related cases.

National Security

• President Trump said he “left instructions” for the US military to have Iran “obliterated” if it assassinates him. (The Justice Department has accused several men of plotting to kill him on Iran’s behalf.)
• Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Elon Musk’s cost-cutting operation tried to get data from the VA.

Foreign Policy

• Ukraine is willing to trade access to critical minerals for US military support. — WaPo
• The State Department suspended its organization for LGBTQ employees, with leadership ordering a pause on all official activities, Semafor’s Mathias Hammer reported.

Technology

• Google DeepMind published an updated version of its Frontier Safety Framework, outlining ways it intends to fight the potential dangers of future artificial intelligence models.
• White House crypto czar David Sacks is still pursuing the idea of a national cryptocurrency reserve.

Media

• Amber Ruffin is the entertainer for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Jim Justice is a Republican senator from West Virginia.

Trump’s threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada underscore just how difficult it would be for the US to function as an energy island, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell writes.

The 10% tariff threat on Canadian energy products would have been especially painful for energy companies and consumers, driving up the prices of gasoline and electricity. While Trump has vowed to offset losses from tariffs with domestic production, that’s harder to do with energy, Tim writes, because it is bound by physical constraints that can’t be reengineered.