Principals

1. Trump steamrolls GOP hawks
2. Budget drama
3. Jeffries takes heat
4. US-Ukraine thaw?
5. Economy worries
6. Nippon-US Steel hopes?
7. Biden climate legacy tested

PDB: White House takes control of press pool

Musk to join Trump’s first Cabinet meeting … Senate to vote on USTR nominee Greer … WSJ: Trump administration aides get paid by private clients

Trump topples GOP national security orthodoxy

From firing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown to pulling closer to Russia on the world stage to dismantling USAID, Donald Trump is bulldozing over generations of Republican national security orthodoxy. And he has faced far less public tension between the party’s hawks and noninterventionist wing than he did during his first term, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott report. Republican allies like Indiana Sen. Jim Banks say Trump’s approach to national security isn’t isolationism, but “realism.” Meanwhile, the White House says Trump’s second-term foreign policy approach is not to adhere to any outdated “doctrine”: “In dealing with the realities of what is actually going on, each conflict and each issue is completely different from each other,” a White House official said.

House Republicans eke out budget vote

House Republicans pushed through their budget blueprint Tuesday night after pulling the measure from the floor — then calling another vote within minutes. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was the lone GOP vote against the bill after Trump helped leaders flip holdouts including Reps. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who had raised concerns it didn’t slash funding enough, in a whipping blitz that continued until the eleventh hour. Burchett told reporters between votes that he spoke with Trump for 15 minutes and “he gave me some commitments,” though he declined to specify what those were. The budget legislation, which Democrats have slammed as inevitably setting up Medicaid cuts, now heads to the Senate. Members there will almost certainly change it to allow permanent tax cuts. “There’s some fundamental issues there,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told Semafor.

— Eleanor Mueller and Burgess Everett

Jeffries, Democrats face pressure

Democrats are under fire for not pushing back hard enough against Republicans and Trump, as he asserts sweeping executive power — and Hakeem Jeffries is getting the brunt of it, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Dave Weigel report. A group of progressive activists disrupted Jeffries’ book event last week in Chicago, which took place just as Republicans have started to face flak over DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts. In DC, some Democratic aides quietly called Jeffries’ event “tone-deaf.” But House Democrats are siding with their leader. “We’ve got to stop the circular firing squad,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., told Semafor. For some, it was a throwback to the “defund the police” messaging that hurt the Democratic brand in 2020. “That’s the way they do it,” Rep. James Clyburn said of activists. “They don’t focus on the problem.”

Zelenskyy gets his chance

The US and Ukraine settled on the final details of a critical minerals deal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is eyeing a Friday visit to the White House to sign it with Trump. The US president described it as a potentially trillion-dollar deal that would offset US support for Kyiv as it fights Russia. “I hear that he’s coming on Friday. Certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to,” Trump told reporters. It’s unclear what Ukraine, which had been pushing for security guarantees, would get out of the deal. Still, a coveted White House visit will provide an opportunity for Zelenskyy to reset things with Trump, who has lambasted the Ukrainian president while echoing Russian talking points about the cause of the war. A face-to-face for Zelenskyy will be especially critical as the US broaches the possibility of peace talks with Moscow.

Sinking consumer confidence challenges Trump

Americans are down on the economy, a warning sign for the Trump administration as it weighs tariffs and a substantial shift in US trade policy. Consumer confidence declined this month at its sharpest rate since August 2021, according to the Conference Board. “There was a sharp increase in the mentions of trade and tariffs, back to a level unseen since 2019,” the Conference Board’s senior economist, Stephanie Guichard, said. The data signals trouble for the Fed in its battle against inflation because the expectations alone could cause workers to ask for raises and businesses to raise costs, The New York Times writes. The White House blamed inflation on Biden-era policies, and pointed to plans for tax cuts and deregulation as ways to relieve price pressures. All eyes are on the inflation report coming Friday.

US Steel, Nippon executives court Trump officials

Nippon Steel and US Steel are trying to engage with the Trump administration, in a last-ditch attempt to salvage a $15 billion merger that was blocked by Joe Biden. Semafor’s Rohan Goswami reports that executives from both companies have been seeking meetings with senior Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, though the efforts have yet to yield anything official on the books. And Nippon Steel COO Tadashi Imai said Tuesday that the company would discuss the proposed merger with US government officials, The Wall Street Journal reported, after Trump suggested earlier this month that he would support an agreement that sees Nippon invest in but not take over the US company. (Trump has already met the CEO of US Steel.)

A test for Biden’s climate legacy

Republicans are poised to test a core tenet of Joe Biden’s climate strategy — that clean energy investments will be politically shielded because most are in GOP districts. So far, it seems to be working: Both the House and Senate budget plans aim to boost federal spending on domestic energy production. “We expect that most IRA tax credits, grants, and loans will be safe from repeal due to the benefits to Republican districts that those programs offer,” Emily Tucker, vice president of energy at the consulting firm Capstone, told Semafor’s Climate & Energy Editor Tim McDonnell. Still, Democrats in the Senate helped pass a Republican resolution to undo a Biden-era offshore drilling rule on Tuesday, and the House is set to vote this week on whether to roll back several key Biden climate policies.

Blindspot: Donors and migrants

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: The Democratic Party has a donor problem, according to a new report from The Hill.

What the Right isn’t reading: The Trump administration has paused efforts to house migrants in tents at Guantánamo Bay due to concerns they don’t meet detention standards, CNN reported.

Reliable coverage without the chaos — Ground News is a news comparison platform home to over 50,000 sources, enabling readers to compare coverage on any story while getting insight into a news source’s political bias, credibility, and ownership. Readers from all political stripes, from Munich to Manhattan, can trust Ground News to stay informed and broaden their worldview. Semafor readers can get 40% off their Vantage plan today.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Republicans are looking at increasing taxes on public companies’ stock buybacks, changing limits to executive pay deductions, raising universities’ endowment taxes, and slashing clean energy tax credits as potential offsets for extending President Trump’s tax cuts.

Playbook: California Gov. Gavin Newsom is starting a podcast and plans to “mix it up with MAGA personalities.”

WaPo: Democrats are betting there’ll be political blowback for Republicans over their budget plan. “We just won back the House,” said Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.

White House

• The White House said it would decide who makes it into the rotating pool of journalists covering President Trump’s daily activities, disempowering the White House Correspondents’ Association. “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” the WHCA president said.
• The acting administrator of DOGE is Amy Gleason, a White House official told Semafor’s Shelby Talcott. (Wired reported she served in the US Digital Service during Trump’s first administration.)

Congress

• The Senate confirmed Daniel Driscoll, a former adviser to Vice President Vance, to be secretary of the Army in a bipartisan vote.
• Elbridge Colby’s confirmation hearing for a top Pentagon job will take place on March 4. — Jewish Insider

Outside the Beltway

• Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., announced he’s running for governor of his state.
• A group of faux DOGE staffers stormed San Francisco city government buildings last week in what turned out to be a YouTube stunt.

Business

• The Trump administration indicated it plans to keep the CFPB but make it “more streamlined and efficient.”

Economy

• President Trump signed a directive ordering the Commerce Department to study possible copper tariffs.
• The CEO of aluminum giant Alcoa is warning that Trump’s proposed aluminum tariffs could cost 100,000 US jobs.

Health

• President Trump signed an executive order meant to force hospitals and other health providers to disclose the prices of their services.
• Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is investigating UnitedHealth’s Medicare billing practices. — WSJ

Courts

• A federal judge paused President Trump’s order to suspend the US refugee resettlement system.
• A group of farmers and nonprofits sued USDA, claiming the agency is hurting farmers and research by deleting climate change data from its website.

National Security

• White House adviser Peter Navarro denied a report from the Financial Times that he’s pushing to remove Canada from the “Five Eyes” intelligence group.

Immigration

• The Trump administration is developing a registry for undocumented immigrants in the US to submit their personal information or otherwise face steep fines and prison time. — WSJ
• President Trump described plans to create a “gold card” pathway to US citizenship for wealthy individuals willing to pay $5 million.

Technology

• Twenty-one federal civil servants working in technology roles resigned from DOGE, saying they refused to use their skills to “dismantle critical public services.” — AP

Media

• White House reporter Eugene Daniels is leaving Politico for MSNBC. — Puck

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., is the House minority whip.