Principals

1. Trump’s Jan. 6 movement
2. Congress strikes budget deal
3. Biden pushes Bibi
4. Ohio’s nasty primary
5. Trump’s bond problem
6. Dem chair dings Mnuchin
7. SCOTUS social media case

PDB: Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel, prompting backlash

Biden to unveil housing proposal in Las Vegas … Blinken heads back to the Middle East … Japan last country to end negative interest rates

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

How Donald Trump embraced the Jan. 6 movement

Donald Trump has put Jan. 6 at the center of his campaign, starting rallies with the national anthem sung by the “J6 Prison Choir” while promising to pardon participants convicted of crimes. Along the way, he forged semi-formal ties with organizations representing defendants and tasked a longtime aide with advocating full-time on their behalf. Semafor’s Shelby Talcott traces the story of their relationship based on interviews with leaders of the post-Jan. 6 movement, from Trump leaving office declaring “to those who broke the law, you will pay” to now holding “semi-regular” meetings at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster with family members of “hostages.” “The biggest thing that helped us was him getting arrested, so that the rest of the world can see what is happening to J-6’ers,” Tamara Perryman, whose husband Brian Jackson was charged in connection with the riot, said during a nightly vigil outside of the D.C. lockup beside the Anacostia River. “Now he’s welcome to the family.” The Biden campaign, stunned that Trump has carried his Jan. 6 advocacy into the general election, is already capitalizing on his ties to the movement to try and convince voters the former president is a threat to democracy.

Congress has a budget deal

Capitol Hill finally has a deal to avoid the partial government shutdown that’s looming this weekend. Negotiators cleared the final hurdle on Monday night when they agreed on a full-year funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which had been stalled by a fight over the border. Lawmakers were still working on bill text but hoped to have it out “ASAP,” as one source told Semafor. Another source familiar with talks said Democrats felt they succeeded once again in keeping poison pill policy riders out of the measures. Lawmakers will need to pass their last package of six appropriations bills before the end of Friday to prevent a shutdown, or wave through a very short-term funding patch. (Forty-three Republicans have already sent a letter urging their colleagues to block the DHS funding unless it came attached to conservative border reforms, but their objections don’t seem like a major roadblock to passage.) Meanwhile, some good news for global health advocates: As Semafor first reported Monday, the new budget deal is set to reauthorize PEPFAR, the longstanding anti-HIV effort credited for saving millions of lives worldwide, particularly in Africa. The program, which had come under attack from Republicans for working with groups that also offer abortions, will only be reupped for one year, however.

— Kadia Goba and Joseph Zeballos-Roig

White House warns Israel over Rafah plans

Relations between President Biden’s administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu further fractured Monday, as the American president warned Netanyahu that a ground military operation in Rafah would be a “mistake” on their first call in over a month. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan described their conversation as “businesslike” — hardly friendly — and denied that it ended abruptly. It came amid broader tensions between Netanyahu and Democratic leaders in Washington, following Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech last week urging new elections in Israel. During their call, Biden asked Netanyahu to dispatch a senior team to Washington to discuss disagreements over Rafah, meetings that won’t happen before the end of this week. USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who recently revealed that she confronted Netanyahu last month over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, also warned that famine “is imminent in northern Gaza” after a food security group reached that same conclusion. Hostage talks continue, but a deal remains elusive.

Ohio’s ugly primary comes to an end

A nasty three-way contest for a GOP U.S. Senate nomination in Ohio ends today, after the Associated Press reported on a 2008 sex hookup profile linked to luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno — and after Donald Trump campaigned for him. Moreno’s campaign blamed the profile, a piece of opposition research juggled by rivals and reporters for weeks, on a prank, which a donor took blame for. That didn’t stop a super PAC supporting state Sen. Matt Dolan, who is backed by Gov. Mike DeWine, from running an ad about it. The story also drew attention to direct mail ads Moreno had bought to hit Secretary of State Frank LaRose, accusing his rival of being too friendly to LGBT rights while questioning which “team” he played for. The story worried Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, too: “Let’s hope Trump and J.D. got this right,” he told Republicans at a closed-door meeting, referring to Moreno’s support from Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

— David Weigel

Trump can’t get a bond to cover his $464 million fraud judgment

Donald Trump might be in a genuine financial jam: The former president can’t find a single insurer to post a bond guaranteeing the $464 million civil fraud judgment against his companies in New York. In a court filing on Monday, Trump’s attorneys said he had been rejected by 30 insurance companies, and that securing a bond of that magnitude would be a “practical impossibility.” (“The Bonding Companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before,” Trump complained Monday on Truth Social.) The problem, in short, is that most underwriters will only accept liquid assets like cash or securities to back a bond of that size, but much of Trump’s fortune is tied up in real estate. Trump has asked an appeals court to pause the judgment against him. But if it declines, and he fails to post bond, New York State Attorney General Latetia James could start seizing his assets starting next week. In theory, declaring bankruptcy could help Trump wriggle out of his mess, but the New York Times reports that he’s unlikely to go that route.

Ron Wyden isn’t psyched about Steve Mnuchin eyeing TikTok

The Democratic chair of the Senate Finance Committee is blasting former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin over his efforts to purchase TikTok. In exclusive comments to Semafor’s Liz Hoffman, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. lit into Mnuchin’s financial backers, which include governments in the Gulf, saying he doesn’t see “how America will be any more secure if the next owner of TikTok is a MAGA Trump crony backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.” Mnuchin told CNBC last week that he’s assembling a group of investors to buy the platform after the House overwhelmingly passed a bill forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or effectively face a ban on the platform. The path forward for the bill is unclear in the Senate (Wyden, a privacy-minded lawmaker, has not come out in support of it). “I’m absolutely concerned about the Chinese government’s access to Americans’ personal data,” Wyden told Semafor. “But every concern that has been voiced about Chinese influence is equally valid when it comes to a Saudi government that murdered a Washington Post journalist after planting spyware on his wife’s phone.”

Justices unlikely to cut off feds’ contact with Big Tech

The Supreme Court looks unlikely to handcuff the federal government’s ability to communicate with social media platforms, thanks in part to Justice Brett Kavanaugh. During Monday’s oral arguments, most of the justices appeared deeply skeptical of the case brought by Republican attorneys general in Murthy v. Missouri, which accused the Biden administration of violating the First Amendment by asking tech platforms to remove content related to COVID-19 or election misinformation. Both Kavanaugh, an appointee of President Donald Trump, and Justice Elena Kagan drew on their prior White House experience to argue that these kinds of exchanges are routine. “It’s probably not uncommon for government officials to protest an upcoming story on surveillance or detention policy and say, ‘If you run that, it’s going to harm the war effort and put Americans at risk,’” Kavanaugh, who worked in the George W. Bush White House, said at one point.

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Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: The funding bill negotiations led to some tensions between Democratic negotiators on Capitol Hill and the White House. Democratic aides aired concerns to White House officials during an “angry call” Sunday after the administration upended negotiations over the weekend. Now, Democrats are keeping their distance from the final deal by saying it was agreed to by House Republicans and the White House.

Playbook: The idea of turning some aid to Ukraine into a loan is gaining traction in the GOP, and Speaker Mike Johnson has tasked GOP Ukraine backers with putting together a proposal and taking the temperature of the conference. The idea comes directly from Donald Trump, but Democrats don’t seem to be immediately dismissing it. “Everyone is willing to talk if people are acting in good faith,” one senior Democrat said.

The Early 202: Congressional Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden may be struggling to move forward, but their probe into his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal “could be the most damaging” to Biden.

Axios: Elon Musk is “increasingly treating the prospect of President Biden’s reelection as an urgent — even existential — threat to America,” the latest step in his political evolution over the last few years.

White House

• President Biden embarks on a multi-day swing through Nevada, Arizona, and Texas today. He’ll attend campaign events in Reno and Phoenix.
• During a stop in Las Vegas, Biden will highlight his housing policy proposal, which top administration officials said includes calling on Congress to pass a mortgage relief credit for first-time homebuyers; a one-year tax credit for middle-class home sellers; an expansion of the low-income housing tax credit; and a tax credit for building or renovating affordable housing. He’ll also pitch a new $20 billion grant fund for housing expansion.
• The leaders of the U.S., Japan, and the Philippines will hold the first-of-its-kind trilateral summit in Washington next month, the White House announced, a meeting that will coincide with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s official visit.
• The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a ban on the last type of asbestos used in the U.S.

Congress

• The House and Senate return this afternoon.
• The House Rules Committee is set to mark up a slew of energy-related bills.
• The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing today on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan with retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, and retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. Central Command.

Outside the Beltway

The father of Laken Riley, the nursing student killed by an undocumented immigrant, expressed disappointment that her death is being used in a heated political debate. “I’d rather her not be such a political, how you say — it started a storm in our country,” Jason Riley said. — NBC

Energy

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm predicted to a group of oil and gas executives that the Biden administration’s pause on new liquefied natural gas projects would be lifted by next year. — FT

Courts

• The Supreme Court discarded an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was pushed out of office for participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol under a provision of the 14th Amendment.
• Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is headed to prison later today, after the Supreme Court denied his bid to postpone the four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the congressional panel that investigated Jan. 6.
• Federal prosecutors accused a business associate of President Biden’s brother, Jim Biden, of conspiring to defraud Medicare. — Politico
• The Supreme Court extended an order preventing Texas’ controversial immigration law from taking effect.
• Donald Trump failed to prevent Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, his former attorney, from testifying at his New York criminal trial — but the judge in the case ruled that the “Access Hollywood” tape can’t be shown during the trial.

On the Trail

• Donald Trump told Sebastian Gorka that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel,” renewing claims he made while in office about Jewish Democrats being disloyal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer responded by accusing Trump of engaging in “highly partisan and hateful rants,” while the Biden campaign said Trump “should be ashamed.”
• Trump doesn’t plan to name Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate. — Bloomberg
• Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan isn’t going to be part of No Labels’ third party ticket.
• Remember Paul Manafort, Trump’s convicted former 2016 campaign chairman who the former president pardoned as he left office? Trump is looking at bringing him back to advise his third presidential campaign. — WaPo
• President Biden’s campaign released an ad featuring Trump’s “bloodbath” remarks from over the weekend along with clips of Trump discussing Charlottesville and Jan. 6, after complaints that Democrats and some media outlets took the remarks out of context.

Foreign Policy

• Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. visited Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after voting against the Senate’s foreign aid package because it didn’t include measures addressing border security. Graham said he told Zelenskyy that Donald Trump’s idea of turning Ukraine aid “into a no-interest, waivable loan is the most likely path forward.”
• An Israeli strike earlier this month killed a Hamas deputy military commander in Gaza, the U.S. confirmed.
• Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Chinese leader Xi Jinping “evil” for engaging in human rights abuses against Uyghurs and “crashing democratic freedoms in Hong Kong.” She also suggested the White House leaked information about her plans to visit Taiwan in summer 2022. — The Wire China.
• Former President Barack Obama paid a visit to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak while in London.

Big Read

CNN’s Jake Tapper chronicles the story of C.J. Rice, a Philadelphia teen convicted more than a decade ago for attempted murder who was freed earlier this week after having his conviction overturned. Tapper reported on his case — and specifically the shortcomings of his court-appointed defender — two years ago. Tapper also had a personal connection to Rice of sorts; the CNN anchor’s father, Theodore Tapper, is a pediatrician who had treated Rice for a gunshot wound days before the shooting he was accused of committing. “My father campaigned for Rice’s release for more than a decade, testifying at his trial and appeals, even marshaling a team of specialized lawyers to his defense and—after lobbying by me—allowing me to report on the story,” Tapper wrote in The Atlantic. Rice’s release, he wrote, “is the vindication of his efforts.”

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: Colorado is expected to create units for transgender women within its prisons in response to a settlement in a class action lawsuit.

What the Right isn’t reading: Seventy percent of Americans rejected Donald Trump’s argument that he is immune from criminal prosecution, according to a Politico Magazine/Ipsos poll.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Niraj Antani is a Republican state senator in Ohio. He is running to replace outgoing Rep. Brad Wenstrup in Ohio’s 2nd congressional district.