Principals

1. Trump abortion fallout
2. Milei ditches U.S. lobbyist
3. McConnell backs TikTok action
4. Will Sotomayor step down?
5. Biden pitches student debt relief
6. Hostage talks

PDB: Trump court updates

Biden welcomes Kishida …U.K.’s Cameron meets with Trump … WSJ: How Musk’s Starlink lands in the hands of America’s foes

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

Anti-abortion groups are “disappointed” in Trump

Anti-abortion groups are upset after Donald Trump seemingly threw cold water on a national ban, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott reports. Live Action president Lila Rose warned that conservative turnout “will not materialize in 2024 if President Trump holds to this anti-human and cowardly position,” while Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America was “deeply disappointed.” But their leverage over him has never been weaker: Trump spent the primaries blaming anti-abortion Republicans for midterm losses, refusing to endorse their favored 15-week ban, and criticizing the six-week state ban Ron DeSantis signed in Florida, but paid no penalty with conservative voters. All of which explains why he was so confident on Monday night as he lashed out at “hardliners” on Truth Social, including SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser. As an SBA spokeswoman told Semafor they would continue to push Trump to change his position, but “what the Democrats want is far worse.” Meanwhile, the Biden campaign is doing its best to keep Trump from claiming the center: A devastating new ad features a Texas woman who nearly died after doctors refused to abort a miscarried fetus under the state’s strict ban. The caption at the end: “Donald Trump did this.”

Argentine president drops pro-Trump lobbyist

Argentine President Javier Milei appears to have dropped his unofficial ambassador to MAGA America, Semafor’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig writes. Miami-based lobbyist Damian Merlo worked as an adviser to Milei’s firebrand campaign late last year, during which time he helped arrange a high-profile interview with conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson as well as meetings with other key D.C. conservatives. But as Milei attempts to navigate complex domestic and international politics — which involve working with the Biden administration in Washington — he’s let his contract with Merlo expire, according to public filings. Merlo, who is known in Latin America for his work with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele, is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, and posted a photo of himself wearing a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt just before the 2022 midterms. Milei himself heaped praise on Trump during the Carlson sitdown, which garnered headlines across Argentina. The interview “infinitely pissed off the Biden people,” a former senior U.S. official told Semafor, including the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, Marc Stanley. Notably, Milei and Stanley met in September, after the Carlson interview streamed.

TikTok bill gets a boost from McConnell

Add Mitch McConnell to the list of people who want to force a sale of TikTok to American owners. “I’ll support commonsense bipartisan steps to take one of Beijing’s favorite tools of coercion and espionage off the table,” the outgoing Senate GOP leader said on Monday. That puts McConnell in agreement with the White House, House Republican leadership, and 352 House members who supported the bipartisan bill forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban. Leader Chuck Schumer mentioned the bill among policy issues the Senate would consider “in the weeks and months ahead,” but hasn’t explicitly backed it or committed to a vote. The path forward largely rests with Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, who recently called for public hearings and said Monday the House bill “could be better”(an aide said there were no plans to move it in tandem with new draft privacy legislation). The Chinese government has been expressing alarm about the bill, including in meetings with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and President Biden.

— Morgan Chalfant

The whisper campaign against Sonia Sotomayor gets louder

Tensions are simmering in Congress over an outside effort to pressure Sonia Sotomayor into retiring from the Supreme Court. A growing list of liberal commentators, including Josh Barro, Mehdi Hassan, and Brian Beutler have urged Sotomayor to step down, citing her age (70 in June), her health (Type 1 diabetes), and uncertainty over when the Democrats might be able to again confirm a replacement. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus pushed back over the weekend, saying in a statement that they “look forward to her continued service on the Court.” And on Monday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin told HuffPost that he too did not agree with calls for her to step down. “I don’t think there’s anything I know about her medical condition that would disqualify her from continuing,” he said. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who also sits on the committee, hasn’t called for her resignation but has made some very pointed allusions to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s decision to stay on until her death. “We should learn a lesson,” he told NBC News last week. “And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be.”

—Benjy Sarlin

Why Biden thinks his student debt plan might survive this time

President Biden’s major new student relief plan is almost certain to face a round of court challenges from conservative opponents. But the administration is confident that this plan is “more likely to survive” than its predecessor that was blocked by the Supreme Court, according to the New York Times. The new effort is grounded in a different federal statute, is being ironed out through a formal rulemaking process, and is more carefully targeted at troubled borrowers, particularly those who now owe more than their original principal thanks to accrued interest or who have already been repaying their loans for decades. Officials believe features could give the proposal stronger legs in court, even as it still aims to cancel debt for tens-of-millions of borrowers. Biden traveled to Madison Wisconsin to promote the plan on Monday — a sign that student debt relief will be a central part of his pitch to younger voters who are currently cool on the president, thanks in part to the Gaza war.

Hostage talks appear to stall as Netanyahu eyes Rafah operation

Hostage talks between Israel and Hamas aren’t looking hopeful. The New York Times described the two sides as deadlocked following weekend discussions in Cairo, as they continued to disagree over the length of a ceasefire, the release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, and the hostages Hamas would release. A Hamas spokesman called mediators’ latest proposal a “setback” and said the negotiations were “on hold,” while Israeli officials sounded more optimistic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press forward with a military operation in Rafah, saying a date had been set for the offensive. The U.S. and Israel haven’t yet agreed on a time to reschedule an in-person meeting on Rafah, but White House national security spokesman John Kirby said officials hope “to get it done in the next week or two.”

Christian Lindner, German Minister of Finance; Rich Lesser, Global Chair, Boston Consulting Group; Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission EVP of the European Commission on An Economy that Works for People and Trade Commissioner; Rep. Kevin Hern, (R) Oklahoma; Suzanne Clark, CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Rep. Beth Van Duyne, (R) Texas will join the Global Growth Session at the 2024 World Economy Summit to discuss shifts from global to regional trade, impacts on capital allocation and market efficiencies, as well as strategies for navigating the ever-changing economic landscape. Register for this session.

April 17 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m. ET | Washington, D.C.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Speaker Mike Johnson is unlikely to debut his Ukraine aid plan this week, and will instead use the coming days to meet with his colleagues on the issue.

Playbook: Donald Trump’s stance on abortion has been a “moving target” over the last two decades.

Axios: Latino Americans are warming to Trump.

The Early 202: Most Republican Senate candidates are backing Trump’s abortion stance.

White House

• President Biden is giving a speech at Union Station today on the “care economy.” He will later hold a welcome ceremony for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, ahead of their bilateral meeting tomorrow.
• Vice President Harris is meeting privately with the families of American hostages held by Hamas this afternoon.
• The White House press shop got inundated with questions about how Biden planned to handle the solar eclipse yesterday (ultimately, Biden offered a safety message on X). — Politico

Congress

• The Senate votes starting at 11:30 a.m. The House is back this afternoon with votes scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
• The House Rules Committee will meet at 4 p.m. to consider legislation to reauthorize and reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
• Speaker Mike Johnson’s office has indicated he opposes a warrant requirement for the FBI to access Americans’ data collected under Section 702 that will likely be debated this week as the House takes up the surveillance bill. — Politico
• With some notable exceptions, most Republicans on Capitol Hill don’t seem interested in challenging Donald Trump’s abortion position. — Politico
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are introducing a resolution calling on the Taliban to immediately release Ryan Corbett, who has been detained in Afghanistan since August 2022.
• The Justice Department is bucking a request from House Republicans to hand over audio from special counsel Robert Hur’s interview of President Biden during his classified documents investigation. — Politico

Economy

JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon issued a warning about inflation and elevated interest rates in his annual letter to shareholders.

Courts

• Donald Trump sued Judge Juan Merchan over the gag order he placed to limit the former president’s attacks on those involved in the case. A separate attempt to delay the trial while Trump seeks to move it out of Manhattan was also rejected by a New York appeals court judge.
• Special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s immunity claims. “The Framers never endorsed criminal immunity for a former President, and all Presidents from the Founding to the modern era have known that after leaving office they faced potential criminal liability for official acts,” he wrote in a filing.

On the Trail

• President Biden is at risk of being left off the Ohio presidential ballot due to the date of the Democratic convention, which comes after the state’s deadline to certify presidential candidates.
• Donald Trump and the House Freedom Caucus: it’s complicated. — Daily Beast

Foreign Policy

• After meeting with Donald Trump in Florida, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron is in Washington starting today to advocate for Ukraine aid. He’ll meet with congressional leaders from both parties, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior U.S. officials.
• Everyone wanted to know what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was eating in China after her run-in with psychedelic mushrooms last visit. — AP
• Europe’s antitrust enforcer Margrethe Vestager is expected to tell a U.S. audience that the European Union made a mistake by not imposing curbs on imports of Chinese-made solar panels, a lesson it is now seeking to learn by combatting Chinese overcapacity — Politico
• A bipartisan group of senators, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin, pressed the Biden administration to impose sanctions on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

Technology

• The Biden administration is poised to award billions in chips funding to Samsung next week to boost semiconductor production in Texas, following the major TSMC funding announcement on Monday. — Reuters
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined TikTok but promised no dance videos.
• As of Monday, Donald Trump’s social media company had lost nearly $3 billion in value since its debut.

Health

The CDC said the public is at low risk from bird flu after a case was reported in Texas.

Think Tanks

The Tax Policy Center shows that the share of all stocks owned by foreigners or tax-exempt entities like nonprofits and pension funds has continued to grow, diminishing the returns on taxing capital gains.

Big Read

Jewish center-left political advocacy group J Street has reached new levels of influence in recent years. Then Oct. 7 happened, according to the New York Times. J Street didn’t call for a cease-fire for months after Israel’s response to the attacks by Hamas. Founder and President Jeremy Ben-Ami said last week J Street supports the Biden’s warning to Israel that aid would depend on its treatment of civilians and backs a negotiated cease-fire. Internally, some in J Street have been frustrated it did not call for a cease-fire earlier, fearing that has alienated younger Americans, including Jewish ones, who are more likely to oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza. Current and former J Street staffers said employees have quit over its refusal to take a harder stance on Israel. Some donors reportedly have told J Street they won’t be making contributions for the same reason.

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: Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell met with first lady Jill Biden’s top adviser at the White House in December days before Hunter defied a congressional subpoena issued by House Republicans.

What the Right isn’t reading: One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign officials has made the case to GOP voters that efforts to get Kennedy on the ballot in New York will help “get rid” of President Biden, CNN reported.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

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

Peter Welch is a Democratic senator from Vermont.

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