Principals

1. New tech tariffs loom
2. Barrasso’s tough job ahead
3. Trump meets Bukele
4. Meta on trial
5. Dems’ shadow hearings

PDB: US-Iran plan more talks

Markets rise on tech tariff reprieve … Nikkei ⬆️ 1.18% … Hang Seng Index ⬆️ 2.40% … S&P 500 futures ⬆️ 1.19%

Tech products could face other tariffs

The Trump administration is vowing to impose tariffs on electronics after offering a reprieve to tech companies hit hard by its tariffs on China. After the administration exempted electronics like smartphones, computers, and semiconductors from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the products would face separate sector-based levies. “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook,’” Trump wrote later on Truth Social. He told reporters a tariff rate for semiconductors would be announced in the next week. The coming days will test the administration’s trade negotiations, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent meets with Argentine President Javier Milei today and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni heads to the White House Thursday. “We’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here,” trade adviser Peter Navarro said on NBC. Meanwhile, the US-China trade war is intensifying.

The man at the center of every vote

John Barrasso employs a gentle touch as he rustles up Republican votes on the Senate floor, though he has an actual whip back in his office… just in case. He hasn’t used it yet to corral recalcitrant Republicans, but the “big beautiful” tax bill and its potent vote-a-rama might require him to be more forceful. Barrasso wants to move that tax and national security bill as soon as he can, a sign that Republicans are looking to provide some economic stability while Trump fights a trade war. “The sooner we can get our comprehensive economic plan in place, the better it’s going to be,” Barrasso told Semafor’s Burgess Everett in an interview. “The more certainty people have that their taxes aren’t going to go up, the more certainty people are going to have as investors to make commitments to our economy.”

El Salvador’s Bukele meets Trump in DC

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador is heading to Washington today to meet with Trump, solidifying his central role in the US president’s deportation efforts. Over the last few months, the Trump administration has sent hundreds of alleged gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, though a large slice of them have no criminal record. Trump told reporters early Sunday morning that Bukele is “doing a fantastic job” and has taken “care of a lot of problems” for the US. Bukele could face questions today about Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland migrant who was mistakenly sent to the prison. The Supreme Court has ordered the administration to take steps to return Ábrego García, something the Justice Department has declined to do, arguing the ruling only requires them to facilitate the removal of “domestic barriers” to bring him back. Bukele has largely been quiet amid the debacle.

Meta vs. the FTC

Meta will face off against antitrust regulators beginning today, in a case that could jolt the tech industry. The FTC has accused Meta of being an illegal monopoly after it bought WhatsApp and Instagram, and a ruling in favor of federal regulators could force the social media giant to divest from both. The case was brought during Trump’s first term and continued under Joe Biden. But Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has tried to cozy up to Trump, fueling speculation that the White House could intervene. In early April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Zuckerberg pitched the White House on a settlement. “If there is a settlement, there will always be doubts about how that settlement came about,” a former FTC chair told the Washington Post. The case is before Judge James Boasberg, who denied the FTC’s initial case in 2021.

Dems hold ‘shadow hearings’

Being stuck in the minority in Congress hasn’t kept Democrats from trying to get an audience. In recent months, some Democratic members of Congress have held what they’re calling “shadow hearings,” essentially press conferences taped at the Capitol and staged to look like committee hearings. Footage from an event on the Trump Justice Department’s targeting of law firms, organized last week by California Sen. Adam Schiff and Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, garnered millions of YouTube hits across several channels, including from the anti-Trump online juggernaut MeidasTouch, as well as millions of views on social media from left-leaning news influencers. Schiff in particular has adopted some of the tricks from new media outlets, churning out nightly videos with flashy art and titles like “Schiff & Raskin Join Forces to Destroy Trump,” a 13-minute clip from the hearing that garnered over half a million views.

— Max Tani

Uncommon Bonds: Elbridge Colby’s nomination

The Senate confirmed Elbridge Colby, Trump’s pick for undersecretary of defense for policy, in a bipartisan vote last week — after early buzz that Republican reservations over his non-interventionalist stance on the Middle East might tank his nomination. Three Senate Democrats crossed the aisle to confirm Colby: Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., while Colby lost one GOP vote: Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Kelly told Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant that he appreciated Colby’s focus on the threat posed by China, while Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, described him as “very thoughtful” and open-minded. Colby is “somebody that will listen carefully for opposite positions and take them into consideration. And I think he’s got the experience and also the temperament to provide good advice to the secretary,” Reed said.

Mario Harik, CEO, XPO; Amos Hochstein, Managing Partner, TWG Global; Scott Kirby, CEO, United Airlines; Jose Muñoz, President and CEO, Hyundai Motor Company; Jonas Prising, Chair & Chief Executive Officer, ManpowerGroup; Niraj Shah, Co-Founder, Co-Chairman, CEO, Wayfair, and more will join The Future of Mobility session at the 2025 World Economy Summit. From EVs to smart infrastructure, this session examines the next wave of mobility innovation — and the investment, policy, and planning needed to scale it.

April 24, 2025 | Washington, DC | Learn More

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Speaker Mike Johnson raised more than $32 million in the first quarter of this year.

Playbook: “You can almost hear Tim Cook’s ears pricking up” at President Trump’s suggestion on Air Force One last night that certain products might receive exemptions from the forthcoming semiconductor tariff regime.

WaPo: Despite the House vote last week, Republicans “are considerably divided on the actual policy that will go into Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’”

Axios: The next round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran will take place in Rome on Saturday.

White House

• White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said “everything is fine” with Elon Musk, after the two tangled publicly over President Trump’s tariff policies. — NBC
• The White House physician said that Trump is “fully fit” to perform his presidential duties.
• The State Department official charged with dismantling USAID has left his job. — WSJ

Congress

• Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, while in Southern California on his “anti-oligarchy” rally tour, made a surprise onstage cameo at the Coachella music festival alongside singer Clairo.
• Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are planning to introduce a bill to provide a $200 per month increase for Social Security payments, Axios reports. It has no chance of surviving the GOP majority, but could be a useful messaging tool as seniors brace for price shocks; three-quarters of Americans surveyed by CBS last week said they expect President Trump’s tariffs will cause prices to spike in the short term.

Executive orders

• President Trump signed a directive allowing the military to take over federal land along the US southern border.
• The State Department warned federal workers to keep an eye out for “anti-Christian bias.”

Outside the Beltway

• Police have arrested a 38-year-old man for allegedly trying to burn down the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on Saturday night, after Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family had celebrated the first night of Passover.
• Customs and Border Protection sent a Massachusetts-born immigration attorney an email ordering her to leave the country, apparently in error.

Campaigns

• Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., is running for governor of Colorado.
• ESPN host Stephen A. Smith said he might have “no choice” but to run for president.

Economy

• Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio warned that the US could face something “worse than a normal recession.” — NBC

Health

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a letter to state health authorities warning them not to use Medicaid funding for gender health care for young patients, citing legal language barring coverage for sterilization of anyone under 21.

National Security

• The Trump administration has an aspirational goal of deporting 1 million immigrants in a year. — WaPo
• Military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, pitched the administration on a plan to expand deportations to El Salvador. — Politico
• The State Department said in an internal memo that there was no evidence a Tufts student later detained by immigration agents had engaged in any terroristic or antisemitic behavior. — WaPo

Foreign Policy

• The US and Iran agreed to hold another round of negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear program on Saturday, after an initial round this past weekend. Special envoy Steve Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal that the Trump administration is open to compromise, but that its “red line” is preventing Iran from being able to produce a nuclear weapon.
• A Russian missile strike killed at least 34 in a northern Ukrainian city.
• Former Trump trade adviser Robert Lighthizer told a group of Canadian conservatives that the US and Canada can get past their current trade tensions. — Politico
• Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa was reelected.

Media

• President Trump will be interviewed on a Spanish-language Fox News program this week. — Axios
• Trump wrote a series of invective-filled posts directed at CBS and the news show 60 Minutes, which he has sued and which the FCC is currently investigating.

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

And Graph Massara, copy editor

Contact our reporters:

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

Nick LaLota is a Republican congressman from New York.

Booz Allen Hamilton has submitted recommendations to the US government for how it could save “tens of billions of dollars,” its chief executive told Semafor’s Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, as one of Washington’s biggest contractors races to salvage a relationship that delivers 98% of its revenues.

The new Trump administration has been turbulent for many CEOs. For Horacio Rozanski, it has put almost all of his roughly $11 billion of annual sales in question. Some of his firm’s contracts have already been axed since President Donald Trump began looking to cut billions of dollars from what the federal government pays firms like Booz Allen, Accenture and Deloitte.