Principals

1. Order OKs agencies to move
2. China replaces trade negotiator
3. Van Hollen to El Salvador
4. Harvard’s other problems
5. Dems seek FHFA probe
6. Trade war helps clean tech
7. Child care cuts

PDB: Trump’s deregulation plans

China reports stronger-than-expected GDP growth … Hang Seng index ⬇️ 1.91% … S&P 500 futures ⬇️ 0.62%

Trump removes limits on locations of federal agencies

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at giving federal agencies more freedom to pick where their office spaces will be. The executive order, the details of which were shared first with Semafor, comes just one day after the administration’s deadline for agencies to submit any plans to move offices outside of the DC area. The action builds on the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts in recent weeks to cut federal office space nationwide. Trump’s executive order rescinds two prior actions issued by the Carter and Clinton administrations relating to federal offices, and could allow departments — some of which are already seeking to leave DC — to relocate to lower-cost cities, or to disperse their employees across the country.

— Shelby Talcott

US-China trade: It’s complicated

China tapped a new trade negotiator as the Trump administration waits for Beijing to come to the table for talks on tariffs. “In the view of China’s top leadership, they may need someone else to deescalate tensions,” one expert told CNBC. China is open to trade talks, Bloomberg reported, but wants to see actions from the Trump administration beforehand — like more consistency and an effort to curtail “disparaging remarks.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump hopes to use the tariff negotiations to convince other countries to limit dealings with China in order to cut down Beijing’s leverage. On a related front, Trump officials are bullish on inking a TikTok deal before Trump’s latest extension is up, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Morgan Chalfant report, but tariffs threw a wrench in the talks. “There’s no reason to believe the Chinese government wouldn’t use the TikTok sale as leverage” on tariffs, one expert said.

Van Hollen sets out for CECOT

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is headed to El Salvador today on a mission to reach one of his constituents, Kilmar Ábrego García, who was mistakenly deported there last month. Van Hollen is in touch with the Salvadoran government, and he hopes to visit CECOT, the megaprison where Ábrego is being held, an aide to the Maryland Democrat said. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Ábrego’s return to the US, and on Tuesday said there’s no evidence the White House has tried to comply; the administration claimed it has “no authority” to free Ábrego. “All the president of El Salvador has to do now is hand over and release an innocent man, and let him come home to his family,” Van Hollen said on Monday. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., has offered to join the senator.

— Graph Massara

Trump isn’t elite universities’ only problem

In his latest escalation against Harvard, Trump threatened the university’s tax-exempt status and floated taxing it as a political entity instead. But as the Trump administration pulls billions of dollars in federal funding from elite universities, the schools are facing a problem of their own making: Their money is tied up in investments they can’t cash out, Semafor’s Rohan Goswami and Liz Hoffman write. The historic mainstays of university endowments were stocks and bonds, with some riskier bets on real estate and leveraged buyouts. Over the past decade, schools like Harvard barrelled into the latter bucket — investments that produced high paper profits but little cash to fund research, scholarships, and operating expenses. That sets up a more severe cash crunch, in light of Trump’s threats and a possible recession on the horizon.

Dems ask for probe of mortgage giant overhaul

Ten Democratic senators are asking an independent federal watchdog to investigate the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s shakeup at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A group led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and Andy Kim, D-N.J., wrote to FHFA inspector general Brian Tomney asking him to probe FHFA director Bill Pulte’s decision earlier this year to remove most of the existing members of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s boards, after Pulte installed himself as director of both boards, Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant reports. Tomney, who was confirmed to his role during the Biden administration, should “determine whether or not FHFA leadership complied with all relevant federal laws, regulations, and agency policies and procedures in its decision making.” They also want Tomney to scrutinize the recent firing of some 100 employees at Fannie Mae for what Pulte described as fraudulent activity.

China trade war helps (some) US clean tech companies

Trump’s trade war with China could have a surprising winner: US battery companies. The trade spat — a major setback for the US energy transition that will hit power utilities and electric vehicle makers that rely heavily on technology imported from China — may boost American battery manufacturers, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell reports. Case in point: Grant Ray, vice president of global market strategy at the battery materials producer Group14, said the company’s silicon-based components are well-insulated from rising tariffs on Chinese imports and retaliatory restrictions by China on exports of critical minerals, which Beijing tightened on Monday. Indeed, few companies should be better positioned to take advantage of Trump’s push to revitalize US manufacturing than domestic battery producers — even as Trump fashions himself an enemy of the clean energy industry.

HHS layoffs spark child care cost worries

The Department of Health and Human Services has fired nearly half of the workers at the federal agency that oversees child care — and advocates and Democratic lawmakers are warning it could destabilize the already-expensive US child care system, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller reports. The Administration for Children and Families has lost an estimated 40% of its employees in the last four months, according to a tracker compiled by former staff. Democrats are also worried that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is simply uninterested in continuing the department’s child care work. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Kennedy was unaware that HHS even worked on child care when she met him during the confirmation process. “He had zero clue the department he wanted to lead oversees federal child care programs,” Murray said. “But he then agreed that child care should be a priority.”

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will join top global leaders at Semafor’s 2025 World Economy Summit, taking place April 23-25, 2025, in Washington DC. As the first major gathering since the new US administration took office, the summit will feature on-the-record discussions with 100+ CEOs.

Bringing together leaders from both the public and private sectors — including congressional leaders and global finance ministers — the three-day summit will explore the forces shaping the global economy and geopolitics. Across twelve sessions, it will foster transformative, news-making conversations on how the world’s decision-makers are tackling economic growth in increasingly uncertain times.

April 23-25 | Washington, DC | Learn More

Blindspot: Chips and data

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: AMD plans to begin producing processor chips at TSMC’s Arizona production facility.

What the Right isn’t reading: The Trump administration is using personal data controlled by the federal government to remove immigrants from their homes and jobs, The Washington Post reported.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: A dozen House Republicans have written to GOP leaders saying they will not back a reconciliation package that includes massive cuts to Medicaid.

Playbook: A new poll suggests that Californians are “much less eager for the state to fight against the White House than their Democratic leaders are.”

WaPo: Democrats are focusing attacks on Republicans over potential cuts to Social Security.

White House

• Vice President JD Vance predicted the Trump administration would ink a trade deal with the UK. — UnHerd
• DOGE accessed sensitive NLRB data on workers and union activity, according to a whistleblower. — NPR

Congress

• Senate Majority Leader John Thune met with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, as Republicans have urged Kemp to run for Senate next year. — Axios

Executive Orders

• President Trump signed a wide-ranging executive order Tuesday aimed at lowering health care costs. — Reuters

Outside the Beltway

• In a Chicago speech, his first since President Trump’s inauguration, Joe Biden lamented DOGE’s cuts to the Social Security Administration and said any interruption in benefits payments would be a “calamity for millions of families.”
• The Federal Housing Finance Agency referred New York Attorney General Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump for fraud prior to his election, to the Justice Department and accused her of mortgage fraud. — NY Post
• An AI data center project touted by Trump could be hamstrung by a law in Texas meant to protect the state’s power grid. — Guardian

Business

• JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon warned that President Trump’s tariffs could hurt US credibility. — FT
• Johnson & Johnson said the tariffs could disrupt the US drug supply.
• Both Citigroup and Bank of America beat estimates for first-quarter profits.

National Security

• A top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Dan Caldwell, was placed on administrative leave following an investigation into unauthorized leaks. — Reuters
• A Georgia man was arrested for threatening to kill Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
• Two US troops deployed to the southern border were killed in a vehicle rollover.

Foreign Policy

• Special envoy Steve Witkoff backtracked on comments he made suggesting Iran could be allowed to enrich uranium at a low level in a potential deal with the US.
• The US derailed a G7 statement condemning Russia’s missile attack on Ukraine earlier this week, citing the need to keep peace negotiations going. — Bloomberg

Technology

• Huawei launched a new AI infrastructure “that is reportedly set to rival US chip giant Nvidia’s offerings in addressing computing power bottlenecks.” — SCMP
• The message board 4chan, a nexus of far-right extremism, was hacked.
• OpenAI is working on a new social media network to rival Elon Musk’s X. — The Verge

Media

• Reuters and Bloomberg will no longer have permanent slots in the White House press pool, per a new administration policy.
• An AP reporter was let into a White House event on Tuesday.

Big Read

• Trump administration officials and DOGE are racing to prepare plans for “deregulation on a mass scale,” The New York Times writes, and the effort is being overseen by OMB Director Russell Vought. The White House intends to rely on a novel set of legal strategies to repeal or stop enforcement of regulations “that have historically taken years to undo,” according to the Times.

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

Matthew Foldi, editor-in-chief of the pro-Trump Washington Reporter newsletter, wore a pair of statement boots to his first day in the White House press pool.