Principals

1. Trump’s bill trouble
2. Senate passes no tax on tips
3. Trump’s GOP resistors
4. Trump meets Ramaphosa
5. Musk steps back
6. TSMC seeks Beltway advice
7. GOP bank merger changes
8. Dems on Biden

PDB: Trump says ‘Golden Dome’ needs $25 billion in startup costs

Japan’s exports to US shrink … Nvidia chief calls China chip curbs a ‘failure’ … S&P 500 futures ⬇️ 0.81%

GOP holdouts dig in ahead of key vote

The GOP is spinning its wheels over the current draft of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” which doesn’t do enough for high-tax-state Republicans, doesn’t cut enough for deficit hawks, and goes too far on Medicaid cuts for plenty of others, Semafor’s Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller and Kadia Goba report. For Trump, the delay is a buzzkill that could reveal the limits of his power — and a setback to his campaign trail promises. The president made a personal appeal to the conference Tuesday morning, but it wasn’t enough to bring the warring factions in line. The party now appears closer to a deal, however: Moderates seeking a boost to the state and local tax deduction zeroed in on an agreement with leadership Tuesday night, but fiscal conservatives have yet to sign off. The House Rules Committee is still debating the bill this morning; House Speaker Mike Johnson is hoping for a swift rule vote, followed by a floor vote.

Senate laps House on cutting tax on tips

The Senate somehow leaped ahead of the House on a key Trump-backed component of his party-line agenda, Burgess Everett reports. The Senate unanimously passed legislation cutting taxes on tips on Tuesday, after Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., came to the floor and made a move. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined her, but not to block the legislation — instead to celebrate its passage. That piece of Republicans’ megabill has surprising bipartisan support; Rosen told Semafor that Republicans’ broader tax and spending plan is “going to do a lot of horrible things for Nevada families” but that she wanted to put a marker out on eliminating taxes on tips: “One thing Nevada families need is tax relief.”

Republicans vs. Trump — and his bill

A trio of troublemakers who didn’t support Trump in the 2024 presidential primary could end up sinking his “big, beautiful bill.” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., endorsed his fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley last year, while Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. and Chip Roy, R-Texas, backed Ron DeSantis. Now, the three are standing in the way of an expansive bill meant to deliver tax cuts, secure the US-Mexico border, and reverse some Biden-era energy policies. “I’m a no,” Massie said immediately following Republicans’ Tuesday conference meeting — during which Trump made an appearance. Roy and Norman, meanwhile, have individually railed against the GOP bill for not including enough cuts or immediate work requirements for Medicaid, although the latter seemed to have a change of heart after Trump spoke: “That’s one of the greatest speeches I’ve heard,” Norman said.

— Kadia Goba

Ramaphosa looks to make headway with Trump

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is in Washington for a high-stakes meeting with Trump today, as Pretoria seeks to mend the sharply deteriorating bilateral ties. The leaders are set to discuss trade, South Africa’s treatment of its white Afrikaner citizens, and Pretoria’s genocide case against Israel. A US official told Semafor that they hoped the meeting would not devolve into “another Zelenskyy moment,” referring to the Oval Office clash between the Ukrainian leader and Trump. The US has also taken in dozens of Afrikaners as refugees while cracking down on other migrants, and Trump reportedly plans to press Ramaphosa on South Africa’s “genocidal rhetoric.” One person familiar with the matter said there are no major bilateral business pacts expected out of the meeting, although Pretoria looks set to offer Trump ally Elon Musk a deal to bring Starlink to the country.

— Mathias Hammer

Musk says he’ll cut political spending

Elon Musk said he plans to pare back his political spending after dropping hundreds of millions to help elect Republicans in 2024. “I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said of his political contributions during a video call interview at the Qatar Economic Forum. “I think I’ve done enough.” The world’s richest man also said he’ll still be leading Tesla in five years, and that the company doesn’t “anticipate any meaningful sales shortfall” in light of his work in the Department of Government Efficiency. Tesla shares jumped on Tuesday following his comments.

Musk’s presence in Washington has abruptly faded after he left his post atop DOGE. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, who had sought to make Musk resign, said the pressure worked: The GOP “thinks that infinite money is an infinite benefit, and I think we can actually turn that money against them.”

— Morgan Chalfant and David Weigel

TSMC turns to Lutnick’s former bankers

TSMC has turned to Howard Lutnick’s middle market investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald for input on how to navigate Washington, Semafor’s Rohan Goswami reports.

Bankers at the firm run for decades by the commerce secretary — and, until this week, majority-owned by him, too — have been offering informal advice to government affairs executives at the Taiwanese semiconductor giant, which is not historically a client of Cantor Fitzgerald. TSMC isn’t paying Cantor, one source said, but its in-house lobbyists have turned to Cantor’s bankers to understand Lutnick’s thinking. TSMC has big business in the US, thanks in large part to Biden-era CHIPS and Science Act funding administered by the Commerce Department (under Trump, the company announced plans to further expand its US investment) and is eyeing a collaboration with Intel. Cantor Fitzgerald wouldn’t comment on its clients but said the statements about it “are baseless and false.”

House GOP pushes bank merger rules

House Republicans are pushing ahead this week with proposals to remove restrictions on bank mergers. GOP lawmakers sent the first — a Senate-passed resolution rolling back a related Biden-era rule — to Trump’s desk with the help of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, on Tuesday. Trump’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency already reversed the guidance, but the legislation’s enactment will block future agencies from issuing similar rules. “They can never screw with that again,” Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., told Semafor. The House Financial Services Committee will also vote on advancing a pair of related bills from Barr later today, one of which would require regulators to approve or deny mergers within 90 days of receiving an application. Expect Democrats to push back hard: A memo circulated privately and shared with Semafor argues that the current merger process is already “too lax.”

— Eleanor Mueller

‘Original Sin’ lands with a thud

Democrats greeted the release of a 2024 campaign tell-all with pity for Joe Biden, and a shrug. The former president’s prostate cancer diagnosis came as Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin hit shelves, but Democrats who had told Biden not to run again said they were right to do so. “He should have been a transitional president, as he said initially he would be,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, the first congressional Democrat to urge Biden to quit the race. “The only regret I have is not having moved earlier.” The book portrays a fading president whose closest staff protected him from scrutiny. But Republicans’ questions about whether Biden’s diagnosis was revealed to draw attention away from the book (and from audio of Biden’s special counsel interview) encouraged Democrats to defend him, with House Leader Hakeem Jeffries accusing the GOP of promoting “conspiracy theories.”

— David Weigel

Blindspot: Transgender rights and habeas corpus

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: Parents groups sued over a new Colorado law granting sweeping anti-discrimination protections to trangender students.

What the Right isn’t reading: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem offered an incorrect definition of “habeas corpus” during a Senate hearing under questioning by a Democrat.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Democrats’ House and Senate campaign arms had more cash in the bank than their Republican counterparts at the end of last month.

Playbook: Joe Biden has gone quiet following his cancer diagnosis; even his longtime allies on Capitol Hill like Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., haven’t heard from him.

WaPo: SALT has emerged as the main issue in the reconciliation talks, and some Republican members are irritated. “That’s been the most contentious in the conference, and I think we’ve reached a point where I think we all kind of get it now,” Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said.

Axios: FEMA is “understaffed, underfunded and underprepared” as the US heads into disaster season.

White House

• President Trump announced plans for his “Golden Dome” missile defense system — to the tune of $25 billion.

Congress

• House Oversight Democrats rallied behind New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver, who’s facing criminal charges over her alleged conduct during a protest against an ICE facility.

Campaigns

• Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is running for reelection, despite being seen as a potential candidate for the upcoming gubernatorial race.
• Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms is running for Georgia governor. — AJC

Business

• Home Depot will try to keep prices steady despite President Trump’s tariffs, including by looking beyond China for its supply chain. — WSJ
• More than half of the 4,500 companies surveyed by insurer Allianz said they’ll need to raise their prices due to tariffs.

Economy

• India is hoping for a trade deal with the US by July.

• A Deutsche Bank note described Moody’s downgrading of the US’ credit rating as “somewhere along the line of a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ with regards to the US fiscal situation.” — Fortune

Health

• The FDA plans to limit its approval for updated versions of the COVID-19 vaccine to older people and those with underlying conditions.
• The Trump administration canceled a $660 million grant to provide fresh produce to school-aged children, hampering a longtime goal of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Reuters

Courts

• The Justice Department opened an investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about decisions he made during the COVID-19 pandemic. — NYT
• The Supreme Court ruled the Maine legislature must stop censuring a Republican state lawmaker who identified a student athlete as transgender on social media.

Immigration

• The Trump administration may have deported up to a dozen people from various countries, including Vietnam and Myanmar, to South Sudan, per court documents.

National Security

• Joe Kent, chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, told analysts to edit an assessment to protect Gabbard and President Trump from blowback. — NYT
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered an additional review of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Foreign Policy

• The UK and Europe imposed new sanctions on Russia, moving without the US.
• The Trump administration is aiming to use foreign aid funds for repatriations of Ukrainian and Haitian migrants. — WaPo

Media

• Former Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she hasn’t watched cable news since leaving the White House on Jan. 20. — The Haitian Times
• Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Paramount head Shari Redstone, expressing their fears that the company, which owns CBS, has engaged in “improper conduct” to mollify the Trump administration. — WSJ

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

Children participate in the White House’s “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” activities, alongside first lady Melania Trump. The children, sporting “Gulf of America” and “MAGA” hats, “joined Mrs. Trump in decorating wooden American flags with red and blue markers, star stickers, and fluffy red, white, & blue pom-pom balls,” per a release.