Principals

1. ‘Big, beautiful bill’ nears passage
2. Russia sanctions pressure
3. Trump confronts Ramaphosa
4. Israeli embassy staffers killed
5. Crypto bill drama
6. Medicaid cuts
7. Trump accepts Qatari plane

PDB: Judge rules Trump admin violated order on deportations

Trump hosts crypto dinner … Senate to vote on blocking California EV rule … WSJ: Trump tells European leaders privately that Putin isn’t ready to end Ukraine war

House GOP closes in on Trump agenda

House Republicans are on the verge of passing their party’s sweeping tax and spending legislation this morning after leaders unveiled a host of last-minute tweaks they hoped would onboard warring factions. Fiscal hawks huddled past midnight on whether to sign off on revised text — which incorporated changes they’d sought, like moving faster to stand up work requirements for Medicaid and phase out clean-energy tax credits — after the Rules Committee approved it earlier in the evening. “It’s too late for extra changes,” Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., said on his way to that meeting. “Now it might just be what the executive can do to, again, move the ball down the court — especially on making sure that we don’t have further Medicaid expansion.” Harris and other conservative holdouts met with Trump earlier Wednesday, when Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said they discussed spiking Treasury yields as one “growing concern.” Yields on 30-year Treasurys neared a two-decade high earlier the same day.

— Eleanor Mueller

GOP Russia hawks ready to make their move

Republicans are itching to pass new sanctions on Russia. Some are ready to move with or without White House backing, Burgess Everett and Morgan Chalfant report. “I think we should bring it to the floor,” Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said. “I’ve waited long enough.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued this week that sanctions will shut down talks with Russia to end the war with Ukraine, a sign the administration would rather lean on diplomacy — for now. But some Republicans think if they move forward on further crippling Russia’s economy — possibly after the recess — it strengthens Trump’s hand. “It doesn’t mean he has to sign it into law right now, but absolutely we want to keep moving forward so that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin knows we are serious,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Trump confronts South African leader

Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had a tense Oval Office meeting Wednesday over allegations of genocide against white South Africans. Trump repeatedly came back to the topic, at one point directing his aides to lower the lights in the room and play a video that Trump said showed evidence of violence against against white Afrikaners. Ramaphosa pushed back on Trump’s remarks, maintaining that the South African government “is completely against” the remarks from fringe politician Julius Malema shown in the video.

It was not the topic Ramaphosa hoped to focus on — he told reporters earlier this week that “trade relations” brought him to the US, and tried to return back to that topic during the meeting. According to South African political leaders, Ramaphosa “walked out with his dignity intact and his country’s name above water,” Sam Mkokeli writes for Semafor, but his challenges are just beginning.

— Shelby Talcott

Israeli embassy staffers killed in DC

Two Israeli embassy staff members were shot and killed late on Wednesday while leaving a diplomatic reception event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC. The suspect, a 30-year-old from Chicago, allegedly chanted “free, free Palestine” while being taken into custody, Police Chief Pamela Smith told news outlets. Police do not believe there’s an ongoing threat. Attorney General Pam Bondi and top Israeli officials were on the scene, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered security be tightened at Israeli missions around the world. “The blood libels against Israel are costing us blood and must be fought relentlessly,” he said, per the Times of Israel. Trump offered his condolences to the families of the two staffers, who were reportedly a couple.

— Graph Massara

Credit card move spurs lobbying storm

A bipartisan pair of senators is weighing a push to attach their credit card bill to stablecoin legislation — and the cryptocurrency industry is worried it could tank the whole thing, Eleanor Mueller and Burgess Everett report. The retail and finance sectors have long been at odds over the proposal from Sens. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., which would seek to bring down swipe fees by boosting competition. Marshall, who filed it as an amendment to the stablecoin legislation earlier this week, said he has yet to decide whether to force a vote on adoption. Still, the stablecoin legislation’s supporters — particularly those with ties to Wall Street — are wary. “I’d go from being a cosponsor to trying to tank the bill,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. Said Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.: “We’re trying to keep this as clean and expedient as possible.”

GOP pivots from Medicaid cuts to immigration

Blue states are bracing for a potential Medicaid funding change in the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill,” that will punish them if their health plans cover noncitizens. In states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the bill would reduce federal reimbursements from 90% to 80% — a steep cut that, in some states, would end the funding altogether. Republicans have confidently defended this as a way to stop “illegal immigrants” from taking “funding from the disabled, senior citizens, and pregnant women,” as North Dakota Rep. Julie Fedorchak put it this week. Democrats warn that the cuts might affect everyone, but in California, Minnesota, and Illinois, governors in their party have cut back noncitizens’ access to health care programs. “If I could afford to do it, I would have a basic level of health care for undocumented people,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told Semafor.

— David Weigel

Pentagon accepts luxury jet from Qatar

The Trump administration formally accepted a luxury jet from Qatar on Wednesday, and the Defense Department plans to work to upgrade it to Air Force One standards. The news comes just one week after Trump’s whirlwind trip across the Middle East — notably, the plane was not formally offered or accepted on the trip, though both governments confirmed it was in the works. The planned transfer of the Boeing 747 has caused a stir among some of Trump’s own allies and members of the Republican Party who voiced concerns about both optics and security. Details of the plane, including photos and specs, appeared to be widely available online before the transfer, as Semafor first reported.

— Shelby Talcott

Blindspot: Defense and Pride

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: MSNBC host Joe Scarborough defended his March 2024 comment about Joe Biden being at his best “ever,” following new revelations about concerns related to the then-president’s mental acuity.

What the Right isn’t reading: Climbers hung a giant transgender pride flag from El Capitan in Yosemite.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Bipartisan senators are traveling to Ottawa today to meet with Canadian officials as President Trump’s tariffs strain ties between the US and Canada.

Playbook: Even though the “big, beautiful bill” faces changes in the Senate, “it seems all but certain Trump is going to get his tax-and-spend priorities over the finish line.”

Axios: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the website for Trump’s “gold card” will launch in the next week.

Congress

• Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., will announce a gubernatorial bid next week. — Punchbowl News

Outside the Beltway

• The Hope Florida Foundation, a foundation linked to Casey DeSantis, is under investigation by the state. — WaPo
• Democrat Sam Sutton won a special election for a New York state Senate seat, fending off a GOP challenge in a conservative-leaning district.

Courts

• A federal judge said the Trump administration violated an earlier court order with its quick deportation flight to Africa this week.
• The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to reject an effort to force the release of records of DOGE’s work.
• A federal judge rebuked Alina Habba, the interim US attorney in New Jersey, for the “embarrassing retraction” of misdemeanor charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
• President Trump’s firing of members of a federal privacy and civil rights watchdog was illegal, a DC judge found.

Economy

• The EU shared a revised trade proposal with the US. — Bloomberg

National Security

• Israel is preparing to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities if US-Iran talks falter. — Axios
• A North Korean warship suffered a “serious” accident at launch, infuriating leader Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Policy

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has “probably” killed Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Mohammed Sinwar.
• President Trump plans to tap Thomas Barrack, currently the US ambassador to Turkey, as his special envoy for Syria. — Reuters
• The US is close to brokering a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Trump said.
• China pledged to donate half a billion dollars to the WHO, replacing the US as top donor.

Health

• Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will soon release a “Make America Healthy Again” report that will “criticize food additives, lobbyists and vaccines.” — WSJ
• Current and former CDC staffers are warning that the clampdown on communications from the health agency “could put people’s lives at risk.” — NPR

Media

• ABC chief executive Almin Karamehmedovic told the hosts of The View not to be so critical of President Trump. — Daily Beast

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

Rep. James Comer is a Republican from Kentucky. He served on the House Oversight Committee with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who died on Wednesday following a cancer diagnosis.

Fei-Fei Li, the leading Stanford University researcher nicknamed the “godmother of AI,” emphasized the risks of cutting research funding and international student visas to the US as it faces an increasingly competitive global tech race.

“The public sector, especially higher education, has been a pivotal, central part of America’s innovation ecosystem [and] a critical part of our economic growth,” she said at a Semafor Tech event in San Francisco on Wednesday. “Almost everything we know as classic knowledge of AI came from academic research.”