Principals

1. Trump targets higher ed
2. Vance at crypto conference
3. Auburn coach for Senate?
4. Sheehy and Padilla bond
5. Latest on Russia sanctions
6. Neuralink raises $
7. Gulf drone strategy

PDB: Musk criticizes the ‘big, beautiful bill’

Zelenskyy to Berlin … Nvidia reports earnings … WSJ: Wall Street bets worst of Trump trade war is over

Trump escalates higher ed probes

President Donald Trump is expanding his targeting of higher education institutions beyond Harvard and Columbia. The leader of the Justice Department’s antisemitism task force, Leo Terrell, said on Fox News that the administration would launch probes into other schools like the University of California, which he said should expect “massive lawsuits.” The State Department also ordered a halt to student visa interviews worldwide, as it considers whether to require foreign students to undergo social media vetting, Politico reported. Harvard is still a prime target: the administration on Monday vowed to end or transfer Harvard’s remaining federal contracts over its handling of antisemitism and allegations of continued consideration of race in admissions. There is a silver lining in Cambridge, though: The New York Times reports that the attacks have helped heal divisions at the school exacerbated by the Gaza war.

Vance to tout crypto deregulation

Vice President JD Vance is set to address the Bitcoin conference later today as the Senate seeks to advance stablecoin legislation. Vance plans to discuss the administration’s plans to enact a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrency while rolling back existing restrictions on the industry, a person familiar said, as well as ways that Trump’s approach differs from Biden’s.

Vance is one of several Trump surrogates to address the conference, which the president himself spoke at last year; Donald Trump Jr. and crypto czar David Sacks appeared Tuesday. “It really is a point of honor that he made these promises at the Bitcoin conference last year, and he has kept all of his promises,” Sacks said. Earlier Tuesday, shares of the Trump family’s crypto firm closed 10% lower after it announced plans to spend some $2.5 billion on a private-sector Bitcoin reserve.

— Eleanor Mueller

GOP chatters about Auburn’s Pearl for Senate

Sen. Tommy Tuberville is running for governor, and there’s already discussion about who will replace him. One of the names being floated is Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl, an outspoken Israel supporter who currently chairs the US Israel Education Association. He was on Capitol Hill just last week, and one person familiar with the situation said they heard Pearl plans to run for Senate. But others are skeptical that Pearl, whose X feed is filled with political posts, will ultimately toss his hat into the ring — partly because of the roughly $6 million salary he receives at Auburn. “The compensation is a bit different,” Tuberville, who doesn’t think Pearl will end up running, told Semafor. “I wouldn’t let him do it because he did such a good job at Auburn. We need him there.”

— Shelby Talcott and Burgess Everett

The Senate’s bipartisan wildfire-fighting duo

The Senate has plenty of new members and atrophying bipartisan muscles. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., are looking to change that, they told Semafor’s Burgess Everett in a rare double interview. The duo is teaming up on a suite of bills to counter wildfires, bonding over margs and Modelo and getting over the 2024 election in which Sheehy ousted former Sen. Jon Tester, who Padilla was working to defend. “I love Big Jon. I miss Big Jon,” Padilla said. “The voters of Montana spoke. And I guess he’s not as bad of a guy as I heard.” They met as Los Angeles was burning — and it was an obvious match, given Sheehy’s background fighting fires. “If we can’t agree on literally making sure that cities don’t burn to the ground, then our republic is probably lost, you know?” Sheehy said.

Senate keeps sanctions threat on Russia

Senate Republicans are entertaining tough new sanctions on Russia and its trading partners, with or without the White House’s go-ahead. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told reporters on Tuesday that he’d “love to do it with or without the White House, but I want to do it the way that’s most helpful to the White House.” The decision is ultimately up to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who probably wants at least a signal from Trump about whether to move forward. Notably, Trump is actively weighing new potential sanctions, according to CNN, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed to deliver in writing proposed conditions for a Ukraine ceasefire. Even if the Senate moves first, that doesn’t guarantee anything: The House could bottle anything up, potentially utilizing the threat of aggressive sanctions as a way to motivate Russia to end the war on Ukraine.

— Burgess Everett

Musk’s Neuralink raises fresh cash

Elon Musk’s Neuralink raised $600 million in a deal that values the brain-mapping company at $9 billion before the new cash, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman reported. The startup was last valued at $3.5 billion in late 2023, according to PitchBook, but has since implanted three chips into the brains of patients paralyzed or unable to speak. The most recent, an Arizona man with ALS, posted a video on Musk’s X last month in which he speaks using the chip. The value of Musk’s companies has soared over the last four years, though Neuralink remains one of the smaller parts of his empire. The development is a flash of good news for Musk, who has more recently contended with protests and slumping sales at Tesla.

Gulf rethinks drone defense strategy

Drone warfare is reshaping the battlefield, and Gulf countries are major buyers — on both offense and defense. A Ukrainian company plans to build a €1 billion ($1.1 billion) factory in Europe to meet rising demand from Western and Gulf militaries, while Qatar signed a $1 billion deal with Raytheon for counter-drone systems. Officials view drones with awe and trepidation. In Doha this month, former CIA director David Petraeus called Ukraine’s progress “breathtaking,” and Trump praised the technology, noting people don’t stand a chance: “You hide behind a tree and it circles you with fire.” The precision and low cost of drones are forcing a rethink in Gulf defense doctrine, writes Semafor columnist Omar Al-Ubaydli. “In short, they can deter through offense, not defense… Countermeasures are still possible, but many are expensive compared to the low cost of offensive drones.”

— Mohammed Sergie

As electricity demand soars — driven by the rapid expansion of data centers and AI — pressure is mounting to scale secure and reliable energy resources.

Join Semafor for a timely conversation with Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Aamir Paul, President of North American Operations at Schneider Electric, as they discuss how the new Administration plans to accelerate domestic energy production — and whether current infrastructure is up to the task. The discussion will also explore the innovative policies and technologies that could help close the growing supply-demand gap.

June 11, 2025 | Washington, DC | RSVP

Blindspot: Arrests and pardons

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: The Trump administration is keeping an eye on the case in the UK in which a woman, Lucy Connolly, was jailed over an online post about a murder case.

What the Right isn’t reading: President Trump pardoned a man who pleaded guilty to tax offenses, after the man’s mother attended a $1 million-per-head fundraising dinner with the president, The New York Times reported.

Beltway Newsletters

Playbook: Elon Musk called Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and asked him to tap Vivek Ramaswamy for the open Senate seat that belonged to Vice President JD Vance as the billionaire tired of Ramaswamy, who initially helped lead DOGE, earlier this year.

WaPo: Senate Democrats are launching a digital ad campaign today to tie Senate Republicans to the Medicaid cuts and tax breaks in the “big, beautiful bill” passed by the House, regardless of what changes may be made in the upper chamber.

Axios: The CEO of Anthropic predicted that artificial intelligence could erase half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the US and increase unemployment to 10-20% within five years.

White House

• The White House decided against hosting a reception for an Air Force veteran released last week from a Venezuelan prison, Joseph St. Clair, due to the man’s lengthy criminal record and outstanding warrants, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott reported.
• President Trump will pardon a pair of reality TV stars imprisoned for bank and tax fraud.

Outside the Beltway

• The governing body that sets rules for California high school sports opted to allow extra athletes to compete in an upcoming track-and-field championship, after President Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the state if a trans runner was allowed to participate.
• Walmart paid a small fine for breaking a New York state law banning the sale of realistic toy guns.

Business

• The US government is going to receive a “golden share” in US Steel in exchange for approving Nippon Steel’s takeover of the American company. — Bloomberg
• Elon Musk criticized the House-passed tax and spending bill, saying in a forthcoming interview with CBS that it increases the deficit and “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

Economy

• US consumer confidence increased sharply in May after five straight months of decline, according to the Conference Board. The shift came after President Trump lowered tariffs on Chinese goods.

• Germany overtook Japan as the world’s largest creditor nation.

Courts

• A court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from withholding money from New York transportation projects, a win for the state as it fights for its congestion pricing program.
• A federal judge struck down President Trump’s executive order targeting the law firm WilmerHale, decrying it as “absurd!”

Foreign Policy

• In a speech to the Canadian Parliament delivered in English and French, King Charles III reassured Canadians that despite President Trump’s takeover threats, the “True North is indeed strong and free.”
• The White House will grant Chevron a “narrow license to preserve its oil-producing assets in Venezuela.” — WSJ
• Russian military forces took four Ukrainian border villages in an attempt to establish a buffer zone.

Health

• Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the department would stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children, frustrating doctors groups.

Technology

• SpaceX lost control of its Starship rocket shortly after launch, and the vehicle broke up in the atmosphere.

Media

• NPR and three Colorado radio stations sued the Trump administration over its efforts to cut funding.

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

Adriano Espaillat is a Democratic congressman from New York.