Principals

1. Johnson bucks megabill
2. Chamber backs it
3. Tax provision causes alarm
4. Tariff back up plan
5. Hill GOP at econ forum
6. Universities’ nightmare
7. Dems in SC
8. Trump’s Syria strategy

PDB: Unknown actor impersonated Wiles: WSJ 

Trump speaks at US Steel … Hegseth to Singapore for defense meeting; China skips it … Dow futures ⬇️ 0.02%

Ron Johnson rages against Trump’s big bill

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is making a legacy play when it comes to President Donald Trump’s tax cuts bill that’s about to hit the Senate: He wants this measure’s deficit impacts turned around and if not, he’s willing to vote against it, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. “There’s a lot that I love about what President Trump’s doing. I’m a big supporter. I want to see him succeed. But right now, the ‘big, beautiful bill’? That’s just rhetoric. It’s completely false advertising,” the Wisconsinite said. He’s been all over the media this Memorial Day recess and will tell anyone that listens that the House-passed bill is headed in the wrong direction. Currently, there are three like-minded GOP senators who also say they won’t vote for it without more spending cuts. “We ought to take him seriously,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., of Johnson.

Chamber backs megabill supporters

The Chamber of Commerce is launching a new ad campaign to protect Republicans who support Trump’s tax and spending bill — and take on Democrats who oppose it. This morning, the Chamber will launch a significant six-figure ad buy bucking up 10 House and two Senate Republicans who support the megabill, while also hitting four House Democrats who opposed the legislation. The campaign will include billboards in each state or district for a month, plus new paid digital ads to accompany them. It’s a sign that the 2026 midterms are going to be a huge referendum on the sweeping tax bill. “We want to be there on the ground for the long haul with this thing to make sure it doesn’t get defined inappropriately,” a person working on the effort told Semafor. “The advocacy is never going to end on this.”

— Burgess Everett

Tax provision causes alarm

Wall Street is alarmed by a tax provision in Trump’s mammoth spending bill that targets foreign investors. The clause would progressively ratchet up financial penalties against people and businesses based in countries with what Washington determines have “discriminatory” tax systems.

The “revenge” measure would “further drive away foreign investors at a time when their once ironclad confidence in Treasury bonds and other US assets has already been shaken by Trump’s erratic trade policies and the nation’s deteriorating fiscal accounts,” Bloomberg wrote. The Economist chimed in: “If enacted, this would render America all-but-uninvestable for many foreigners.” Analysts are divided as to whether the clause will make it into law, given the bill’s tight vote in the House and the prospect of changes in the Senate.

GOP cool to codifying Trump tariffs

Republicans aren’t racing to codify Trump’s tariff agenda after two federal courts ruled the president overstepped his emergency powers. Nebraska Rep. Adrian Smith, who chairs the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, told reporters he “wasn’t expecting” the court’s decision, but warned that writing tariffs into law now would hinder Trump’s negotiating power. “The last thing we would want to do is turn it into a bureaucratic process,” he said. The administration immediately appealed the decision and the tariffs remain in place for now due to an appeals court order. Still, lawmakers expect the president to explore other avenues for tariffs, like using Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s team is already readying a Plan B, including a provision of the 1974 law that allows 15% tariffs for 150 days to address trade imbalances.

— Kadia Goba

Economic policymakers huddle in California

Top Republican lawmakers including House Financial Services Chair French Hill and House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith will take the stage at the Reagan National Economic Forum today before returning to the Capitol next week. Expect them to compare Trump’s trade agenda to Reagan’s: “You couldn’t have a store over the size of a five-and-dime, and now you can have a big box store; that’s the kind of market opening that Reagan and Bush both accomplished by pushing market-opening fair trade,” Hill said on Fox Business. “It can work again.” Another likely topic: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s Thursday meeting with Trump, when the president urged lower rates and Powell in turn emphasized “non-political analysis.” The government said Thursday that GDP shrank less than expected last quarter; the University of Michigan will provide another key data point today with its consumer sentiment survey.

— Eleanor Mueller

Universities face nightmare scenario

The nightmare scenario for elite universities is here, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman writes. The Trump administration’s multipronged pressure campaign against Harvard and other leading schools — which includes cutting federal funding, higher taxes, restrictions on international students, and scrutinizing endowments — will hit universities’ revenue streams and threaten their operations. Think of universities as companies, Liz writes, that operate on profit margins thinner than those of a grocery store. That sets up huge stakes for lawsuits over the Trump administration’s actions; Harvard won a reprieve on Thursday, as a federal judge extended an earlier order blocking Trump’s effort to cut off international students from the school.

Walz and Moore head to South Carolina

Democrats’ long march toward 2028 continues in South Carolina tonight, where Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will speak at events around the state Democratic convention. Both will attend South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn’s annual fish fry, and Walz will fly from Columbia to California to address West Coast Democrats on Saturday. One looming issue: whether the state will retain its status as the first Democratic primary state, which it never had until Joe Biden convinced the party to move it up the calendar. The Democratic National Committee won’t set its calendar until late next year, after midterm elections, but both parties are treating Iowa and New Hampshire as likely early states. Pete Buttigieg held a town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids this month; Rahm Emanuel is already booked for the local Democratic “steak fry” in Des Moines this fall.

— David Weigel

Gulf’s role in Trump’s Syria bet

US influence is back in Damascus. Just weeks after Trump decided to lift sanctions, his envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack — and US military officers — witnessed the signing of a $7 billion power project that includes Qatari, Turkish, and American companies. Barrack later raised the US flag at the ambassador’s residence and called for a non-aggression pact with Israel, saying the two sides should start talking about “boundaries and borders.” Trump expects Gulf countries to be more than a source of funds for Syria’s reconstruction, the president’s former Middle East envoy Jason D. Greenblatt writes in a Semafor column. “The broader vision is for a Middle Eastern realignment,” Greenblatt wrote. “From the Abraham Accords to emerging economic partnerships, the region is experiencing unprecedented cooperation against destabilizing actors like Iran.”

— Mohammed Sergie

Blindspot: COVID-19 and China

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: President Trump pardoned a former Army officer who had been court-martialed for refusing to follow the Pentagon’s COVID-19 rules.

What the Right isn’t reading: Chinese students studying at American universities are saying the US increasingly resembles the authoritarian regime of their home country, NBC reports.

Adam Friedland represents a new kind of comedian: He rose up through podcasting and now hosts a late night-style weekly interview show on YouTube. This week, Ben and Max bring him on to ask him why he’s reviving a 1960s Dick Cavett-style talk show for the Internet, if podcasts have become too dumb, and whether he’s the long anticipated Joe Rogan of the left. They also talk about why he thinks phones are making people weirder, how Trump legitimized podcasting, and his fateful run-in with Swifties.

Beltway Newsletters

Playbook: Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., is worried that her state’s Senate primary will become a “proxy battle” between AIPAC and the Uncommitted pro-Palestine movement.

WaPo: Democrats plan to keep using Elon Musk as a punching bag even after he officially leaves government service. “We can’t let Trump and Musk off the hook by just having them pretend he’s stepping back,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas.

Axios: The State Department plans to set up an “Office of Remigration” as part of its reorganization.

White House

• President Trump lashed out at Leonard Leo, the conservative activist instrumental in shifting the federal judiciary rightward, after the US trade court initially stalled his trade policies.
• An unknown person impersonating Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles has been messaging senators, governors, business leaders, and other prominent people. Wiles has said she believes her phone may have been hacked; the impostor’s voice sounded like Wiles’ and may have been an AI imitation. — WSJ

Congress

• Sens. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticized Nvidia’s plans to open a facility in China in a letter to CEO Jensen Huang. — WSJ

Business

• Costco posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, as customers hunt for deals and buy in bulk.

Courts

• The Supreme Court limited the scope of environmental reviews.
• An advocacy group sued the Trump administration over a lack of American Sign Language interpreters at White House briefings.

Polls

• A Gallup poll out Thursday registered a record 47-point gap between Republicans and Democrats on the question of support for same-sex marriage, with GOP approval tanking from 55% in 2022 to 41% this year. Democratic support, at 88%, has never been higher in the poll’s history.

Immigration

• The Department of Homeland Security posted a list of more than 500 “sanctuary” jurisdictions that the administration plans to pressure.

Foreign Policy

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade talks with China are “a bit stalled.”
• The UK is still considering sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, as the war in Gaza deteriorates. — NYT

Health

• The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report cited studies that don’t exist. — NOTUS

Media

• The New York Times and Amazon inked an AI licensing agreement.
• FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is saying he will release video of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein shortly before his suicide in order to tamp down conspiracy theories.

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

A graduating student wears their hat, decorated with a statement of support for international students, during the 374th Commencement exercises at Harvard University.