Principals

1. Congress confronts trauma
2. Mideast crisis
3. Senate megabill divisions
4. IRA credits hit
5. Trade at G7
6. Virginia Dem primaries
7. Another blue wave?

PDB: New chilling details about accused Minnesota shooter

Trump slams Macron … Senate to vote on stablecoin bill … US reports retail sales data

Senators confront their own trauma

There’s nothing normal about this week in the Capitol, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Eleanor Mueller report. On Monday alone Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., confronted Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, over his posts about the Minnesota shootings, and a top staffer for Smith directly emailed Lee’s staff to “beg of you to exercise some restraint on social media as we continue to grieve.” Today senators will hear how the law enforcement officials who protect them on a daily basis are handling what can only be seen as growing threats and actual attacks on members of Congress. “They’re more concerned about what we wear on the floor than trying to keep people safe,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., who was dressed casually for Monday night votes in sneakers and jeans. “It’s utterly disgusting. I’m bugged about it. It’s all bad.”

Trump skips G7 early amid Mideast crisis

President Donald Trump touched down in DC early this morning, after heading back early from the Group of Seven summit in Canada amid the crisis in the Middle East. The conflict entered its fifth day showing no signs of abating, despite Iran’s reported work to signal it wants to end the fighting and resume nuclear talks.

Israel, which is urging the US to join its military campaign, announced it would target “military infrastructure” in a northeastern district of Tehran, and said it had killed a close aide to Iran’s supreme leader. “I’m not looking for a ceasefire, we’re looking at better than a ceasefire,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. He also warned Iran against targeting US assets: “We’ll come down so hard, it’d be gloves off.” Before leaving the G7, Trump signed a call for peace in the region he had initially resisted, per The New York Times.

Senate GOP divided after megabill briefing

Senate Republicans left a briefing Monday on the latest version of their party’s tax-and-spending legislation casting doubt on their conference’s ability to coalesce by a self-imposed deadline of July 4. “Fifty-three senators and 53 opinions,” Sen. Roger Marshall said. “It’s uphill.” Newly released text seeks to reap more savings from Medicaid — but fiscal hawks including Sen. Ron Johnson indicated it still wasn’t enough. “We’re not seriously addressing our long-term deficit and debt,” Johnson said, adding there is “no way” it’s fixed this month. He added that he planned to release a report today or Wednesday that will show “why I’m not super uplifting.” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins declined to comment but said the provider tax was still an issue. “It’ll be close,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville said. Added Sen. Cynthia Lummis: “We’re getting down to the details, and that’s all I have to say.”

— Eleanor Mueller and Burgess Everett

Senate megabill hits clean energy credits

The Senate declined to come to the rescue of clean energy tax credits. Draft budget legislation approved Monday by Republicans on the Senate’s Finance Committee was marginally less aggressive toward the tax credits than the House-passed version. It would give clean energy projects a few extra years to get started, modestly loosen restrictions on parts sourced from China, preserve credits for nuclear reactors and some other advanced energy technologies, and retain a credit transferability provision that helps smaller projects get financed. But it still calls for most of the credits to be phased out much more quickly than under the Inflation Reduction Act. “This legislation will send hard-fought manufacturing jobs from every corner of the US to China and other countries,” said Zach Friedman, senior director of federal policy at the advocacy group Ceres.

— Tim McDonnell

Trump talks trade, sanctions at G7

The US and the UK signed a trade deal on the sidelines of the G7 in Canada on Monday after agreeing to a framework back in May, marking a win for Trump as he struggles to ink other trade deals. The signed agreement cuts tariffs on UK aerospace and auto imports, but steel and aluminum levies are still under discussion. Meanwhile, Trump seemed to downplay the possibility of the US imposing additional sanctions on Russia amid its ongoing war with Ukraine, telling reporters that he wants to see Europe “do it first.” The American president has in recent weeks been harsher in criticizing Russia, leaving the door open for sanctions while not making any official commitments. Monday’s remarks indicate he’s still reluctant to actually impose additional measures, even as the Senate mulls moving forward with a package of penalties.

— Shelby Talcott

Virginia Dems head to polls

Virginia Democrats will pick their 2025 tickets in today’s primaries, setting up November elections that the party is optimistic about winning. Early voting turnout was 28% higher than four years ago, despite fewer candidates appearing on the ballot — just the potential nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general, after no Democrat challenged ex-Rep. Abigail Spanberger for governor. No Black Democrats or candidates who live outside of deep blue northern Virginia won nominations in 2021, a less likely outcome this year because none of the candidates are white men. Republicans already settled their nominations for each office, with Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears running to replace Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Democrats led in polls at this time four years ago, but believe that backlash to the Trump administration and DOGE layoffs have strengthened their position this year, and have filed candidates for all 100 seats in the state House.

— David Weigel

Are Dems headed for a blue wave?

Democrats could be headed for another blue wave in 2026, but the political landscape looks different than it did in Trump’s first term, according to the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman. In a new analysis comparing the circumstances in 2017 to today shared first with Semafor, Wasserman argues that there’s good news and bad for the GOP this time around. The good news? The Republican base is more unified behind the president than in 2017; the Democratic brand is weaker; and Democrats are confronting a lower ceiling for gains in the House simply because of the number they hold today. But Trump faces a troubling reality in his lower numbers on the economy. Like 2017, Wasserman writes, off-year election interest is also higher among Democrats.

Blindspot: Parade and ABA

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: Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., praised the military parade that marked the Army’s 250th anniversary on President Trump’s birthday.

What the Right isn’t reading: The American Bar Association sued the Trump administration over its campaign against major law firms.

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Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Five former House Republicans wrote an open letter voicing opposition to the reconciliation bill that passed the chamber because it doesn’t address the country’s fiscal challenges.

Playbook: The prospect of the US joining Israel’s military campaign against Iran is dividing the MAGA movement.

Axios: Israel is contemplating regime change in Iran as it sees success in its military campaign against Tehran, but the Trump administration wouldn’t be in favor of that. “It’s the Ayatollah you know versus the Ayatollah you don’t know,” a senior administration official said.

White House

• The Government Accountability Office determined that the Trump administration broke the law by withholding funding from the nation’s libraries.
• Elon Musk and his aides “systematically built a false narrative of widespread fraud at the Social Security Administration based on misinterpreted data, using their claims to justify an aggressive effort to gain access to personal information on millions of Americans.” — NYT
• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said nearly 70,000 people have signed up for the Trump administration’s $5 million “golden visa.” — FT

Congress

• House Speaker Mike Johnson postponed a planned address to the Israeli Knesset on June 22, citing the unfolding conflict with Iran.

Outside the Beltway

• The Louvre shut down amid a staff strike.
• The NAACP will not invite President Trump to its annual convention, breaking a 116-year tradition, saying some of the president’s actions appear to undermine American democracy. — WaPo

Business

• The Trump Organization launched a smartphone.

Courts

• Vance Boelter, the man accused of killing a Minnesota state representative and her husband, showed up at the homes of two other state lawmakers the same night as the shootings, police said. Boelter was also charged with first degree murder; he could face the death penalty.
• The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a faith-based pregnancy center fighting a state subpoena.
• A federal judge declared illegal the Trump administration’s attempt to cancel several hundred research grants deemed to focus on gender and DEI, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination.

Foreign Policy

• Russia said that the US cancelled the next round of talks about moving to normalize relations.
• EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen criticized China for disrupting global trade relations during a G7 meeting, adding “Donald [Trump] is right” about trade imbalances with Beijing.
• The Bank of Japan held interest rates steady and said it would continue cutting its purchases of government bonds, as the country grapples with economic uncertainty.

Technology

• The EU is preparing to fine X for breaking the bloc’s digital transparency rules. — Capital Forum
• WhatsApp, the world’s largest messaging app owned by Meta, will start hosting ads for the first time in its 16-year history. Meta shares rose more than 2.5% on the news.
• Chinese EV firms are preparing to launch vehicles run on domestic chips as the US cracks down on advanced semiconductor exports to China.

• OpenAI won a $200 million contract to provide the Pentagon with AI tools.

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, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

A memorial is set up outside the Minnesota House Chambers at the Capitol in honor of Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman, in St. Paul.