Principals

1. Senators balk at megabill
2. Fiscal hawk escapes heat
3. Congress faces Iran briefings
4. State eyes layoffs
5. Mamdani victory reverberates
6. SCOTUS winds down
7. WaPo tests new feature
8. US forces COP ‘rethink’

PDB: Trump embraces NATO

Trump hosts megabill event in East Room … EU leaders meet in Brussels … Trump touts Gaza ceasefire ‘progress’

GOP rebellion against Trump megabill

It’s going to be a very messy few days for Senate Republican leaders, who are facing a rebellion against their move to pass President Donald Trump’s megabill before next week, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Trump is dialed in: The president expressed his displeasure with the Senate’s more aggressive Medicaid cuts to one Republican senator on Wednesday, we’re told, questioning the approach. He separately told Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that he supports the House’s language. There are enough balking senators to deny GOP leaders the 50 votes they need to get the bill on the floor on Friday, at least for now, and a bunch of deals left to cut. Semafor spoke to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, about what she’d like to see: She’s looking for $100 billion to help stabilize rural hospitals and a return to the House’s Medicaid language.

Fiscal hawk may get to ‘yes’ on megabill

One of the two House Republican fiscal hawks who opposed Trump’s tax-and-spending cuts plan is getting a near-daily barrage of attacks. The other has so far escaped the heat, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller reports. Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson told Semafor that the White House “know[s] that I’ve negotiated in good faith; that I want to make the bill good; that I want to be there for final passage. I’m not hostile to the administration, I’m simply trying to get us a good product here.” He said voting “yes” will depend, of course, on “where they land” in the Senate — but so far, their proposal seems to be “moving in the right direction.” “The only Congress we control is this one, so promising some future Congress is going to be great on spending, while we’re not great on spending, is a hard sell.”

Trump officials face Senate on Iran

Lawmakers are preparing to grill Trump administration officials on Iran during classified briefings today and tomorrow. The White House’s plan for the briefings is a source of tension with Congress, with Senate leaders in both parties pushing back on the administration’s plans to send only Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Congress has “historically” heard from members of the intelligence community during such briefings, said Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will not be present, but the administration ultimately agreed to send CIA director John Ratcliffe, per Punchbowl News. Trump has limited what classified information is shared with Congress, following a leak of an internal assessment on the Iran strikes. Trump’s hard pivot to diplomacy with Iran will continue into next week, with planned meetings between US and Iranian officials.

— Morgan Chalfant and Burgess Everett

State Dept. layoffs could start Friday

The State Department is preparing to move forward with widespread layoffs as soon as Friday, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott scoops, though one person familiar with the discussions said the department would likely wait for a Supreme Court ruling on its reorganization plan. That decision, which will address a lower court’s ruling to block planned layoffs and the broader reorganization, is expected any day now. In the meantime, the State Department has been readying major reshuffling plans — and multiple sources forecast to Semafor that thousands of layoffs are possible this week. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents State’s foreign service officers, remains concerned that the department may not wait until the court ruling, a spokeswoman said. The layoffs are expected to impact roughly 3,400 employees and multiple offices and units within the department.

Dem leaders keep distance from Mamdani

Top Democrats kept their distance from democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday after his upset victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, with party leaders offering measured praise but not endorsements, Semafor’s David Weigel reports. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said “he ran an impressive campaign,” while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the run “strong.” Both men said they plan to meet with Mamdani in the coming days, as the young candidate prepares for a fall campaign against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Speaking of Adams: New York City’s business community appears to be abandoning its grudging support for Andrew Cuomo and organizing more desperately around the scandal-plagued Adams in a last ditch effort to block Mamdani in the general election, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman and Ben Smith report.

SCOTUS readies end-of-term bombshells

The Supreme Court is sprinting toward the end of its term. Ten opinions are outstanding, per SCOTUSblog, and could drop as soon as today: Decisions involving Louisiana’s congressional map, which added a second majority-Black district; Trump’s birthright citizenship order and the power of courts to issue nationwide injunctions; whether parents can opt their kids out of reading LGBTQ books at school; and Texas’ age-verification law for adult websites. Then there’s also the question of whether the justices will rule on emergency cases brought by the Trump administration, like those concerning mass federal government layoffs and an effort to dismantle the Department of Education. The justices will undoubtedly draw the president’s ire if they rule against him. The court will wrap up its term at the end of June or the beginning of July.

WaPo tests comment feature for sources

The Washington Post will let the subjects of its stories formally append comments to them after the articles have been published. In a note to staff first shared with Semafor on Wednesday, top editor Matt Murray announced that the paper would be testing out a new feature called “From The Source,” which would send links to the main subjects or sources quoted in a piece. Murray said that sources would be invited to submit additional information, and that the paper would vet the responses and include relevant responses on the Post’s platform. The goal, Murray said, is to “deepen the conversation about our journalism on our own platforms, rather than losing those interactions to social media, where sources sometimes turn,” and he said it’s part of a broader effort to foster “trusted relationships” between the publication and its readers.

— Max Tani

US climate withdrawal forces a ‘rethink’

Climate negotiators meeting at this year’s COP30 in Brazil must “rethink many things” as a result of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the summit’s president told Semafor in an interview. André Corrêa do Lago, a veteran diplomat and economist, said “the fact that the US is leaving an agreement that was designed for the US to join is obviously something that obliged us to rethink many things.”

His remarks come amid growing doubts among climate officials over whether the November talks will be successful: Increased opposition in the US toward measures to address climate change have already dimmed COP30’s prospects, as has pressure on government budgets elsewhere, especially in Europe, where countries are ramping up defense spending. Businesses have also expressed concern over a lack of accommodation and infrastructure in Belém, the summit’s host city.

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Blindspot: Peace and abortion

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: Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

What the Right isn’t reading: Texas residents were the most likely to travel out of state to get an abortion last year, according to a Guttmacher Institute study.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Republicans are weighing potentially delaying the implementation of a crackdown on Medicaid provider taxes in the Senate’s version of the megabill in order to persuade moderates to back it.

Playbook: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker will announce he’s seeking a third term in 2026 today.

WaPo: Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., plans to unveil an economic “war plan” proposal today.

Axios: Marriage equality would face restrictions in 32 states under trigger laws if the Supreme Court overturned its ruling legalizing gay marriage.

White House

• President Trump offered an endorsement of NATO at a summit in the Netherlands, following repeated attacks on the alliance over what he described as insufficient defense spending by member nations. His change of tune came after NATO agreed to boost its defense spending target.

• Trump was invited to Jeff Bezos’ wedding but can’t make it. — WSJ

Congress

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer briefly sought medical treatment for dehydration after feeling lightheaded at the gym, but returned to work later on Wednesday.

Inside the Beltway

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development is relocating from DC to a building in Alexandria that currently houses the National Science Foundation.

Business

• Shell is in talks to acquire fellow oil company BP, The Wall Street Journal reported (Shell brushed it off as speculation).

Courts

• The Justice Department sued every federal judge in the state of Maryland, arguing that an order in place there — which requires the government to place a hold on deportations for 48 hours if the would-be deportee files a legal challenge — is illegal.
• Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting and interfering with the work of immigration officers during a visit to a Newark facility last month.

Health

• The CDC vaccine panel hand-selected by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced it will review the agency’s pediatric vaccine schedule and reconsider recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine, with potential implications for what insurers will cover and what pharmacists can administer.

National Security

• ICE has only arrested 6% of undocumented immigrants known to have been previously convicted of sexual assault or homicide, according to ICE’s own data. — NBC

Foreign Policy

• At the NATO summit on Tuesday, Secretary-General Mark Rutte compared President Trump to a “daddy” (though he did not call Trump himself “daddy,” Rutte was quick to clarify).
• Trump has called for Israeli authorities to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of alleged corruption.

Media

• In an appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Kari Lake, the Trump administration appointee in charge of Voice of America, lamented the “firewall” that prevents the US government from intervening directly in coverage decisions.
• A mediator has proposed a $20 million settlement between President Trump and Paramount over what Trump has described as a misleadingly edited interview with Kamala Harris that CBS aired during the 2024 campaign (CBS denies this). — 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, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Andy Kim is a Democratic senator from New Jersey and a former US diplomat.