 Beltway NewslettersPunchbowl News: As members of the House GOP whip team take the temperature of members on the Senate-passed megabill, they’re “racking up no’s from lawmakers who they didn’t expect would be opposed to the bill.” Axios: “Could this not work out the way we want it to? Yes,” one adviser to President Trump acknowledged of the megabill. Playbook: The real battle over the bill is going to be about messaging. Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio tested messaging around the massive tax cut-and-spending bill, finding that it gets a positive response when framed as the “Working Families Tax Cuts (WFTC).” WaPo: Democrats are still grappling with the ramifications of the “defund the police” movement. White House- President Trump spoke approvingly of daughter-in-law Lara Trump as a potential replacement for retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
- A man charged with inciting rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, has been named as an aide to Ed Martin, the director of the Justice Department’s “weaponization” task force.
Congress- A last-minute change to the Senate megabill meant to exempt Alaska from a provision punishing states with high rates of SNAP fraud has the effect of incentivizing those states to keep their error rates high. — HuffPost
- Lawmakers quietly nixed a provision to bar Medicaid from covering gender-related health care for transgender people from the Senate megabill, after the measure incurred a Byrd Rule violation. — NOTUS
Outside the Beltway- President Trump mused about arresting the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, telling a right-wing reporter in Florida that “a lot of people are saying he’s here illegally.” Mamdani, a naturalized citizen since 2018, said in a statement that he would “not accept this intimidation,” after Republicans spent days asking whether his status could be revoked over his political views.
- Jurors have reached a partial verdict in the racketeering and sex trafficking case against rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Education- The Education Department sought to withhold $7 billion in federal education funds for states, and offered as an explanation only that the agency “is committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president’s priorities.”
- The University of Pennsylvania, facing accusations of civil rights violations, agreed to the Education Department’s demands to adopt rigid definitions of “male” and “female,” ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, and retroactively strip trans swimmer Lia Thomas of her titles.
Inside the Beltway- The Trump administration will move the FBI to a newer building in downtown DC that currently houses USAID and Customs and Border Protection — a reversal of earlier plans to send the FBI to the suburbs. — WaPo
Economy - Job openings swelled in May to the highest level since November, with the hospitality sector accounting for three-quarters of that growth headed into the summer travel season.
Business- Waffle House is dropping its 50-cent egg surcharge as egg shortages abate.
- The Chinese telecom giant Huawei will need to stand trial next year for alleged racketeering and theft of trade secrets, among other charges, a judge ruled.
Courts- Twenty states, led by California, sued after the Trump administration transferred data on millions of Medicaid patients to immigration authorities, on the grounds that the move may have exposed information protected by federal privacy law.
- A federal judge in Rhode Island temporarily blocked the White House’s efforts to massively slash staff at the Department of Health and Human Services.
National Security- A hacker says they stole data on some 2.5 million applications to Columbia University, in an attempt to prove the school had kept its affirmative action policies on the books after a 2023 Supreme Court ruling essentially banned them.
Foreign Policy Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters- Reconstruction has already begun at Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment site, following a US bombing last month.
- The Pentagon is declining to part with some air defense missiles and other supplies it had promised to send to Ukraine, on the grounds that the US’ own stockpiles are running low.
Media- Dana Carvey, who impersonated Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live, said he felt the former president was “compromised mentally” and that he had to be “delicate” with his jokes.
Principals TeamEdited 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 |
