Principals

1. House closes in on megabill
2. Selling the bill
3. Ukraine weapons scrutiny
4. US-Vietnam trade deal
5. US-EU trade talks
6. Sherrod Brown’s next move

PDB: Tesla sales plunge

Trump heads to Iowa … US to release June jobs report … US markets closed ahead of July 4

Principals will be off for the July 4 holiday. We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday. Thanks for reading!

Trump, Johnson smell victory

The Republican-controlled House is on the verge of passing the sweeping tax cuts-and-spending bill approved by the Senate just two days ago, delivering an enormous victory to President Donald Trump. As this hits your inbox, debate is still ongoing and final passage of the legislation is expected this morning. The vote follows hours of behind-the-scenes lobbying by Trump, House Republican leaders, and administration officials that culminated in a dramatic vote on the rule earlier today (ultimately, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., was the only Republican to vote against it). Leaders met for hours Wednesday with members across the conference’s ideological spectrum who were adamant that the Senate-passed version did not cut enough in spending or salvage enough of Medicaid. The passage of the bill, which will get to the president’s desk ahead of his July 4 deadline, will be a testament to Trump and Johnson’s sustained sway over the conference. Now comes their next challenge: Selling it.

GOP coalesces behind a ‘big, beautiful’ blur

Despite all the haggling this week over what ultimately made it into the “big, beautiful bill,” the politics of this moment are familiar, Semafor’s David Weigel writes: The bill doesn’t achieve some of Trump’s campaign promises, but that has not stopped him — or GOP lawmakers — from saying it does. As Tuesday’s negotiations stretched on, Republicans found themselves promoting or defending pieces of the bill that had already been taken out or watered down. In the meantime, Democrats warned their voters not to blame them for any resulting pain: “Hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their health care if this gets signed into law,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said. “The state of Illinois can’t cover the cost. No state, in the country, can cover the cost.”

Ukraine weapons pause invites backlash

The Pentagon’s decision to suspend deliveries of some weapons to Ukraine leaves that country vulnerable to Russia’s increasingly aggressive aerial attacks. The Pentagon described the pause as part of a “capability review” to ensure “US military aid aligns with our defense priorities”; Democrats are demanding more information. The administration didn’t specify which weapon shipments are being halted, but reports suggest the pause covers artillery shells, Stinger missiles, and critical Patriot interceptor missiles. “This will have a serious impact on combat effectiveness,” one Ukrainian commander told The New York Times. Ukraine — caught by surprise by the announcement — responded by summoning the top US diplomat in Kyiv to its foreign affairs ministry. One military expert told The Wall Street Journal that reducing supplies of Patriot interceptors “was inevitable given their scarcity.” Russia, meanwhile, was elated.

Trump touts Vietnam deal with few details

Trump announced a trade deal between the US and Vietnam, but details are sparse. On Truth Social, the president said that all goods from Vietnam would be tariffed at 20%, aside from products that are shipped through the country from elsewhere (which would be subject to a 40% tariff). In exchange, Vietnam will allow US goods in duty-free, Trump said. There wasn’t an official document from the White House laying out the terms, however, and a draft agreement reported by Politico said the parties would hammer out a final deal “within the coming weeks.” Under the deal described by Trump, Vietnam would face higher tariffs than it does today (10%) but a lower rate than his initial Liberation Day target of 46%. The deal risks retaliation from China, which said it opposes “any party striking a deal at the expense of China’s interests.”

Digital law discussed in US-EU talks

US and European trade negotiators have discussed the EU’s content moderation regulations as part of tariff talks, and while Brussels has insisted it will not water down laws at the behest of Washington, the bloc believes it can capitalize on a deregulation drive to address Trump administration concerns.

The EU’s landmark Digital Services Act “has featured as part of discussions,” European Commission spokesman Olof Gill told journalists in Brussels, as the EU’s trade commissioner met with US officials in Washington. EU officials insisted that any changes to enforcement of the law, which Washington claims targets American tech giants, would be part of a wider effort to cut red tape, not a concession. Gill also insisted the EU was making headway in trade talks with other nations because, “in this new normal, being boring and sticking to the rules has a vastly higher value than it did before.”

— Prashant Rao

Sherrod Brown weighs next move

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is still weighing where he wants his political career to take him next: to the governor’s mansion or back to the Senate. “Everything’s on the table,” the former Banking Committee chair, who launched a pro-worker group this year after losing his Senate seat of almost two decades, told Semafor of his 2026 plans. “I’m concerned about the direction of my state; I’m concerned about the direction of my country. So I don’t know.” He added that he’s “talking to family and friends” as he decides whether he “want[s] to get back in and do this.” Brown expressed confidence that he would be allowed to maintain his seniority, which determines members’ opportunities, if he does return to the Senate. It’s historically up to leaders to decide whether returning senators can keep their standing.

— Eleanor Mueller

The secret to Zohran Mamdani’s winning strategy is simpler than you think. The once-little-known lawmaker shocked New York by winning the Democratic primary for mayor — thanks in large part to vertical videos that actually broke through. This week on Mixed Signals, Ben and Max talk to the candidate’s media team, Rebecca Katz, founder of the political ad agency Fight, and Morris Katz (no relation), the lead media strategist for the campaign. They get the behind-the-scenes scoop on how viral videos like “Halalflation” came about, why Mamdani’s videos worked, and what future political campaigns can learn from his success.

Blindspot: Antisemitism and climate change

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: A civil rights complaint filed against a school district in Massachusetts accused it of ignoring antisemitic bullying.

What the Right isn’t reading: The Trump administration shut down a federal website that hosts climate change reports.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Among the losers in the debate over President Trump’s megabill: the House Freedom Caucus. The group “caved once again” after vowing to oppose the bill and “will lose a tremendous amount of sway” as a result.

Playbook: Thursday’s vote may give rise to a new phrase: “Congress always chickens out.”

Axios: Mark Zuckerberg’s AI talent search has “dramatically reset the market for blue-chip AI builders” and “complicated the government’s ability to stack its own technology bench.”

White House

• The Justice Department is considering bringing criminal charges against elections officials that the White House decides have not done enough to prevent voter fraud — something that has not happened at scale in modern US elections, despite the Trump administration’s claims.
• In his second term, a “freewheeling” President Trump likens the Oval Office to New York’s Grand Central Station, full of people coming and going (regardless of their security clearances). — NBC

Outside the Beltway

• Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court struck down its 176-year-old abortion ban, ruling that less restrictive post-Roe laws superseded it.
• Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador, said in court papers that he was beaten, tortured and forced to soil himself while being held in a Salvadoran prison.

Inside the Beltway

• The Labor Department plans to pare back more than 60 regulations covering worker health and safety. — WaPo

Business

• Tesla’s global car deliveries dropped by almost 14% in the second quarter year-over-year.
• Microsoft is laying off about 9,000 workers, the latest round of several this calendar year.

Economy

• Private-sector hiring was well short of projections for June, according to ADP data.

Courts

• A federal judge in DC blocked an order from President Trump that sought to sharply narrow migrants’ ability to claim asylum in the US.
• Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering, the most serious charges he’s faced.

National Security

• At a meeting of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, members discussed how to deal with “communist” and “Islamic extremist” Zohran Mamdani and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested her department “has authorities that have never been utilized before.” — NOTUS/The City

Foreign Policy

• President Trump has organized the first African summit of his term, with heads of state from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal. — African Intelligence
• Trump is planning a lengthy, high-profile visit to China with “dozens of CEOs” in tow. — Nikkei Asia
• US contractors in Gaza are using live ammunition against Palestinian civilians at aid distribution sites. — AP

Education

• Justice Department officials had been steadily ramping up pressure on the University of Virginia to take “corrective action” about DEI practices and alleged discrimination, before university President Jim Ryan resigned last week. — WaPo

Health

• The FDA’s top vaccine official denied the approval of two Covid vaccines, on the grounds that, though existing test data did not suggest they were dangerous, “there could still be vaccine-related injuries that have yet to be discovered.” — NYT

Technology

• The US lifted some restrictions on the export of chip-design software to China, a sign of further easing in trade tensions between the two superpowers.
• OpenAI will rent about 4.5 gigawatts’ worth of data center power from Oracle as it builds out its Stargate AI infrastructure project. — Bloomberg

Big Read

• “In nearly every respect, the Trump administration’s approach is the opposite of what worked in the 1990s — and it poses huge risks to our economy,” former Clinton administration Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers wrote for The New York Times of the “big, beautiful bill.”

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

Karoline Leavitt is the White House press secretary.