Principals

1. Musk on DOGE
2. GOP’s GDP spin
3. Tariff resolution fails
4. Impeachment talk fades
5. US-Ukraine deal
6. US watches India-Pakistan

PDB: Tesla denies report about search for Musk replacement

Trump speaks at University of Alabama commencement … Wildfires rage in Israel … S&P 500 futures ⬆️ 1.28%

Musk says DOGE will continue

As the face of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk became a fixture of President Donald Trump’s White House during its first 100 days, presiding over broad federal cuts and firings that thrilled Republicans while sparking public protests that at times shifted into vandalism against his Tesla car company. Now, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott writes, he’s planning to focus more on his companies and directly manage DOGE less, even if he’ll still be present in DC. “DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism,” Musk said Wednesday night, adding that the cost-cutting entity will keep going “as long as the president wants it” to. It’s still an open question whether DOGE will be able to meet Musk’s latest spending-cut target of $1 trillion; DOGE says it has found $160 billion in savings, though its accounting has been criticized. $1 trillion “could be done,” Musk insisted.

GOP urges big-picture view of shrinking economy

Republicans were quick to spin a drop in gross domestic product as short-term pain for long-term gain. The US economy shrank 0.3% between January and March, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, its first contraction in three years. One big driver: firms rushing to stockpile imports before Trump’s sweeping new tariffs took effect. “It’s a short-term aberration,” Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., said. “The president has fundamentally made changes so that we’re not so reliant on so many foreign countries that might disrupt supply chains in the future.” He added: “Once we get the tax bill done … you’ll see the markets moving forward.” Trump was similarly dismissive, pointing the finger at predecessor Joe Biden before insisting China will suffer more. “Somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open,’” Trump said. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30.”

Trump tariffs unscathed after Senate absence debacle

Senate Republicans beat back a resolution to overturn Trump’s tariffs Wednesday, exploiting the absences of Sens. Mitch McConnell and Sheldon Whitehouse and using Vice President JD Vance’s tiebreaker to shelve it. It was a surprise: Republicans were bracing for another embarrassment on the Senate floor after a similar resolution on Canada passed. Senate Democrats immediately blamed Republicans for blocking the vote, but Whitehouse’s attendance at an overseas oceans conference was nonetheless glaring. Still, there’s confidence they can get the bipartisan gang back together. “We’re at 51-49 in favor of this bipartisan effort, they know it and they’re doing everything they can to block it … they need Trump’s VP to save Trump’s tariffs,” Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden told Semafor. He said he was already talking to senators about new resolutions to block Trump’s levies: “We’re going to keep pushing.”

— Burgess Everett

Dems mostly abandon Trump impeachment talk

There’s little appetite among Democrats to impeach Trump again, despite a single member’s push this week, Semafor’s David Weigel and Kadia Goba report. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., introduced seven articles of impeachment against Trump, launching the drive with a billboard but little fanfare from his party. Indeed, three House Democrats listed as cosponsors asked that they be removed from the resolution after discovering it hadn’t been sanctioned by leadership, per The Hill. “He’s been impeached twice, but we don’t have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs” and remove Trump, said House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. “This is not an exercise that we’re willing to undertake.” Thanedar announced the resolution the same day as he confronted a primary challenge from state legislator Donavan McKinney.

What’s next after Ukraine minerals breakthrough

The US and Ukraine signed an agreement to allow American access to Ukraine’s natural resources, two months after the spectacular Oval Office blowup between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy threatened the deal. The agreement, announced by the Treasury Department on Wednesday, sets up a new investment fund that the US and Ukraine will contribute to jointly. The two sides reached a breakthrough after Washington dropped a demand that it repay the US for billions in already provided military assistance. It’s a big win for Ukraine: A senior Treasury official said the deal “sends a strong message to Russia” that the US “has skin in the game and is committed to Ukraine’s long-term success.” Meanwhile, in the Senate, Trump ally Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is preparing new bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation that would put the squeeze on Moscow, The Wall Street Journal reported.

— Morgan Chalfant and Shelby Talcott

India-Pakistan tensions test Trump

A potential conflict between India and Pakistan would add to a pile of foreign policy crises testing the Trump administration. The US is urging both sides “to not escalate the situation,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said this week, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio held calls with his counterparts in India and Pakistan on Wednesday to emphasize that message. After militants gunned down more than two dozen people on the Indian side of disputed Kashmir last week, Pakistan claimed Tuesday to have “credible intelligence” that India is planning a military attack within 24 to 36 hours. The tensions between the neighboring countries, which both possess nuclear weapons, threaten to ignite into a conflict that their allies would have little capacity to manage, given wars in Europe and the Middle East. “The international community has little appetite for a war in South Asia,” the AP writes.

Blindspot: Walz and X

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: Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said that Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate because he “could code talk to white guys.”

What the Right isn’t reading: X has lost millions of European users since Elon Musk took over the platform.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan insisted he still wants to strip the FTC of its antitrust responsibilities, after Republicans removed the push from their reconciliation bill.

Playbook: Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates the Arizona and Michigan gubernatorial races as the only toss ups in 2026.

WaPo: Tariffs will drive the cost of children’s goods up, undercutting the administration’s push to encourage couples to have more babies.

Axios: The White House launched a Drudge Report lookalike newswire with headlines such as “THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FIRST 100 DAYS IN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY.”

White House

• During a wide-ranging NewsNation town hall discussion, President Trump brushed off the tariff-driven dip in his approval ratings as “fake polls,” insisted Republicans would do “absolutely nothing to hurt” Medicaid or Social Security, and said he had made no mistakes in his first 100 days.

Congress

• Representatives Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., led a group of bipartisan House members in introducing paid leave legislation Wednesday that they hope can hitch a ride on the GOP’s tax bill, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller reports.
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is telling Democrats he wants them to stop trips to El Salvador. — The Bulwark
• 87-year-old Eleanor Holmes Norton is an unlikely candidate to serve as the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. — Axios

Outside the Beltway

• Former Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her first major address since leaving the White House, urging members of a Democratic women’s group in San Francisco not to “scatter” in the face of Republican power.
• DOGE cuts at AmeriCorps are hitting red states particularly hard. — Politico

Business

• The board of Tesla began looking for an executive search firm to find a CEO to replace Elon Musk, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company denied the report.
• Citigroup hired former Trump trade chief Bob Lighthizer to advise the bank on how to navigate the administration’s tariffs. — WSJ

Economy

• The EU plans to present a new trade proposal to the US next week. — Bloomberg

Health

• Florida is set to become the second state after Utah to ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water, once Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a state bill.

Courts

• The Supreme Court appeared open to allowing the creation of the first public religious charter school in the US. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.
• Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student and green card holder arrested in April as part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters on campus, was freed from federal custody.

National Security

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Hegseth, has taken on a quiet but influential role in the Pentagon shaping her husband’s media strategy — despite not having a formal title in the administration. — WaPo

Immigration

• Venezuelan migrants being held at a Texas ICE facility are terrified of being sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison. A Reuters drone snapped a photo of them trying to grab outsiders’ attention.

Foreign Policy

• El Salvador recently rebuffed a request from the Trump administration to release Kilmar Ábrego García. — NYT
• Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said President Trump’s hoped-for territorial expansion, whether into Canada, Greenland or elsewhere, wasn’t “ever going to happen.”

Technology

• Microsoft and Meta each posted strong earnings and revenue.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that China is not far behind the US on artificial intelligence.
• Apple was banned from charging US customers commission on purchases via third-party apps and from making it difficult to buy from other stores.

Media

• White House chief of staff Susie Wiles gave a rare interview to the New York Post marking the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term.

Big Read

Before El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele publicly backed President Trump’s migrant crackdown, he expressed concerns about planeloads of deportees sent to El Salvador not having been tried in court, The New York Times reports. Bukele “wanted assurances from the United States that each of those locked up in the prison was members of Tren de Aragua, the transnational gang with roots in Venezuela,” the Times writes.

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

Elon Musk wears two hats at President Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Call it the Margin Call  Index: Social-media mentions (and, presumably, Amazon Prime’s secret streaming numbers) for the 2011 film serve as a shadow fear barometer for Wall Street, which has spiked since Trump took office again. Close to a million people have watched it in unlicensed 30-second installments.

The story of the near-collapse of an unnamed investment bank in 2008 has been remarkably timeless, a more durable and morally ambiguous sibling to 2015’s The Big Short. Semafor’s Liz Hoffman and Ben Smith spoke to the writer, JC Chandor, about how he got it so right.