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In today’s edition: Chris Hayes on Trump-era media.͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌  ͏‌ 
 
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January 27, 2025
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Principals

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Today in DC
A numbered map of Washington, DC.
  1. House GOP in Florida
  2. China AI surge
  3. Gabbard, RFK hearings
  4. US-Colombia dispute
  5. Chris Hayes interview
  6. Pfizer CEO talks Trump

PDB: Media’s Trump bump

Senate to vote on Bessent nomination … Another undersea data cable damaged in Baltic Sea … Gazans begin trek home

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1

House Republicans flock to Florida

Donald Trump and Mike Johnson
Melina Mara/Pool via Reuters

GOP lawmakers began trickling into Doral, Florida over the weekend ahead of this week’s Republican retreat. The three-day event, hosted at the Trump National Doral, is expected to center in part around their reconciliation strategy, and House Speaker Mike Johnson will likely be hoping to finalize a blueprint for the complicated legislative maneuver that has caused divisions between the Senate and the House. Trump, who has signaled a preference for one reconciliation bill (while also leaving the door open to two), is slated to make an appearance in the early evening as well. Meanwhile, Semafor has learned Vice President JD Vance — Trump’s Capitol Hill “diplomat” — is expected at the conference during lunchtime on Tuesday.

— Kadia Goba and Shelby Talcott

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2

Chinese AI model shakes Big Tech

A photo of the Deepseek logo.
CFOTO/Sipa USA via Reuters

A Chinese startup’s new artificial intelligence model upended assumptions about US dominance in the AI race. The large language model by DeepSeek — founded by a Chinese hedge fund manager and developed at a fraction of the cost of Big Tech platforms — topped iPhone download charts and was rising up Google’s app store. Major tech stocks, meanwhile, fell as investors reassessed giant firms’ spending plans on mammoth data centers and AI development plans: Meta, whose researchers are “in panic mode” over DeepSeek’s model, according to The Information, plans to spend $65 billion on AI infrastructure this year alone. The events expose the limits of US industrial policy, which has focused billions of dollars on boosting advanced semiconductor production and strict export controls aimed at controlling China’s access to AI technology.

For more on the fast-changing world of AI, subscribe to Semafor’s Tech newsletter. →

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3

Gabbard, RFK Jr. face Senate gauntlet

Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Brad Penner/Imagn Images

It’s a pivotal week for Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. After Pete Hegseth made it to the Pentagon by the narrowest possible margin on Friday night, Gabbard and Kennedy will face Senate committee scrutiny this week that could make or break their nominations. Gabbard’s path to be director of national intelligence appears the most endangered, as she faces questions about Syria, Russia and her views of the American intelligence apparatus. “I tend to vote for almost everybody in both parties, but I want to see how the hearing goes,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on NBC’s Meet the Press.” He noted that former Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr will introduce Gabbard at her hearing; Burr is closely aligned with GOP national security hawks who have tough questions for Gabbard.

Burgess Everett

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4

US, Colombia reach deal on deportation

People walk at Plaza Bolivar in Bogotá.
Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters

Trump backed off his threat to impose tariffs on Colombia, as the country agreed to accept two military planes carrying deported migrants. Colombian President Gustavo Petro had refused to allow the planes to enter the country, triggering Trump to vow escalating tariffs and visa restrictions in response. The White House claimed victory: “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again.” Colombia’s foreign ministry said it had “overcome the impasse” with the US and agreed to accept deportation flights, pledging to “guarantee dignified conditions” for those on board. Still, the dispute “made it clear that tariffs will be the first weapon Trump turns to for policy disagreements, while the rapid resolution will do little to quell investor nerves over their usage,” Bloomberg notes. Before relenting, Petro had promised retaliatory tariffs on the US.

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Semafor Exclusive
5

Chris Hayes on X-Trump media era

The Sirens’ Call
Penguin Random House

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes called Twitter’s evolution into the Elon Musk-owned X “massively destructive” to the way that people see the news. “No one’s ever going to beat Rupert Murdoch for sheer negative effect on English-speaking democracies throughout the world, but Musk is doing something similar,” he told Semafor’s David Weigel in an interview ahead of the Tuesday release of his book, The Sirens’ Call. He specifically cited false conspiracy theories about Paul Pelosi that spread on the platform around the time the then-House speaker’s husband was attacked in 2022. Hayes expanded on the shifting media landscape in the Trump era and singled out a few Democrats who he thinks are effective at grabbing attention (yes, AOC is one of them). Hayes also said he isn’t personally worried about “retribution” from the Trump administration.

Read on for more of Hayes’ thoughts on “the war of all against all for attention.” →

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Semafor Exclusive
6

Pfizer CEO on Trump 2.0

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla
Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is ready to work with the Trump administration, despite a tumultuous experience with Donald Trump during his first term. “It’s clear that with the radical change that is coming, there will be risks and there will be opportunities. The status quo will collapse,” Bourla told Semafor’s Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in an interview for The CEO Signal. Bourla, who grappled with Trump’s attacks on Pfizer during COVID-19, quickly booked a Pfizer meeting at Mar-a-Lago following Trump’s second election, and attended his inauguration. “We engaged with him in the first administration, and we will engage with him now,” he said. Meanwhile, Bourla had harsh words for the previous administration, accusing some Biden officials of being “ideologically committed to hurt business.”

Read on for what Bourla had to say about Trump’s health secretary pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. →

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Views

Debatable: Congress’ approach to the crypto industry

Trump used his first week in office to start making good on his promise to be a “crypto president,” signing an executive order that paves the way for the creation of a national digital asset stockpile. His moves will renew a debate over how to craft policy for an industry that derided the Biden administration’s regulatory efforts and spent big to elect its preferred candidates in 2024. Industry representatives, like the Blockchain Association’s Kristin Smith, argue that regulators should take a flexible approach to the industry, warning that enforcement of existing laws can amount to applying “century-old rules to new innovations.” Meanwhile, Graham Steele, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, says active enforcement of existing laws is key to limiting risks in the digital industry, but that the government should also take more targeted action.

Read the full arguments from Smith and Steele. →

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PDB

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Democrats and Republicans are negotiating changes to a House-passed ICC sanctions bill, while tech companies are raising concerns about potentially being affected by sanctions under the legislation as currently drafted.

Playbook: A US-Colombia economic war would have been damaging for both countries “given Colombia is both utterly reliant on exports to the US, and also one of the few Latin American countries with which America actually has a trade surplus.”

WaPo: Some Democrats would welcome a permanent suspension of the debt ceiling — a goal of President Trump’s — as well.

White House

  • President Trump signed an executive order that takes a first step toward potentially reshaping the Federal Emergency Management Agency by creating a task force to review it and recommend changes, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott scooped.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson invited Trump to address a joint session of Congress on March 4.

Congress

  • Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., accused President Trump of breaking the law with his firing of 18 independent federal watchdogs.
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., faulted Trump for offering pardons to people accused or convicted of violent crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol.

Outside the Beltway

Stewart Rhodes at a Trump rally in Las Vegas
Leah Millis/Reuters

National Security

  • The CIA released an assessment under new director John Ratcliffe favoring the theory that COVID-19 emerged from an accidental lab leak in Wuhan, China. — NYT
  • Some Republicans want President Trump to rethink his decision to revoke security protection from former Trump administration officials threatened by Iran.

Foreign Policy

  • President Trump expressed a desire to “clean out” Gaza and move Palestinian refugees to neighboring Jordan and Egypt, in what would represent a major shift in US policy.
  • South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was indicted on insurrection charges related to his move to declare martial law last year.

Technology

  • The Trump administration is in talks about a potential plan to preserve access to TikTok in the US that would see Oracle and other outside investors “effectively take control of the app’s global operations.” — NPR
  • Meanwhile, Perplexity AI has unveiled a new bid for TikTok that would see the US government take a stake of up to 50%.

Media

  • A post-inauguration spike in traffic for many media outlets suggests another potential “Trump bump,” Semafor’s Max Tani writes.

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

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One Good Text

Jared Golden is a Democratic representative from Maine who introduced a bill that would enact universal 10% tariffs on goods imported to the US — mimicking President Trump’s own promise on tariffs.

Morgan Chalfant: How are you making the case for universal tariffs to your fellow Democrats? Jared Golden, US Representative (D-ME): There is broad agreement, even among so-called experts who oppose tariffs, that these policies will lead to more American manufacturing. That means good jobs — often union jobs — more secure supply chains, more opportunities for innovation, and a stronger domestic economy. It means starting to balance the massive trade deficit that weakens our country. Those are outcomes Democrats support. Let’s talk tradeoffs, of course, but let’s really think about the kind of economy we want: Is it one where low prices and cheaply made products are our North Star, or one where we focus on strengthening the fundamentals?
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Semafor Spotlight
A graphic saying “A great read from Semafor Africa.”
Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Annegret Hilse/Reuters.

Somalia is not worried about the future of its territorial integrity, a senior presidential adviser told Semafor’s Yinka Adegoke, as the Trump administration looks set to recognize the breakaway region of Somaliland.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Yusuf Hussein said the US and Somalia remained strong allies in a wide range of areas including economic engagement and security.

For more news and analysis on the African continent, subscribe to Semafor’s Africa newsletter. →

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