Principals

1. Senate leapfrogs House
2. Trump meets Jordan leader
3. Trump tariffs
4. GOP backs Trump on CFPB …
5. … But not all conservatives do
6. Carr headlines media event
7. Admin court challenges
8. Living presidents ranked

PDB: Gabbard nomination advances

Powell testifies before Senate Banking … Vance addresses Paris AI summit … DOJ moves to dismiss Adams charges

Senate jumps House on Trump agenda

Senate Republicans are sick of waiting on the House to make a breakthrough on “one big, beautiful bill,” despite the niceties between Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham and Speaker Mike Johnson over the weekend, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. “I’m a one-bill guy if he can deliver one bill. I’m not a wait around forever kind of guy,” Graham said he told Johnson over the weekend. Graham’s panel will move ahead Thursday on a budget setting up a border and national security bill — the budget could even be on the Senate floor as soon as next week. Not everyone’s a fan: “I’m not excited about spending $300 billion,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who wants real spending cuts. Republicans are looking at paying for the eventual border and defense bill with energy leases — and are not looking at Medicaid cuts for it.

Jordan’s Abdullah set for tough meeting with Trump

President Trump will meet a staunch opponent of his push to resettle Palestinians living in Gaza when he welcomes Jordan’s King Abdullah to the White House today. Abdullah plans to warn Trump that moving Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan would be destabilizing and risk the kingdom’s relationship with Israel. Trump has doubled down on his controversial idea to “take over” Gaza and permanently resettle its residents, despite attempts by his own aides to soften his rhetoric. Trump has also repeatedly suggested that he could force Jordan and Egypt to go along with his plans by threatening to slash the US aid they receive; such a move would have “dire consequences for the economy and human security” in Jordan, one expert told The Washington Post.

New tariffs spark tensions with allies

Trade tensions flared between the US and Europe as Trump signed proclamations imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to the United States — without any exceptions for US allies. The European Union vowed “firm and proportionate countermeasures” in response to the duties, which will take effect on March 12 and followed Trump’s imposition of a 10% tariff on imports coming from China. Market reaction to the new tariffs has thus far been muted. A White House official noted that the two new proclamations “are basically extensions of” Trump’s 2018 order from his first term, where the president implemented 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminum imports.

— Shelby Talcott and Morgan Chalfant

GOP lawmakers back Trump on CFPB

Republican senators are lining up behind the administration’s decision to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the weekend, lending political cover to calls to “delete” the agency, even as they acknowledge a forthcoming legal battle over the agency. “We got along without it before it was created; we can get along without it again,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Semafor. “Activities that are meritorious … can be picked up elsewhere.” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who defeated former Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown, was more definitive: “It should never have been created.” Lawsuits have already been filed to safeguard the independent agency, which was created by Congress and whose funding structure was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., conceded “it’s very possible that it can be fixed,” but endorsed pressing pause for now.

— Eleanor Mueller

CFPB’s surprising defender

The rift between the Silicon Valley and Bannonite halves of the pro-Trump Right continues to widen, as Trump and Elon Musk move against government entities meant to protect workers and consumers — most recently the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which White House budget chief Russ Vought put in stasis over the weekend. On Monday, Sohrab Ahmari, founder of Compact Magazine, came out hard for the CFPB and the National Labor Relations Board, which has been at a standstill since Trump fired a member and left it below quorum. Trump “will end up betraying the millions of working-class and union households who pulled for them in last year’s election seeking immigration sanity and economic protection — not to make it easier for Big Finance to surveil and debank them, or for Musk to use his new government job to stymie organising efforts at his firms,” Ahmari writes.

FCC commissioner to join Semafor news summit

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr will take the stage at Semafor’s Trust in News Summit in Washington, DC, on Feb. 27 — set to be the premier media event of the year. This exclusive gathering will bring together the most influential voices in journalism to tackle one of the industry’s most urgent challenges: rebuilding public trust. Carr joins a powerhouse lineup, including Fox News’ Bret Baier, NBCUniversal News Group’s Cesar Conde, Mehdi Hasan, The New York Times’ Joe Kahn, Megyn Kelly, NPR’s Katherine Maher, and CNN’s Mark Thompson, alongside Semafor editors and reporters.

Trump resistance builds in courts

The most effective avenue for resisting the Trump administration seems to run through the courts. Among the examples this week: A federal judge in Rhode Island directed the Trump administration to comply with an order to unfreeze federal grant funds after finding the White House defied an earlier ruling to do so. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer to federal employees remains on hold as a federal judge in Boston weighs the legality of the program. The lawsuits are multiplying: 22 Democratic state attorneys general sued the administration for cutting funding for public health research, and a key Republican senator conceded that the cuts violated appropriations law. The ousted head of the federal whistleblower protection agency also challenged Trump’s power to fire him. Some of these suits may pose later tests for the conservative Supreme Court (and its Trump-appointed justices).

Biden is the least popular living president

Joe Biden is viewed the least favorably of all current living US presidents — including Trump — while Barack Obama is the most well-liked, according to new Gallup polling. Six-in-ten US adults said they viewed Obama favorably, while only 39% said the same of Biden. Trump, meanwhile, is viewed positively by 48% of US adults, according to the poll, which was conducted in late January immediately following his second inauguration. That’s an improvement for Trump, who was viewed favorably by only a third of US adults during his first presidential campaign. Americans’ views of Obama have remained steadily positive since he left office, and 20% of Republicans view Obama favorably, compared with only 8% who view Biden favorably.

Join Semafor in DC for a critical discussion on the tax battles that could reshape Washington. With a GOP trifecta now in power, calls for tax reform are swelling. Semafor’s Elana Schor will explore the high-stakes debates shaping these proposals: How will Congress navigate tax cuts amid record deficits?

March 6, 2025 | Washington DC | RSVP

Blindspot: Raids and cuts

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: Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem suggested that the FBI leaked information about ICE raids targeting US cities.

What the Right isn’t reading: Meta is beginning job cuts.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are “bearing the brunt of intra-party criticism” as Democrats struggle to push back against President Trump.

Playbook: Trump is clashing with the courts on an unprecedented scale for a US president. He’s poised to lose another legal battle as soon as this morning, as a judge in DC weighs the deletion of data from public health websites.

WaPo: At least one Democrat is staying on the House’s DOGE caucus. “There are Americans who want to see government more efficient and spending less money, so that’s why I joined,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said.

Axios: Trump has signed more than 75 directives in his first 22 days, far outpacing his predecessors.

White House

• President Trump warned that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas doesn’t release all Israeli hostages by Saturday, after the group suspended the planned release of hostages amid a dispute over alleged Gaza ceasefire violations.
• Trump made Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins the acting leader of the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics, after removing the leaders of both bodies.
• Trump signed a directive relaxing the enforcement of a law designed to prevent US companies from bribing foreign officials.

Congress

• In a floor speech, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., accused her ex-fiancé and three other men of physically and sexually abusing her and multiple other women. (All have denied the allegations.)
• Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for director of national intelligence advanced on a party-line vote Wednesday.

Outside the Beltway

• A Nevada dairy farm worker contracted a form of bird flu that hadn’t previously been traced to a cow.

Economy

• Former Treasury secretaries warned against DOGE gaining access to the agency’s payment system. — NYT

Courts

• President Trump may soon issue an executive order spurring harsher law enforcement in the District of Columbia. — WaPo
• Trump pardoned ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, after commuting his sentence in 2020.

National Security

• The Department of Homeland Security wants help from IRS criminal investigators with immigration enforcement. — WSJ
• The FBI discovered thousands of records related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination that were “never provided to a board tasked with reviewing and disclosing the documents.” — Axios

Foreign Policy

• Vice President Vance is slated to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference later this week.
• The USAID’s inspector general warned that President Trump’s slashing of the agency leaves it with more than $8 billion in unspent aid funds.

Technology

• A group of investors led by Elon Musk made an unsolicited offer to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI for more than $97 billion. — WSJ

Media

• PBS ousted its two diversity, equity, and inclusion staffers. — Free Press

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Sydney Kamlager-Dove is a Democratic representative from California.