Principals

1. Senate passes budget
2. McConnell succession race
3. Patel confirmed
4. Neera Tanden’s new gig
5. Musk at CPAC
6. German elections

PDB: What Macron plans to tell Trump

New consumer sentiment report to be released … China backs US on Ukraine … Israel says body returned by Hamas is not that of hostage Shiri Bibas

Trump’s legislative agenda is a mess

The Senate GOP passed its budget resolution early this morning after an overnight vote-a-rama, with the House to follow next week. Both budgets set up competing approaches for implementing President Trump’s agenda, and it’s all a bit of a mess at the moment, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Trump doesn’t really support the Senate’s border-first idea and prefers the House’s combined tax-border approach; the Senate doesn’t like the way the House is setting up its bill, with potential Medicaid cuts and possibly only a temporary tax cut. So how’s this going to end? “I have no clarity,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said of the path forward. “Let’s stop playing the game of chicken. Let’s get on one page here. It’s clear we need to sit down and have really substantive negotiations.”

The race to succeed McConnell is well underway

Former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced he won’t seek reelection on Thursday, but a fight over his seat had already begun, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Burgess Everett report. The potential three-way race shaping up between Rep. Andy Barr, outsider Nate Morris, and former Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron has quickly morphed into a competition for attention from the most consequential person in Kentucky politics: Trump. Barr is being accused of a disingenuous pivot to MAGA. Cameron is being cast as a loser for coming up short in a 2023 race against Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat some Republicans worry could be a spoiler in the Senate race. And then there’s Morris, who dubbed the other candidates as “weak career politicians.” The fighting was expected, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said. “I guess they’re getting the itch.”

Trump gets his team

With the Senate’s narrow confirmation of Kash Patel to lead the FBI, Trump has gotten all of his most controversial picks installed (except one). Only two Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — defected, leading to a remarkably close 51-49 vote (the last three FBI directors received support from at least 92 senators, according to The Washington Post). Nevertheless, Patel’s rise underscores Trump’s iron grip on the GOP. While Republican senators expressed reservations about him and other nominees, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Pete Hegseth, most came around to cast affirmative votes in the end. There’s still a chance other Trump picks get scuttled, though the biggest fights are now over. One to watch is Elbridge Colby’s nomination for a top Pentagon job; the White House said Thursday he has Trump’s “full support.”

Tanden on why being the opposition isn’t enough

Neera Tanden has a message for her fellow Democrats: You can’t just be the party of “no.” “No is better than yes. But just saying ‘no’ makes us vulnerable to the critique that we are just defenders of the status quo,” Tanden told Semafor’s Ben Smith. Instead, she argued, Democrats need to outcompete Trump in the ideas department. “People do want change. We have to argue why our vision of change is better,” she said. Tanden, who has managed to stay influential across Democratic administrations, recently returned to the Center for American Progress after serving as Joe Biden’s top domestic policy adviser. She seems hungry for a fight with the Trump administration, as it works to dramatically reshape government. Trump is “a bully, and if you cower he will take your breakfast money and your lunch money,” she said.

Musk takes CPAC, with a chainsaw

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off with celebrations of DOGE and Trump — and Elon Musk hoisting a chainsaw handed to him by Argentine President Javier Milei. “I am become meme,” said the wealthiest man on earth, wearing dark sunglasses. There were cheers when the conference’s hosts announced McConnell’s retirement and Patel’s confirmation. But Republican legislators often took a back seat to foreign populist leaders who praised Trump — “simply the greatest man that I know,” said British MP Nigel Farage — and to Musk, who drew the day’s biggest crowd. Hours after House Speaker Mike Johnson sounded cool to Musk’s idea of DOGE “dividend” checks, saying that savings from spending cuts should pay down the debt, Musk said that he “told the president, he’s supportive of that, [and] it sounds like something we’re going to do.”

— David Weigel

What the German vote means for Trump

As Trump shakes up the US relationship with Europe, one of America’s closest allies across the Atlantic is about to get a leadership makeover. Germany holds parliamentary elections on Sunday, a critical contest that will determine who steers the EU and NATO members’ response to the Trump administration and the bloc’s support for Ukraine. It isn’t looking good for Olaf Scholz, Germany’s current chancellor, whose coalition government collapsed last year (and who has clashed with Trump). Friedrich Merz and his center-right Christian Democratic Union party are favored, though the Elon Musk-endorsed far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party isn’t far behind in polling. The Trump administration might not find it easier to deal with Merz, who recently rebuked Vice President Vance over his remarks in Munich and questioned the US’ reliability.

Semafor is hosting its critical and timely live journalism program, “Innovating to Restore Trust in News” in Washington, DC on Feb. 27. This unprecedented gathering of the most influential minds in journalism aims to address the crisis of trust in media and the role industry leaders play.

Semafor editors and reporters will be joined by various leading voices in media, including: Bret Baier, Chief Political Anchor, Anchor & Executive Editor of Special Report with Bret Baier, FOX News Channel; Brendan Carr, Chairman, FCC; Cesar Conde, Chairman, NBCUniversal News Group; Mehdi Hasan, Founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief, Zeteo; Joe Kahn, Executive Editor, The New York Times; Megyn Kelly, Host, The Megyn Kelly Show; Katherine Maher, CEO, NPR; Mark Thompson, Chairman, CEO, CNN Worldwide; and Emma Tucker, Editor-in-Chief, The Wall Street Journal.

Feb. 27, 2025 | Washington DC | Register for livestream

Blindspot: IVF and Bannon

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: Some anti-abortion activists are imploring President Trump to reconsider his executive order expanding access to IVF.

What the Right isn’t reading: Steve Bannon was accused of mimicking a Nazi salute after suggesting Trump run for an unconstitutional third term during his remarks at CPAC.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Former GOP Rep. Bill Long’s nomination to lead the IRS “hasn’t gone anywhere yet with the Senate Finance Committee,” though there’s no clear reason for the delay.

Playbook: Republican lawmakers are “desperately try[ing] to back-channel with White House officials about DOGE’s cuts,” warning about those impacting public safety and health.

Axios: President Trump was so annoyed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the past week that he “was on the verge of withdrawing American military support from Ukraine.”

WaPo: Some of the foreign speakers at CPAC criticized USAID grants and foreign assistance the US provided before the Trump administration froze them.

White House

• President Trump phoned the US hockey team ahead of its face off last night against Canada, which pulled off a stunning overtime victory over the Americans, 3-2. The singer of the Canadian national anthem also subtly tweaked the lyrics to protest Trump’s threats of conquering her country.
• The Trump administration is planning big cuts to a disaster recovery office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. — NYT
• Trump is expected to take over the Postal Service and remove its board. — WaPo

Congress

• President Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Linda McMahon, is one step closer to confirmation.

Outside the Beltway

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul isn’t moving to oust New York City Mayor Eric Adams but intends to put “strict new guardrails” on his government. — NYT
• Melania Trump has become an online celebrity in China. — AP

Business

• Citi is ending its workplace diversity goals. — Bloomberg
• The IRS moved to fire 6,000 employees.

Economy

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the US could relieve sanctions on Russia as a part of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Courts

• An Obama-appointed federal judge ruled against a group of unions who sought a halt to the Trump administration’s mass firings, clearing the way for the government to fire thousands of workers.

Transportation

• Elon Musk’s DOGE is attempting to cut the NHTSA, including members of a team responsible for regulating autonomous vehicle safety. — WaPo

National Security

• The Trump administration is terminating Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants who entered the US during the Biden administration. — WSJ
• The Justice Department wiped a federal database tracking police officers with records of misconduct. — WaPo

Foreign Policy

• The US objected to calling Russia an aggressor in a G7 statement condemning Russian aggression ahead of the third anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. — FT

• French President Emmanuel Macron said he will tell President Trump “you cannot be weak in the face” of Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two meet in Washington on Monday.

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

Jeff Merkley is a US senator from Oregon and the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.

Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach is not buying the idea that artificial intelligence will replace vast swaths of the workforce, he told Semafor’s Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson two weeks after he told 1,750 employees they were being laid off in the interest of “prioritizing innovation investments like AI.”

Workday, a supplier of workforce management software that competes with the likes of SAP and Oracle, has stated its belief that the future of work will be “human-centric” — even as it pitches clients that they should bring AI agents into their workforces as “digital employees.”