Principals

1. Crypto summit hopes
2. Shutdown showdown
3. House subpoenas Alphabet
4. Tariff reprieve
5. Regrets over Rubio
6. Lawler’s NY ambitions

PDB: Canadian states respond to US tariffs

SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes, grounds flights in Florida … US to use AI to review visas of students who appear to support Hamas … Trump’s crypto project made $350M from memecoin: FT

Crypto execs to sell Trump on legislation

Digital asset companies plan to use today’s White House cryptocurrency summit as a chance to convince President Trump to put his full weight behind their efforts at industry-friendly legislation. “Congressional leaders are moving aggressively, David Sacks and his White House team are moving aggressively … but it’ll be really good to hear from the president, because legislation is something that uniquely requires the president to be personally involved,” Coinbase’s Faryar Shirzad told Semafor. Participants are planning for an afternoon session at the White House that could run to four hours and will involve a select group of top executives, GOP lawmakers, administration officials, and, for at least part of the time, Trump himself — to be followed by a Coinbase-hosted reception for a bigger group of industry representatives off-campus. One likely topic: the bitcoin reserve executive order Trump signed Thursday night.

— Eleanor Mueller

Hill Democrats weigh shutdown leverage

Democratic leaders are giving a stopgap spending bill the cold shoulder ahead of the March 14 government shutdown deadline. “It is unpatriotic and irresponsible to let the baby continue to play with the gun,” said Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., of offering the president a patch until Sept. 30. Instead, Democrats of all stripes are willing to punt funding into April. “We can put our shoulder behind that and make that happen,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at a Semafor event on Thursday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Democrats will hold a strategy session on Tuesday but surmised that “Republicans are going it alone.” If House Republicans can pass their preferred plan, they may need roughly 10 or so Democrats in the Senate; Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Semafor “I don’t think there’s support for that.”

— Eleanor Mueller and Burgess Everett

House panel subpoenas Google and YouTube

The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube’s parent company, Semafor’s Kadia Goba first reported. The letter sent by Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, requested information from or regarding communications with the executive branch about longstanding concerns the Biden administration “coerced or colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor lawful speech.” It’s Republicans’ latest attempt to investigate alleged bias in the tech industry. Last week, the panel subpoenaed eight tech companies for details on their communications with foreign companies. And last month, the FTC launched a public inquiry into complaints from users who felt tech platforms unfairly censored or restricted them. Notably, Jordan singled out Meta as a company that has complied with the panel’s requests. (Meta ended its fact-checking program, which conservatives had seen as biased against them, earlier this year.)

Trump eases tariffs on Mexico and Canada

Trump walked back his sweeping 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, implementing exemptions on a number of goods for one month. The reprieve announced Thursday — just two days after the White House levied the tariffs, which spooked markets and made Republicans bristle — applies to Mexican and Canadian goods compliant with USMCA. A White House official noted that around 50% of Mexico imports and 38% of imports from Canada fall into that category, part of which comes from the automobile industry. Other goods from Canada will be subject to a 10% tariff, according to a White House fact sheet. On Truth Social, Trump said he made the changes “out of respect for” Mexico’s president. Meanwhile, Mexico said it would review tariffs on Chinese imports.

— Shelby Talcott

Rubio faces reckoning from Democrats

One of the biggest decisions Democrats made to start Trump’s second term was to unanimously back Marco Rubio as secretary of state. Safe to say there’s some buyer’s remorse, as USAID is dismantled and as Rubio has sided with Trump on Ukraine, Burgess Everett, Morgan Chalfant and Shelby Talcott report. Asked if he regrets his vote, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said, “I sure as hell regret what [Rubio’s] done since.” Others are watching to see what Rubio does next on foreign aid, for example. “I’m withholding judgment until I see whether he actually delivers on the things that he’s been telling senators, both Republicans and Democrats, about his intention to fix the huge mess at AID that DOGE has made,” Sen. Chris Coons said. Rubio allies are urging patience but emphasizing that Rubio isn’t a Trump foil.

This week, Mixed Signals goes inside the world of independent creators with a two-part conversation: First, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie talks about his platform’s appeal for the resistance on the left, their move into video, and why they turned down Elon Musk’s offer to buy them. Then, former Mixed Signals co-host Nayeema Raza joins to talk about her foray into the new media landscape, what she’s learned about the space, and why her new show isn’t on Substack.

Listen to the latest episode of Mixed Signals now.

Lawler eyes governor run, and the Trump effect

New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler is contemplating a run for governor, but his path could be rockier with Trump in the White House, Kadia Goba reports. Trump got a 5% bump with New York voters compared with 2020 and outpaced every Republican presidential candidate in the state since 1988. Yet 65% of New Yorkers disapprove of the sitting president. Adding to that, Canada’s retaliatory tariff threats in response to Trump could increase New Yorkers’ energy bills. So will Trump be a drag on the ambitious second-termer representing a suburban district, with aspirations for higher office? “I have shown myself to be extremely independent and certainly bipartisan,” Lawler told Semafor, adding that Trump “has his supporters. He also has his detractors, as we all do.”

Blindspot: Border and ultrasounds

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: Vice President Vance says the Trump administration would like the “entire” southern border wall built by 2029.

What the Right isn’t reading: Wyoming will require patients seeking medication abortions to receive a transvaginal ultrasound first. State lawmakers overrode Republican Gov. Mark Gordon’s veto, who opposed the bill because the scans could be traumatizing for rape survivors.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is confident Senate Democrats have a strategy they all agree on — focusing on potential costs to Medicaid and Social Security. “It unifies our caucus completely. Bernie Sanders is happy with it. [John] Fetterman is happy with it. So we’re all united on that. And it’s very good for our activists.”

Playbook: Kamala Harris says she’ll decide about running for California governor by the end of the summer.

WaPo: Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is preparing for a “nail-biter” reelection race next year in a state that President Trump carried by six points and which she won by less than a point, according to a memo from her campaign.

Axios: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-hand man Ron Dermer held a contentious call with US hostage envoy Adam Boehler about the Trump administration’s secret negotiations with Hamas.

White House

• Acting Social Security Administration chief Leland Dudek said DOGE staff will “make mistakes” in cutting jobs and said he’s responsible for enforcing its decisions about his agency. — WaPo
• In a Cabinet meeting, President Trump said Elon Musk can make recommendations but shouldn’t unilaterally make big decisions for government departments, a sentiment that’s been echoed by some Republicans on the Hill.

Congress

• The House censured Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for disrupting the president’s address to Congress earlier this week; the vote was 224-198.

Outside the Beltway

• In a conversation with Charlie Kirk, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports was “deeply unfair,” prompting immediate rebukes from other Democrats and the state’s LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.
• Maine officials said babies born in the state will no longer receive a Social Security number at the hospital; new parents will need to take their babies to a Social Security office. — Portland Press Herald

Business

• Walgreens will become a private company after a $10 billion deal with Sycamore Partners. — WSJ

Economy

• The Canadian response to President Trump’s tariffs continues: British Columbia is proposing tolls on trucks headed into Alaska, while Ontario is hitting US-bound electricity with a 25% levy.

Courts

• A federal judge ruled that fired National Labor Relations Chair Gwynne Wilcox must be reinstated.
• President Trump signed an executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie over its work with Democrats.

Health

• During a grilling Thursday before the Senate HELP Committee, Trump FDA Commissioner nominee Martin Makary wouldn’t commit to reconvening a canceled panel on vaccines.

National Security

• President Trump said Washington may not defend NATO allies unless they pay more for defense.
• A database of “DEI”-related materials that the Pentagon wants deleted includes posts and photos referencing the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb during World War II (nicknamed “Enola Gay”). — AP

Foreign Policy

• The State Department is planning to shutter a dozen consulates abroad. — NYT
• President Trump is considering revoking temporary legal status for Ukrainians who fled to the US. — Reuters
• China’s top diplomat accused Trump of taking a “two-faced” approach to bilateral ties and called his tariffs “evil” during a Friday briefing. — Bloomberg
• Pope Francis released his first audio message since he was first hospitalized three weeks ago.

Media

• The Social Security Administration blocked several media outlets, including The New York Times and the Washington Post, from government-issued devices. (Exempt from the ban: Axios and Politico.) — WIRED

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

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum holds a press conference next to a blown-up image of her X post about the USMCA tariff reprieve.

Anthropic is calling on the White House to tighten chip export controls and oversee national security-related model testing as the AI race between the US and China heats up, Semafor’s Rachyl Jones reports.

The startup is among the first tech companies to publicly respond to the Trump administration’s request for input on an action plan to make the US as the global AI leader.

Anthropic’s top suggestions include increasing security on domestic and foreign AI models and keeping chips out of adversaries’ hands by restricting semiconductor exports.