Principals

The Semafor World Economy Summit wrapped on Friday, after three days of newsy interviews with top CEOs, Trump administration officials, and foreign government representatives. We rounded up our top political highlights here, for this special weekend edition of Principals.

1. Griffin’s Trump warning
2. Schumer’s prediction
3. FDA won’t pull mifepristone
4. Bannon wants DOGE audit
5. Burgum defends monument review
6. LaHood weighs Senate bid
7. DOE chief on nuclear
8. Bennet’s Schumer distance

PDB: Rubenstein says CEOs avoid public Trump criticism

Mourners, world leaders bid farewell to Pope Francis … Trump and Zelenskyy meet at the Vatican … Judge says two-year-old deported ‘with no meaningful process’

Ken Griffin sounds alarm on tariffs

Citadel CEO and founder Ken Griffin slammed the Trump administration’s tariffs in rare critical comments to Semafor’s Gina Chon. He accused President Donald Trump of alienating US allies, making Americans poorer, and forcing businesses to focus on their supply chains rather than growth. “President Trump has an incredibly good sense of where problems lie,” Griffin said Wednesday. “But we’re moving too quickly, we’re moving too haphazardly, and we’re breaking a lot of glass in trying to solve some very real problems.” Griffin, a major GOP donor, was not the only executive to express anxiety about the Trump administration’s policies: Neuberger Berman CEO George Walker told Semafor’s Liz Hoffman that the tariffs are causing investors to search for opportunities in Europe and elsewhere. “The dialog around American exceptionalism can return when there’s greater certainty with regards to policy,” Walker said.

Schumer predicts Dem victory in 2026

Chuck Schumer offered a bold prediction for the 2026 elections: He’ll be back as majority leader after them. “The electorate will desert the Republican candidates who embraced Trump in an overwhelming way,” Schumer told Semafor’s Burgess Everett on Wednesday. Trump “is alienating people left and right.” To be sure, it’ll be a tough feat for Democrats, who need to pick up four seats and defend competitive ones in order to win back the Senate majority. Schumer also shrugged off talk he could face a primary challenge from progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Polls always come and go, I’m focused on making sure the people of New York and the people of America know how bad Trump is, and I have found throughout my career, you do your job and everything works out just fine,” he said.

FDA head says ‘no plans’ to restrict mifepristone

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary said he has no plans to restrict the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone, earning him a rebuke from at least one GOP senator. Makary staked out a firmer position than he did during his confirmation hearing earlier this year — at that time, he pledged to a “review of the data” without committing to specific action — but still left open the door to future action. “So if the data suggests something or tells us that there’s a real signal, we can’t promise we’re not going to act on that data,” he said Thursday. Makary also claimed that the American public would “warmly” welcome a move by the Trump administration to withdraw the government’s recommendation for children to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Bannon says Musk should release fraud accounting

Steve Bannon wants Elon Musk to make clear to the public what fraud and waste in the federal government has been uncovered before he leaves Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. “We need to have a very specific accounting of what he found, as far as fraud goes and waste, and I mean details,” the former White House chief strategist told Semafor’s Ben Smith on Wednesday. “None of this makes sense.” Bannon also said he wants a letter of certification showing that no one has taken any data from the government. “Trust, but verify,” he replied, when asked whether he lacks trust in Musk not to take data. Bannon also urged the White House to follow through with raising taxes on millionaires, amid reports that Trump is considering endorsing such a move.

Burgum says monument expansion ‘choked’ Western states

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended the Trump administration’s move to potentially scale back national monuments in Western US states, accusing past administrations of rushing to create them in the final weeks of a president’s term. In some cases, Burgum told Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant on Friday, tribes and other local stakeholders were not properly consulted. “We have Western states that are being choked because they have so much public land, and there’s so much overreach by the federal government and overlap between federal agencies and state agencies,” Burgum said. Interior is conducting a “thorough review” of monuments that could be scaled back, he said, though he didn’t offer a timeline for a decision. Burgum also said he was “very confident” that the administration would prevail against any legal challenge to its plans to fast-track approvals for oil, gas, and mining projects.

LaHood considers running for Durbin’s seat

Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., told Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller that he’s been encouraged to run for outgoing Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat. “You don’t often have an open Senate seat in the state of Illinois: They come about every 25 years,” LaHood said Friday. “We’ve had a lot of people reach out to us, and so we’re going to take a hard look at it and we’ll make a decision at the appropriate time.” Durbin announced earlier this week that he plans to retire, ending his tenure as the longest-serving Democratic whip. His decision will open up a Senate seat, as well as a crucial position in Senate Democratic leadership. LaHood may face a tough fight for the seat; several Democrats are rumored to be considering bids, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) has already announced her own.

Inside the energy secretary’s plans for a nuclear ‘renaissance’

Energy Secretary Chris Wright acknowledges he’s not the first policymaker to say so, but he’s confident that the Trump administration can usher in a “renaissance” for nuclear power. Wright told Semafor’s Elana Schor on Friday that he’s planning to deploy money Congress already authorized to help boost long-moribund domestic uranium enrichment, and he also indicated he’d welcome more incentives from GOP lawmakers as part of the party’s still in-flux tax bill. Wright also sounded a positive note on the $44 billion Alaska liquefied natural gas export project the administration is looking to kickstart with commitments from LNG buyers in Japan, Thailand, and Korea. And he downplayed the negative effect of the president’s tariffs on the oil and gas industry, where he served as CEO of Liberty Energy before joining Trump’s Cabinet.

Michael Bennet and the Democrats’ ‘disaster’

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., has some choice words for Democrats. “The Democratic Party has been repudiated. We lost to Trump twice,” he told Semafor’s Burgess Everett on Friday. “That begs the question about what it is we are presenting to the American people.” Bennet made no secret of his frustrations about the Senate (an “employment agency,” he said) or the Democratic Party. Bennet is the odds-on favorite to win as he pursues his state’s governorship, but he still has to deal with a Democratic primary — and that requires introspection. Asked if Schumer is still the right guy to lead Senate Democrats, Bennet responded: “We should be assessing that constantly and we need to figure out where we’ve let people down,” he said. “We’re going to have to correct that and it’s going to require us to make some uncomfortable decisions.”

Congress

• Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., said House Republicans should marry two major cryptocurrency bills together before they advance to the House floor for a vote.

Education

• The Trump administration’s attack on Harvard will harm the school’s global contributions and fail to achieve the goal of combatting antisemitism on campus, former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the lead member of the Harvard Corporation, said.
• The Justice Department abruptly restored thousands of student visas.

Transportation

• There should “absolutely” be consequences for government lawyers in congestion pricing filing snafu, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

Business

• President Trump’s aggressive response to public criticism is helping to silence those business leaders who disagree with his economic policies, Carlyle Co-Chairman David Rubenstein said.
• Mattel’s CEO said toys should be exempt from global tariffs.

Courts

• A Milwaukee judge was arrested and charged with two felonies for allegedly trying to help a migrant avoid being arrested in her courtroom.
• Former New York Rep. George Santos was sentenced to 87 months in prison for fraud.

National Security

• Sebastian Gorka said the White House would soon release a counterterrorism plan.

Foreign Policy

• A return to the pre-trade war status quo between the US and China is “inconceivable” under the Trump administration, the Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer said.
• Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd called on the US and China to quickly complete a trade deal.

Correction

An earlier version of this newsletter misstated where the Milwaukee judge arrested by the FBI is from.

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 isn’t the only one fighting to keep OpenAI a nonprofit.

More than 30 individuals, including Nobel laureates, former OpenAI employees, and law experts, submitted Wednesday a 25-page letter to the attorneys general of California and Delaware, asking them to block OpenAI’s proposed restructuring to a for-profit entity, Semafor’s Rachyl Jones reports.

While Musk’s argument revolves around a breach of contract claim, the central issue remains — that OpenAI abandoning its nonprofit structure violates its original charitable mission.