Principals

1. Behind the Trump “veepstakes”
2. Columbia protests escalate
3. Progressives back student protests
4. Dollar wreaks havoc
5. Broadband subsidies in peril
6. Gaetz’s primary challenger

PDB: Biden responds to Charlotte shooting

Biden campaigning in Wilmington … Israeli officials visit Cairo for ceasefire talks … NYT: Trump vents that his lawyer isn’t aggressive enough

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

How to watch the Trump veepstakes

Veepstakes speculation around Donald Trump is in high gear, with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum the latest name in the spotlight. But when it comes down to it, the “veepstakes” coverage is really something else entirely, writes Semafor’s Shelby Talcott: A map to the competing factions of the former president’s orbit. Trump himself is allergic to process, confident in his own mind, and if he’s made it up, he hasn’t told anyone. “99% of the people claiming they know who’s up or who’s down are either full of it or have their own agenda,” one person in Trumpworld texted Semafor. “The reality is the only thing Trump is truly focused on right now is his own trial.” And so different anonymous Trump whisperers offer different lists, in ranked order. One person close to Trump recently suggested Burgum, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Sen. Marco Rubio as the current top-tier options; another had Sanders swapped out for Sen. Tim Scott. Sen. J.D. Vance is often also named by folks in recent months, and one Trump aide expressed skepticism that Burgum would ultimately win the ticket. As for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — well, it’s not looking good.

Columbia suspends student protestors

The protests at Columbia University escalated overnight as a group of demonstrators took over an academic building on campus and barricaded themselves inside. A statement posted on social media said the protesters had “taken matters into their own hands” and would remain inside Hamilton Hall — which has a history of student activist takeovers — until the school divests financially from Israel. Earlier, the university said it had started suspending students demonstrating against the Gaza war after they defied orders to clear out from the campus’ protest encampment. The university’s failure to quell the protests has led to bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill, where House Republicans are planning a new investigation and a vote on a bill later this week that would change the definition of antisemitism to beef up the Education Department’s ability to utilize anti-discrimination laws. The measure has some Democratic cosponsors but is likely to split the party. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is encouraging Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on a different bill that would instead establish a White House coordinator to lead a task force addressing antisemitism.

Progressive groups endorse campus protests

Nearly 200 progressive organizations endorsed a statement “in solidarity with the students nationwide and globally who are bravely protesting in encampments.” Organized by progressive activist Yasmine Taeb and released on Monday, the letter was co-signed by anti-war groups like the American Friends Service Committee, and by organizations that work in Democratic primaries — including Justice Democrats, the Working Families Party, and the Bernie Sanders-founded Our Revolution. All of them officially “condemn the university administration officials’ violent response” to protests to stop “the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza” and demand the removal of “police and other militarized forces from their campuses.” Many of these groups took the same approach to the racial justice protests of 2020, when they were joined by the entire Democratic Party leadership. They’re facing a different environment now, as some Democrats visit the protests, and others — including House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — condemn reports of antisemitism on campus and endorse legislation to step up federal enforcement against it. Wary Democrats are conscious of the risks of associating with an unpredictable grassroots movement: Republicans used their support for the 2020 protests to associate their candidates with the most radical ideas associated with them in ads. Republican attacks often cited “defund the police” statements from progressive organizations, like Planned Parenthood Action Fund, when the groups endorsed Democrats in later races — even years after the fact.

– David Weigel

The strong dollar becomes a global problem

The strong US dollar is creating some financial jitters around the globe. As the New York Times notes, “every major currency in the world” has now fallen against the greenback in 2024. Investors are betting that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates high to deal with sticky inflation, which has made U.S. assets more appealing and pushed up the dollar’s value. That has thrown a kink into other countries’ plans to cut rates in the face of sluggish growth, since it would risk depressing their own currencies further. The situation has been particularly troublesome in Asia, where it’s pushed Japan to the edge of a crisis. The country is heavily dependent on food and energy imports that have been made more expensive as the yen has slid. On Monday, Tokyo propped up the yen after it briefly hit a 34-year-low against the dollar, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Lawmakers rally to save high-speed internet subsidies

Time is ticking for lawmakers to save a federal scheme that offers cheap high-speed internet to poorer families. Payments under the Affordable Connectivity Program, which currently gives 23 million households up to $30 a month to defray the cost of broadband, are set to be cut by half starting next month as funding begins to run dry. Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., will lead a Tuesday rally to drum up support for a bipartisan $7 billion bill to extend the pandemic-era program. The legislation, which is set for a Senate Commerce Committee markup Wednesday, counts some swing-district House Republicans among its supporters: A spokesperson for Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told Semafor he was “committed to extending the ACP” and “continues to have conversations with leadership” on holding a floor vote for the bill. The White House has called on Congress to extend the subsidies since late last year. But some argue the damage from letting them expire would be limited: Conservative economist Paul Winfree argues, for instance, that 84% of current beneficiaries would still keep their internet.

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig

Matt Gaetz’s last-minute challenger

Matt Gaetz has a primary challenger. Former Navy aviator Aaron Dimmock launched a last-minute primary bid Friday to run in Florida’s 1st District against the congressman, filing moments before the deadline. He’s the latest challenger to the group of eight members who voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker — and Gaetz is almost certainly the one McCarthy would most like gone. Dimmock did not respond to several requests for comment but lists two current employers, one of which is the Missouri Leadership Academy, where he serves as a director, according to his LinkedIn profile. The prospect of removing a seven-term incumbent is low — “ZERO CHANCE,” as one Republican operative put it, citing Dimmock’s out-of-state ties and early opposition research. Gaetz is already on offense with an X post linking to a Daily Caller article going over a Dimmock’s social media accounts and finding professional posts supporting DEI initiatives and using a #blacklivesmatter hashtag. “I knew former Representative McCarthy would be getting a puppet of his to run,” Gaetz wrote. “I didn’t know it would be a Woke Toby Flenderson!”

— Kadia Goba

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Members of the House Freedom Caucus aren’t signing onto Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, and will instead find other ways to retaliate against him for votes on FISA and Ukraine aid like opposing rules.

Playbook: President Biden and his aides view a potential ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as “the first necessary step in a chain of potentially virtuous actions that, in the best case, could remake the Middle East and help him win reelection.”

Axios: An unofficial group of Senate conservatives known as the “Breakfast Club” is hoping to influence the race for the next Senate GOP leader.

White House

• President Biden will hold a campaign event today in Wilmington, Del.
• Biden spoke with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt about ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed worries on a phone call with Biden Sunday about the prospect of the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and asked Biden to help prevent it from happening. — Axios
• The White House promoted two communications aides to its economy team. — Bloomberg

Congress

• Lawmakers are already working on a bipartisan bill that would retaliate against the ICC if it issues arrest warrants against Israeli officials. — Axios
• Lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia are predictably angry that the compromise FAA reauthorization bill includes 10 additional flight slots for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. “The provision will overburden the already congested main runway at DCA and, as shown by a recent near-collision at the airport, increase the risk of a serious accident there,” Democratic Sens. Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Chris Van Hollen, and Ben Cardin wrote in a letter to colleagues.
• The House Republican conference boasts some “adrenaline junkies” who have the added burden of worrying about their slim majority growing even narrower when they’re skydiving or motorcycling. — WSJ

Outside the Beltway

Four law enforcement officers on a U.S. Marshals task force were shot and killed in Charlotte, N.C., while trying to serve a warrant to a convicted felon wanted for firearm possession. President Biden spoke with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles yesterday to offer support, the White House said. “They are heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Biden said in a statement overnight, reiterating his call for gun control measures like a ban on high-capacity magazines.

Economy

• The US should galvanize support among countries like Brazil, Canada, and Japan for “harmonized tariffs” that target certain Chinese imports in order to respond to China’s surplus in manufacturing capacity, President Biden’s former top economic adviser Brian Deese argues. — WaPo
• The American dream — of upward financial mobility, owning one’s own home, and retiring in a measure of comfort — is increasingly out of reach, new research showed.

Courts

• The Supreme Court won’t hear Elon Musk’s effort to challenge an agreement he reached with the SEC that the tech billionaire claimed violated his right to free speech.
• A federal appeals court in Virginia ruled that state healthcare plans must pay for gender-affirming surgeries, and that restrictions on the treatments are discriminatory.

Polls

• President Biden leads Donald Trump by double digits among consumers of traditional news media — composed of newspapers, cable news, and national network news programming — while the two are basically even among consumers of digital news media, according to an NBC poll. Meanwhile, Trump leads Biden among Americans who don’t follow political news at all 53% to 27%.
• Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin and Bob Casey in Pennsylvania are leading their opponents in their re-election campaigns, according to new polls from CBS News.

On the Trail

• Donald Trump has expressed doubts about GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake’s political prospects in Arizona and “shown annoyance with her frequent presence at his Florida resort.” — WaPo
• Sources tell us that RNC spokeswoman Emma Vaughn is leaving for a private firm downtown; the RNC didn’t respond to a request for comment. — Shelby Talcott

Foreign Policy

• Roughly a dozen nations have sought guidance from a new team at the State Department on how to respond to so-called “economic coercion” tactics from China. — Bloomberg
• The US expects to spend $320 million building a floating pier off the Gaza coast to expand humanitarian aid shipments.
• A group of lawyers (including some working in the Biden administration) plans to call on President Biden to halt arms deliveries to Israel because they argue the country is not complying with international law in Gaza. — Politico
• The State Department determined that five Israeli security units committed human rights violations before the war against Hamas in Gaza. While the US said four of the units have “remediated” the violations, officials are still considering whether to restrict assistance to the one remaining.

Climate

The G7 nations tentatively agreed to shut down their coal power plants by 2035.

Media

• The conservative network One America News retracted a story that claimed attorney Michael Avenatti said that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen had an affair with Stormy Daniels.
• Lawyers for Hunter Biden are demanding Fox News take down sexually explicit material obtained from his laptop, arguing it’s a violation of privacy. They haven’t filed a lawsuit, however.
• Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish is leaving the company as merger talks with Skydance Media continue. He will be replaced by three division heads in a so-called “Office of the CEO.”

Big Read

Georgia’s Plant Vogtle is the largest nuclear plant in the US now that a new reactor at the site has begun commercial operations, but sticker shock and delays there have upended long-term prospects for nuclear power in the country, The Wall Street Journal says. The first two reactors at the Southern Co.-owned facility cost over $30 billion — more than double initial estimates — and are a major reason why there is no development of large nuclear plants and the industry has shifted to smaller designs. In response to Vogtle’s issues, utilities have pursued small molecule reactors, which could be cheaper alternatives because they can be produced in a factory and shipped to sites to help achieve economies of scale. However, no one has delivered an SMR in the US and the industry still needs to prove they are cost-effective and can be completed on time.

Blindspot

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: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis skipped the Democratic Primary debate for her position and left her challenger to debate an empty podium.

What the Right isn’t reading: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said his state would ignore President Biden’s changes to Title IX to add protections for transgender students, calling the adjustments “illegal.”

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

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