Principals

1. China begins Taiwan drill
2. DOJ targets Ticketmaster
3. Kenya state visit
4. Crypto’s big win
5. Haley backs Trump (again)
6. The other border vote
7. The roots of ‘Trumpnesia’

PDB: New swing-state polling shows Trump with an edge on Biden

Biden, Ruto to hold joint press conference … Stage collapses at Mexican election rally … NYT: Blinken urges White House to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US arms

— edited by Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann and Morgan Chalfant

China launches military drills around Taiwan

China launched military drills near Taiwan, exercises Beijing labeled “punishment” for what it described as the self-ruling island’s moves toward independence. Taiwan’s new president this week made what analysts said was a largely status quo inauguration speech — though he pointedly said Taiwan and China were “not subordinate to each other,” remarks that reinforced Beijing’s belief that he was a “separatist.” The drills will continue into Friday and involve surrounding Taiwan, practice for a blockade that some analysts believe would be the likeliest way Beijing will seek to take over the island, which it regards as a renegade province. Expect virtually everyone in Washington to have something to say about this, given the strong tide of bipartisan support for Taiwan and China criticism.

— Prashant Rao

Justice Department looks to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster

The arc of the moral universe is long, but apparently it bends toward pissed-off Swifties. The Justice Department and several state attorneys general intend to file an antitrust suit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster later today, Bloomberg first reported, to break up the entertainment behemoth. The case will focus on its control of the concert ticket business. The Biden administration previously opened an investigation into whether the company was violating the terms of previous settlements with both the Obama and Trump administrations under which it promised not to punish rival music venues that used other ticketing platforms. Fans and artists alike have long complained about Ticketmaster’s steep fees, but the company found itself under renewed scrutiny after it botched ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in late 2022.

US, Kenya deepen ties at state visit

President Biden will tell Congress he plans to designate Kenya a major non-NATO ally during President William Ruto’s state visit, a symbolic but significant move to recognize the African nation as it sends forces to Haiti and backs Ukraine. The presidents will ink a new clean energy framework and release the “Nairobi Washington Vision,” a joint statement that calls for helping developing nations tackle debt, according to a senior Biden administration official; a meeting yesterday yielded a new partnership on semiconductors. Amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine, it’s a rare moment in the Washington spotlight for Africa: the last state visit for an African leader took place in 2008. “It’s no secret that the world has had a lot going on,” the official said, adding the administration is “pretty proud” of its Africa record.

— Morgan Chalfant

Major crypto bill opposed by Biden passes House

The crypto world scored its biggest win yet on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the House for the first time passed comprehensive legislation to regulate digital assets. The measure won over 71 Democrats and 208 Republicans despite opposition from the White House, which said it lacked “sufficient protections” for investors. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., argued the bill was a “well-reasoned, thoughtful” attempt to create overdue “rules of the road” for crypto. The legislation would grant a top industry wish by putting the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in charge of most crypto regulation, rather than the more aggressive Securities and Exchange Commission — an approach SEC Chair Gary Gensler warned Wednesday would create dangerous “regulatory gaps.” The bill may be a longshot in the Democratic-controlled Senate, though industry advocates took heart that Biden didn’t explicitly promise a veto.

Nikki Haley is voting for Donald Trump

Nikki Haley announced she’ll vote for Donald Trump in November, citing his positions on the economy and the border. “Trump has not been perfect on these policies, I have made that clear many many times,” Haley said at the Hudson Institute, which she joined after suspending her own presidential bid in March. “But Biden has been a catastrophe.” When she suspended her campaign, Haley challenged Trump to earn her and her supporters’ vote, a demand she repeated Wednesday even as she implicitly conceded he’d done nothing to meet it. If anything, Trump actively antagonized her and derided her supporters, who continue to cast protest votes. The move keeps her tethered to the GOP, but makes her the latest ex-rival to begrudgingly back Trump after denouncing him in stark terms and berating him for attacking their family.

Border plan runs into U.S. and Mexican elections

As Chuck Schumer sets up a doomed vote today on a border bill, President Biden is widely expected to announce executive actions after it fails. But the American political calendar is complicated by Mexico’s presidential election on June 2; a move before then could prompt pushback from candidates who don’t want to look subservient to Washington on migration issues. Biden’s hesitance to this point is likely to “not to be seen as interfering in any way” in the contest to pick President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s successor, Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, told Semafor. Mexico’s cooperation is key to any border strategy — a recent crackdown there is already credited with reducing U.S. crossings. The most likely timeline for Biden’s moves: After Mexico votes, but before the June 27 debate.

— Kadia Goba

Pollsters diagnose young voters with ‘Trumpnesia’

Trump has been around so long that he’s aging out of some of his most divisive comments, a new polling memo from Democratic firm Blueprint argues. Only 42% of 18-30 year old voters recall Trump’s demand for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the U.S., for example. Which makes some sense: That freshman you see at the campus protest was likely nine or 10 years old when it happened. The Access Hollywood tape is still the best-known episode out of two dozen they tested, with 62% saying they’ve heard of it and an equal percent saying they were “bothered” by it. The memo notes that comments seen as denigrating women and minorities were the most upsetting to Gen Z, like the time Trump said “the Black population” identified with him because they saw his mugshot photo.

Today’s trends and tomorrow’s tactics for empowering a global workforce.

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Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to publicly pressure Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a joint address to Congress has put the Senate leader in a difficult position with his own party. Johnson’s people are “eyeing a Netanyahu speech before the August recess.”

Playbook: House Republicans are pressing forward with “election integrity” bills with a vote and a separate markup planned for today on measures preventing noncitizens to vote. But even some Republicans are unsure about Johnson’s decision to move forward with this push. “Generally, elections are state-by-state decisions,” said moderate GOP Rep. Don Bacon.

WaPo: The New York Times report that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s vacation home displayed the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which was carried by rioters on Jan. 6, is triggering scrutiny from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Alito “is identifying the right-wing elements in our political system. And that’s unfortunate. It’s further evidence of the need for him to recuse himself from cases that involve the Trump administration,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin said. He said he wasn’t sure if the committee would hold hearings.

Axios: One reason working-class voters might be unhappy with the economy under President Biden: fast food prices have skyrocketed.

White House

• President Biden and Kenyan President William Ruto will hold a joint press conference in between their bilateral meeting and the state dinner this evening.
• Biden celebrated the Senate confirming his 200th judicial nominee. He wants to notch more than the 234 that Donald Trump confirmed in his term.

Congress

• Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is joining the race to succeed Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as Senate GOP leader. Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., the current GOP whip, and former GOP Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, are also running for the job.
• House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told the GOP conference behind closed doors that the House will try to pass a dozen partisan appropriations bills before August. — Politico
• House Republicans are apparently hoping they can pass a party-line border bill next year through the budget reconciliation process — even though the past precedent there isn’t exactly promising.
• Reps. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Katie Porter, D-Calif., introduced legislation to force presidents and vice presidents to disclose their tax returns and any foreign payments they or their close family members received. — WSJ
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to hold a vote next month to set federal contraceptive protections. The Right to Contraception Act would protect access to contraceptives and a health care provider’s ability to distribute contraceptives and contraception-related information. – NBC
• The House select committee on China asked the Justice Department to open an investigation into potential state-sponsored Chinese doping ahead of this summer’s Olympics in Paris.

Outside the Beltway

Family members of victims in the Uvalde school shooting reached a $2 million settlement with the city and forecast plans to pursue new lawsuits against Texas public safety officials.

Economy

• JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon said the U.S. could see a “hard landing.” He added that the worst outcome could be “stagflation,” where inflation keeps rising while growth slows amid high unemployment. — CNBC
• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon predicted the Federal Reserve would not cut interest rates this year.

Polls

Donald Trump leads President Biden in six out of seven swing states, according to a new survey out this morning from the Cook Political Report in collaboration with BSG and GS Strategy Group. The two candidates are tied in Wisconsin. The poll also found that a majority of swing-state voters are more concerned about Biden’s handling of the economy than they are about Trump setting abortion policy.

On the Trail

• Donald Trump is taking his talents to the South Bronx today, where he’ll be holding his first rally in his hometown of New York in eight years. With Trump making gains with Black and Hispanic voters, his campaign says they’re eager to show he’ll court voters other Republicans have ignored.
• The RNC headquarters in Washington was locked down after a package containing vials of blood was sent to the building.
• Trump ally Ric Grenell met with Arab American leaders this week but it didn’t go well. He repeated Jared Kushner’s idea about turning Gaza’s waterfront into world class beaches, which “floated like a lead balloon in the room,” one participant recalled. — NOTUS
• Angela Stanton King, the head of Black voter outreach for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign, said she is leaving the post, citing an “increasingly hateful and divisive atmosphere.”
• New Hampshire political consultant Steve Kramer has been indicted on five counts, including bribery, intimidation, and suppression, for allegedly sending out a robocall that mimicked President Biden’s voice to thousands of voters ahead of the state’s primary in January.

Foreign Policy

• In a surprise move, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for a July 4 general election.
• British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said that the UK has evidence of China providing Russia with “lethal aid,” a statement that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan disagreed with.
• Norway, Ireland and Spain will recognize a Palestinian state, a move that provoked anger from Israel and caused it to recall its ambassadors to all three countries.
• Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the opening of an embassy in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, as international momentum for Palestinian statehood grows.

Technology

• The Commerce Department announced it will provide $75 million through the CHIPS and Science Act to Absolics, a company that produces semiconductor technology, to help support the construction of its new facility in Covington, Georgia.
• The independent Oversight Board for Meta Platform’s Facebook and Instagram apps has received more than 2,300 comments over whether the phrase “from the river to the sea” qualifies as hate speech because it is seen by some as a call for the elimination of Israel. The board agreed two weeks ago to consider the issue, and the deadline for comments ended late Tuesday. – NBC News

Media

News Corp and OpenAI have reached a $250 million multiyear partnership that will allow OpenAI to access current and archived articles from the media company’s outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, and The New York Post, amongst others.

Health

The CDC reported another case of bird flu in the US.

Big Read

Rich, politically appointed ambassadors often get cushy posts in Europe, but the White House thought former eBay and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman would be a better fit in Kenya, Politico says. The administration wanted more focus on commercial prospects in Africa, and Kenya is a tech hub on the continent with significant business potential. Whitman took the job, and her focus on commercial diplomacy — notably tech — is different from most U.S. diplomats who are more comfortable with security and governance matters. Kenyan President William Ruto, who now on a state visit to the U.S., toured Silicon Valley last year with Whitman. Her approach is what African nations have wanted from the Washington: A U.S. government focused on economic potential over political issues such as human rights and extremism.

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: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul is demanding former White House press secretary Jen Psaki sit for a closed-door interview in his panel’s investigation of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

What the Right isn’t reading: A hearing in Donald Trump’s classified documents case Wednesday got heated.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

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

Nancy Pelosi is a Democratic congresswoman from California and the former House Speaker.