Principals

☞ White House: Vice President Harris heads to Florida today. She’s gearing up for a meeting with the prime minister of Mongolia Wednesday.

☞ Senate: Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., have written to the Commerce Department, in a letter first obtained by Semafor, pushing the agency to move faster to establish a supply chain database for manufacturers, included in last year’s CHIPS and Science Act, so they can retool to produce critical goods in the event of another national emergency.

☞ House: Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors that his former business partner Hunter Biden put Joe Biden on speakerphone with his business associates on various occasions, according to lawmakers, but didn’t substantiate the unverified bribery claim at the center of the GOP’s investigation. Republicans pointed to the testimony as evidence that Biden lied about his lack of knowledge about his son’s business dealings. Democrats like Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y. emphasized that Archer told them the conversations had nothing to do with business matters and were purely “casual.”

☞ Outside the Beltway: Miami has an overflowing trash problem that’s making it harder to attract new wealthy residents and workers.

Donald Trump said he expects special counsel Jack Smith to indict him on charges related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “any day now.” The former president lost a separate battle in Georgia to get evidence tossed out and disqualify the district attorney investigating his attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.

Democratic primary voters widely prefer Biden over his long-shot challengers, according to a new New York Times/Siena College poll, but half of them would still like to see the party nominate a different candidate than in 2024 (down from 64% a year ago).

U.S. Space Command headquarters will remain in Colorado Springs after Biden reversed a Trump administration decision to relocate it to Huntsville. The move comes as Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. continues to hold up hundreds of military promotions to protest a Pentagon abortion policy. House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who had already been investigating the delay in the administration’s final decision, accused the administration of playing politics. “This fight is far from over,” he said.

A White House advisory board recommended a series of modest reforms to a key foreign surveillance tool known as Section 702 while warning that a failure by Congress to renew it would expose the U.S. to threats from cyberattacks, terrorism, and foreign influence operations. Some lawmakers on the right and left worry that some Americans end up surveilled under the provision. A White House official told Semafor the administration would discuss the issue with members of Congress and staff throughout the August recess.

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt says she’s looking at several weeks of recovery after experiencing sudden numbness in her face due to a swollen nerve.

— Morgan Chalfant and Jordan Weissmann

Punchbowl News: The House GOP’s big tax package hasn’t moved beyond the Ways and Means Committee yet because Republicans are worried they don’t have the votes. The biggest impediment? Disagreements over whether to add the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, Punchbowl reports.

Playbook: Politico analyzes Trump’s money problems, writing that the former president’s burn rate on legal expenses could “bedevil” his campaign further into the election cycle when he needs that money to compete against Biden in the general.

The Early 202: The Washington Post looks at why the super PAC supporting DeSantis is dominating fundraising.

‘This belongs in the Smithsonian’: Inside the meme video operation that swallowed Ron DeSantis’ campaign

Senior aides to Ron DeSantis oversaw the campaign’s high-risk strategy of laundering incendiary videos produced by their staff through allied anonymous Twitter accounts, a set of internal campaign communications obtained by Semafor reveals.

The videos include two that have created recurring distractions for his campaign in recent weeks: an anti-Trump video that featured a fascist symbol, and another that attacked Donald Trump for past comments supportive of LGBT rights.

The meme-filled videos emerged from a Signal channel called “War Room Creative Ideas,” screenshots of which were shared with Semafor and whose authenticity was confirmed by a second source familiar with the campaign.

The chat in Signal, an encrypted messaging app, offers the first clear look into the “war room” that has defined the Florida governor’s candidacy, and is presided over by his high-profile and confrontational director of rapid response, Christina Pushaw. The correspondence obtained by Semafor also offers a glimpse of a strategy that mixes digital aggression and (unsuccessful) attempts to keep the campaign’s own activities secret. The messages were set to disappear after one week.

Screenshots of the “War Room” chat reviewed by Semafor included staffers praising a widely-derided and since-deleted video — originally posted on an anonymous account, “Ron DeSantis Fancams” — that included a version of the Sonnenrad, a symbol associated with Nazi Germany.

“This belongs in the Smithsonian,” wrote Kyle Lamb, the campaign’s director of research and data, before the video blew up in the campaign’s face. He was among the 38 staffers laid off in recent weeks amid a campaign “reset.” Messages viewed by Semafor also show members of the War Room group actively sharing images to put in the video while it was in the editing process, though not the Sonnenrad symbol that was in the final version.

Pushaw used the Signal group to spread content to anonymous allies, the chat shows. She told junior staffers that they should keep making meme videos, while other aides also said they wanted to push out more videos, according to the person familiar with the campaign. The chat included other senior staffers among its dozen-plus members, including press secretary Bryan Griffin.

The DeSantis campaign declined to answer questions about their staff’s role in overseeing the videos and whether DeSantis had directed any changes in the campaign in response to the subsequent firestorm around them.

The news comes as the “War Room,” and Pushaw in particular, have been under special scrutiny amid complaints from inside and outside the campaign that its message has been too erratic and focused on esoteric online fights that distract from the candidate’s own message. The Signal group suggests that other top DeSantis aides were, at minimum, looped in on her work with the “War Room.”

In a Monday interview with Fox News, DeSantis defended the premise of the anti-LGBT video posted by ProudElephantUS, saying it was based on legitimate criticisms of Trump’s record.

“These things get shared, or whatever — and look, I’m responsible for it. Don’t get me wrong,” DeSantis said. “But the idea that I was sitting there, like — oh, share this video? No. It’s a rapid response thing.”

To read more of this story, including David and Shelby’s View and a Room For Disagreement, click here.

DeSantis criticizes Trump’s COVID spending as he unveils economic plan

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis looked to give his White House campaign’s reboot a little momentum Monday by unveiling a 10-point economic plan during a speech in New Hampshire.

Promising to cut taxes, challenge China’s rising influence, and loosen regulations on fossil fuel production, DeSantis’ pitch varied little from Donald Trump’s policy wish list (a point the Trump campaign was eager to make). But he also took some notable — if slightly indirect — shots at the former president’s economic record.

Here are four pieces that stood out to us.

He viciously subtweeted Trump’s pandemic-era economic record. DeSantis took aim at emergency COVID spending during his speech, blaming Congress and the Federal Reserve for imposing “a massive tax increase on Americans” through inflation during the speech.

Virtually every Republican attacks Biden’s share of COVID spending, but DeSantis also assailed the 2020 CARES Act in a Q&A, arguing it “underwrote lengthy lockdowns” and kept people out of the labor force in Democratic states by providing generous federal benefits during the pandemic. DeSantis refrained from mentioning Trump’s name as he criticized his record. But his press team, as has often been the case, was a bit more explicit about the attack: Rapid response director Christina Pushaw tweeted that, unlike Trump, DeSantis “isn’t going to lock down the country and add $8 trillion to our debt.”

DeSantis is all in on cryptocurrencies. The crypto-friendly Florida governor vowed to block the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, or a digital dollar, arguing it threatens individual liberty. “Biden’s war on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will come to an end when I become president,” DeSantis said.

Borrowing from the left on student debt. DeSantis said he favors allowing students to discharge their debt if they declare bankruptcy, a proposal with support in liberal policy circles. He also reiterated that he believes universities should be penalized if their students eventually default on their loans. “I think the university should be responsible for the student debt. You produce somebody that can be successful, they pay off the loans, great. If you don’t, then you’re going to be on the hook,” he said.

YIMBY DeSantis? DeSantis plugged measures he signed into law earlier this year meant to expand affordable housing and limit some restrictive zoning codes in Florida, which is still enjoying a population boom. “The reality is our demand far outstrips anywhere else and so we’re working hard to keep up with it,” he said. Unmentioned: His administration also fought Gainesville’s abandoned effort to eliminate single family zoning.

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig

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• The filing from former President Trump’s Save America PAC reported spending large amounts of money on legal bills from about 40 different firms in the first six months of 2023. The legal spending contributed to a sky-high burn rate: As Politico notes in its analysis, Trump’s network of fundraising committees collectively raised nearly $54 million during the first half of the year — by far the most of any Republican candidate —but his campaign and PAC burned through $57 million. The super PAC supporting him, MAGA Inc., also refunded $12 million to Save America PAC to help with legal bills.
• Chris Christie is raking in money from big Wall Street donors, according to a fundraising report filed Monday. His Tell it Like it Is PAC received $250,000 from Jeff Yass, a business magnate who owns a stake in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. The PAC also received $100,000 from Anthony Scaramucci (who Semafor reported was backing the New Jersey governor in May), $250,000 from David Tepper, and $100,000 from Harlan Crow (the billionaire who’s recently been in the headlines thanks to Clarence Thomas). The committee has about $5.5 million cash on hand.
• Yass also donated a total of $600,000 to the Opportunity Matters Fund Action PAC backing Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.,while billionaire Nelson Peltz donated a combined $80,000 to the same PAC. Private equity investor Mark Rowan contributed $250,000 to another PAC backing Scott, Trust in the Mission. Scott’s joint fundraising committee, Tim Scott Victory Fund, received $11,600 from Ross Perot. Collectively, they have over $15 million.
• Never Back Down, the super PAC backing Ron DeSantis, also benefited from cash from wealthy donors like businessman Robert Bigelow and venture capitalist Douglas Leone. The PAC has almost $97 million cash on hand, more than its rivals.

— Morgan Chalfant

Lynne Weil, a veteran Washington communications hand and journalist, tells Semafor she’s striking on her own and forming a new consulting firm, Citrus Strategies, that will offer a wide range of services. Its motto: “When life hands you dilemmas, make dilemma-nade.” She most recently held a leadership role at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

— Benjy Sarlin

Jim Banks is a Republican congressman from Indiana who is running for Senate in 2024.

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

WHAT THE LEFT ISN’T READING: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law a bill that allows non-citizens to become police officers in the state, generating criticism from Republicans.

WHAT THE RIGHT ISN’T READING: Former Trump doctor Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas was “briefly detained” over the weekend while attempting to aid someone having a medical emergency at a Texas rodeo. According to Jackson’s spokesman, law enforcement let him go once they realized he was trying to help.

• “Barbenheimer” memes have taken over the internet, but Japanese moviegoers aren’t laughing. After public outcry, Warner Bros. Japan slammed its U.S. counterpart for embracing the trend.
• Africans applying to study in the U.S. face higher rates of visa refusal than people from other regions, a new report showed.
• 2024 is shaping as the first election of the age of fragmentation, with no single dominant platform for candidates to reach voters.