Principals

1. Congress watching DOGE
2. Budget moves
3. Trump v. Zelenskyy
4. Trump’s Russia energy gambit
5. Archives vacancy
6. Bernie to Iowa
7. Congress approval rises

PDB: Senate tees up final Patel vote for today

G20 meeting kicks off in South Africa without Rubio …Trump says Feds should ‘take over’ DC … Hamas hands over bodies of Israeli hostages

Senate GOP wants a say in DOGE overhaul

One month since Donald Trump took office, congressional Republicans have so far rallied behind his move-fast-and-break-things approach to slashing federal agencies. But a growing number of GOP senators say they want the White House to consult Congress if DOGE pivots from layoffs to more structural changes — particularly when it comes to merging the FDIC, CFPB and comptroller, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller and Burgess Everett report. “The president’s within his purview of doing what he’s doing on personnel,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “But when you get into structural reform — for example, consolidating the regulators for banking — that’s a whole different story.” Others say they also want legislators to formalize spending cuts: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Vice President Vance on Wednesday to send Congress a “recissions” package. ​​“There’s no doubt Congress will be involved,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said.

GOP’s confusing budget battle continues

Senate Republicans are powering on with their plan to do a border-defense bill first and turn to tax later — no matter what President Trump says. The president came out (again) for the House’s plan to throw all of the party’s priorities in one bill, but after meeting with Vice President Vance on Wednesday, Senate GOP leaders decided to keep going. Trump has “made it clear for a long time that he would prefer one big beautiful bill,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune. “We believe that the president also likes optionality.” The Senate is expected to go into a long vote-a-rama on budget amendments tonight and finish up sometime Friday — without any agreement with the House. “We keep getting told … he says he wants one, but is really fine with two,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. “I can’t quite figure out what we’re doing.”

— Burgess Everett

Outrage over Trump’s Zelenskyy attacks

Trump’s attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Wednesday spurred outrage in Ukraine and exacerbated fears in Europe. Trump labeled Zelenskyy a “Dictator without Elections” on social media, suggested Zelenskyy was responsible for the war Russia started and made false claims about the Ukrainian leader’s popularity. Zelenskyy, whose country is heavily reliant on US aid, shot back, describing Trump as “surrounded by disinformation.” Trump’s comments drew rare Republican pushback, too. The row was magnified by the fact that it occurred after Trump’s team met with Russia about ending hostilities, with Europeans notably absent. And it begs the question: How can Zelenskyy turn things around? One European official called Trump’s attacks on Zelenskyy “worrying” but suggested the Ukrainian leader avoid responding to Trump at all. The Ukrainian president is due to meet with US envoy Keith Kellogg today.

— Morgan Chalfant

The risks of Trump’s Russia energy gamble

Trump’s potential rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine could deliver a major victory for Russia’s oil and gas companies — at the expense of their American competitors. The Kremlin is keen to see the US lift energy sanctions, and the countries agreed to work toward “historic economic and investment opportunities,” possibly including the return of Western oil majors to Russia. Isolating and damaging Moscow’s energy sector has up to now been a core strategy of Ukraine and its Western allies. But Trump seems to turn more aggressively against Ukraine by the day. Normalizing energy relations with Russia now would be a huge gamble that could easily backfire, both for Trump’s desire to be known as a peacemaker and for the US energy sector, analysts told Semafor’s Tim McDonnell.

Who will head the National Archives?

Trump has vacancies to fill after he pushed out the National Archives’ leadership, but some of the names being floated are making clear they’re not interested. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said he will never return to government work. Meanwhile, John Solomon, a conservative commentator who fueled unsupported allegations about the Bidens and Ukraine, sounded equally uninterested: He told Semafor that he has “not been contacted by anyone in the Trump White House, nor have I expressed any interest in any government jobs. My mission right now is to focus on the journalism at Just The News and keep growing our company.” The National Archives and its former leader likely drew Trump’s ire because of the agency’s prominence in the Justice Department investigation into his handling of classified documents.

— Shelby Talcott

Sanders kicks off anti-‘oligarchy’ tour

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will kick off a tour of rallies against “oligarchy” this weekend in Omaha and Iowa City. Instead of campaigning for candidates (or himself), he told Semafor, he plans to appear in districts represented by congressional Republicans but won or narrowly lost by the Harris-Walz ticket — and he’ll urge people to “call their members of Congress and say … ‘This is insane. We’re not going to vote for tax breaks for billionaires and cut Medicaid and education.’” Republicans are vulnerable, he said, to the argument that they’re making cuts at the behest of Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man. And Sanders contended some Trump voters can be convinced the president isn’t delivering. “I will talk about a broken system, but I’ll talk about it in very different ways that Trump talks about it, and come up with very specific ideas.”

— David Weigel

Congress gets more popular

Nearly three-in-10 US adults approve of the job that Congress is doing, representing a 12-percentage-point spike since January, according to Gallup polling taken earlier this month. Republicans and independents are feeling more positive about Congress, following the Republican sweep of both chambers and the White House in the last election. The current 29% approval rating is Congress’ highest rating in almost four years and is largely driven by the 42-percentage-point increase in Republican voters’ approval, which made up for the 18-point decline among Democrats. Currently, 53% of Republicans approve of Congress’ job, while 26% of independents approve (up nine points). The same survey found Trump’s job approval rating relatively steady at 45%. We’ll see if the tug-of-war between the House and Senate over Trump’s agenda takes a bite out of those numbers.

Blindspot: Loans and bird flu

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: A federal appeals court blocked the Biden-era student loan relief program called SAVE.

What the Right isn’t reading: The USDA is trying to reverse firing notices for employees working on the federal response to the bird flu.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Republicans have drawn up a list of 10 Biden-era regulations that they plan to roll back using the Congressional Review Act in the coming weeks.

Playbook: Republican hawks pushed back — gently — against President Trump’s comments about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

WaPo: Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., suggested Trump’s comments about Zelenskyy are a negotiating tactic.

Axios: A new survey shows that CEOs are “more confident than they’ve been in three years, despite all the chaos in the headlines.”

White House

• President Trump signed a spate of sweeping executive orders late Wednesday building on his efforts in recent days to cut back the scope of independent agencies’ power. One calls for a mass review and culling of federal agency regulations under the auspices of DOGE, and a second orders the dismantling of “unnecessary” government entities, such as a task force on long COVID and the United States Institute of Peace.
• Another order signed Wednesday aims to strip “taxpayer-funded benefits” from undocumented immigrants, though they are generally not eligible for federal programs like SNAP.
• Trump contradicted the White House by saying that Elon Musk is in charge of DOGE.

Congress

• Aviation industry groups and unions asked Congress to pass emergency funding for air traffic control technology and staffers after recent crashes.
• The Senate is expected to vote on final confirmation for Kash Patel to lead the FBI later today.

Outside the Beltway

• The Trump administration is revoking federal approval for Manhattan’s congestion pricing plan. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated she will sue over the move.
• Tesla’s cavernous San Francisco showroom was swarmed by anti-DOGE protesters.

Health

• HHS, in one of its first acts under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., launched a new webpage reiterating the Trump administration’s restrictive definition of “sex.”

Economy

• President Trump hopes to strike a “wide-ranging deal” with China that goes beyond trade and includes issues like nuclear weapons security. — NYT
• A day after Trump acknowledged “inflation is back,” the Federal Reserve minutes for January showed officials agreed to pause any move to slash interest rates until inflation comes down and expressed concerns about the effect the Trump administration’s trade and immigration policies could have.

Courts

• A federal judge temporarily barred the CIA and ODNI from firing employees working on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
• Federal judge Dale Ho admitted he has “very little discretion” to impede the Justice Department’s effort to have charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams dropped, a signal he will allow the dismissal to go forward.

Polls

• The share of US adults who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something that isn’t heterosexual rose in 2024 to 9.3% — accounting for an increase of more than a percentage point over the prior year, according to Gallup. Younger Americans are more likely to identify as LGBTQ.
• Americans have net unfavorable views of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, according to the Pew Research Center.

National Security

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senior Pentagon leaders to lay out plans for cutting 8% from the defense budget annually for the next five years. — WaPo
• Some Republicans fear they could face credible threats of violence if they dissent from President Trump. — Vanity Fair

Foreign Policy

• President Trump is expected to host French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington next week.
• Denmark announced a significant increase in defense spending that will push it above 3% GDP annually.

Technology

• Apple unveiled the iPhone16e.
• DeepSeek is considering raising outside funding. — The Information

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Tom Reed is vice chairman of the Prime Policy Group and a former Republican congressman from New York. If you’re interested in tax policy, join us for Semafor’s event in Washington on March 6.