Washington, DC

1. No ‘authorization’ necessary
2. Trump’s Iran options
3. Bernie’s campaign tour
4. Johnson’s mixed week
5. Liberals to boost content creators
6. China’s (soft) power play

More than 80% of S&P 500 companies have surpassed first-quarter earnings estimates.

Trump tells Congress Iran war authorization unnecessary

President Donald Trump notified Hill leaders today, the 60th day of the Iran war, that US hostilities with Tehran are over — for now — and thus don’t need congressional authorization, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. It’s a significant message to Republican lawmakers who have grown increasingly anxious and, in some cases, open to a debate over Trump’s authority to continue the conflict under the War Powers Act. That statute requires Trump to seek authorization from Congress to continue the war after 60 days, or to notify lawmakers of a 30-day withdrawal period. Instead, Trump sent a letter outlining “changes in the posture” of US forces in the region, confirming the administration’s plans to reset the War Powers Act clock if conflict resumes. Meanwhile, he told reporters that “I don’t think it’s constitutional” for lawmakers to seek an authorization debate.

Trump ‘not satisfied’ with Iran’s new offer

While Trump tells Congress that hostilities in Iran have “terminated,” he’s still in negotiations to end the war. He told reporters today the US has two options: “Do we want to go and blast the hell out of them and just finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal?” Trump said he prefers a deal, but that he’s “not satisfied” with a new proposal Iran shared through Pakistani mediators, without providing further details. Though Iran softened on some of its positions, the two countries remain far apart on key issues, The Wall Street Journal reports, including Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. As the stalemate drags on, the global energy shock is hitting home: Gas prices surged 30 cents a gallon nationally this week to prices not seen since 2022.

Bernie continues on Senate Democratic primary romp

Sen. Bernie Sanders helped get his guy through in Maine — and now it’s off to Michigan and Minnesota, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. The progressive stalwart will campaign for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan this weekend, just a couple days after Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of her race against Sanders-backed Graham Platner. Sanders told Semafor that “Platner is somebody who’s standing up to big money and fighting for the working class … that is a force that is not going to be defeated.” He denied, however, that he’s motivated by challenging candidates preferred by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: “It’s not a question of Schumer. It’s a question of establishment folks who work with the moneyed interests in status quo politics versus those of us who stand with working families and understand the status quo is not working.”

Johnson’s wins don’t solve his deeper problem

Speaker Mike Johnson can tout legislative wins after a grueling week, including a budget blueprint to fund the Department of Homeland Security and a farm bill. But Johnson’s deeper problem remains: He can’t afford to lose nearly any Republicans on a vote and the conference is deeply divided —and not growing closer. Johnson told reporters yesterday that over the last week he ran into “irreconcilable demands” in the conference “and so it takes a long time to work through that and get people to consensus, but we do that patiently.” His conference, though, is losing patience with him. When members return from recess, Johnson will have to revisit sticky policy questions he managed to only barely punt, including the renewal of foreign surveillance powers and ethanol provisions, the latter of which pit lawmakers from agriculture and oil-rich states against each other.

— Nicholas Wu

Progressive megadonors bet big on content creators

The progressive movement’s largest donor network plans to invest “tens of millions” of dollars in new media sources, Semafor’s David Weigel reports. “It became crystal clear after 2024 that we collectively had relied too much on forms of media that were not reaching people,” said Pamela Shifman, the president of Democracy Alliance. “Too much focus on paid advertisements, too much focus on broadcast television, and that is simply not where the majority of people consume their news.” Founded in 2005 to pool the resources of liberal funders, the Democracy Alliance has put more than $2 billion into think tanks, media outlets, and pop-up electoral campaigns. In 2024, the alliance invested in ground operations to flip House seats in New York and California, but it couldn’t stop Republicans from winning a governing trifecta. Now they’re looking in a new direction.

View / China’s soft power play in Africa

China’s scrapping of tariffs on imports from 53 African countries, which takes effect today, is a soft power masterstroke. On the face of it, the policy marks a major market access opportunity for the continent, and positions Beijing as a trusted ally in stark contrast to Washington, which has wielded tariffs punitively. It also comes with a warning: The omission of Eswatini over its diplomatic ties with Taiwan is a reminder that crossing Beijing’s red lines has consequences. But look beyond the headlines and the reality is that China’s new approach is unlikely to change much tangibly in the short or medium term. Still, African countries will likely welcome the reduction in tariffs, and they should. But Beijing’s magnanimity isn’t going to transform the continent’s economy. That’s going to be a lot harder.

He went from selling his own plasma to running a YouTube channel with over 7 million subscribers. Johnny Harris, YouTube creator and Newpress co-founder, joins this week’s Mixed Signals to talk about how he built a sustainable business around difficult topics without chasing the outrage that drives so much attention online, and why millions of people are obsessed with longform video explainers.

White House

• President Trump confirmed the US sent weapons to Kurdish fighters in Iraq for delivery to Iranian opposition groups, adding he was “not happy” with reports the weapons ended up elsewhere.
• Trump signed an executive order expanding US sanctions on Cuban officials. — Reuters
• The Pentagon announced new agreements with Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon to use the companies’ AI tools on classified networks.

Redistricting

• Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia ruled out cancelling a May 19th primary and said he won’t rush to redraw maps ahead of the midterm elections. — AJC
• Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama called a special session of the legislature in hopes the Supreme Court will rule favorably on its redistricting case, following Louisiana’s this week.

Politics

• Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, vetoed a bipartisan voting bill that would have let absentee voters track their ballots.
• A new poll finds the Iran war is as unpopular with the US public as Vietnam. — WaPo

Washington

• The Trump administration asked the NFL’s Washington Commanders’ charitable foundation to take over operations at a historic Black golf course that was previously maintained by a different nonprofit. — WaPo

Congress

• A jury convicted David Rivera, a former Republican congressman from Miami, of illegally lobbying on behalf of Venezuela during the first Trump administration.
• Millions of Americans have dropped Obamacare coverage since Congress allowed subsidies to expire. — NYT

Business

• Spirit Airlines is getting ready to shut down after negotiations with the Trump administration on a potential bailout package fizzled out. — WSJ

World

• Pope Leo XIV has selected a former undocumented immigrant who was smuggled into the US in a car trunk to serve as bishop of West Virginia. — WaPo
• Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said she didn’t know when elections would be held: “Some time.” — NYT

— ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, who previously described the country as “uninvestable.”