Washington, DC

1. Trump seeks China trip delay
2. Iran war tests Fed
3. US-EU split widens
4. Senate weighs voting bill
5. New antitrust proposal
6. Ireland’s data center play
7. Illinois primary day

PDB: Mills knocks Platner with new ad

Trump hosts Ireland’s Taoiseach, attends Friends of Ireland Luncheon … Israel says Iran’s national security chief killed in airstrikes … Axios: Witkoff to brief senators on Iran

War obstructs Trump’s foreign policy plans

The ongoing conflict with Iran is getting in the way of President Donald Trump’s other foreign policy plans. On Monday, Trump told reporters that he’s asked to delay his upcoming March 31 visit to China by “a month or so” because of the war. “I have to be here, I feel,” Trump said — a relief for Chinese officials frustrated by Washington’s scattershot planning. The president’s next steps on Cuba are also up in the air: He’d said Sunday that Iran will need to come first, but told reporters Monday he will have “the honor of taking Cuba” at some point and “can do anything I want” with it. That could include demanding the ouster of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, The New York Times reported.

— Shelby Talcott

Iran conflict tests Fed’s dual mandate

The Federal Reserve must grapple today with how to weigh surging oil prices against shrinking payrolls in its first meeting since the Iran war began. Policymakers were already split over whether to prioritize persistent inflation or lackluster employment. Now, “the war increases both the risk that earlier rate cuts will eventually be needed to address labor market softening and the risk that a higher inflation path will delay cuts,” Goldman Sachs analysts write. The central bank is expected to leave rates untouched tomorrow. That will likely draw ire from Trump, who told reporters Monday the Fed should hold a “special meeting” to cut rates “right now.” He also attacked a judge for thwarting his administration’s attempt to subpoena the central bank, writing on Truth Social: “How is this absolutely terrible Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, not even allowed to be investigated?”

— Eleanor Mueller

Europe rebuffs Trump’s calls for support

A transatlantic split is growing over the Iran war, as more European nations reject Trump’s calls for allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. As oil and gas facilities across the Middle East suffered fresh attacks, holding crude prices above $100 a barrel Tuesday, a meeting of European leaders was “near-unanimous” in opposing Trump’s request for naval support, Politico reported; even traditional US allies such as Poland and the UK are unreceptive. France said it could send aircraft carriers, but only after the fighting stops, while the EU’s top diplomat echoed Germany’s defense minister, saying “this is not Europe’s war.” Though the Strait remains effectively closed, Iran appears to be allowing “a trickle” of ships through, preventing worse energy price rises, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trump wants help escorting ships through the waterway, but the International Maritime Organization said that would not offer sufficient safety.

Voter ID bill faces pivotal Senate vote

Senate Republicans may need Vice President JD Vance’s vote to get their voter ID and citizenship requirement bill on the Senate floor later today. Not everybody is happy about that. “There’s a certain amount of disappointment among some of my colleagues. We should have 53 out of 53” Republicans, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told Semafor. “If you’re a Republican not voting for that, I’m not sure how you still think of yourself as a conservative Republican.” Indeed, GOP leaders are focused on getting the 50 votes needed to win the initial roll call. “I’m doing everything I can as whip to make sure we get on this bill,” said Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo. After that, Republicans plan to spend days litigating the bill against Democrats before moving to a decisive vote to break a filibuster. “As long as it takes,” Moreno said.

— Burgess Everett

Dems seek tighter oversight of antitrust reviews

The blast radius from the Justice Department’s much-criticized settlement with Live Nation is widening. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is introducing legislation today that would expand the judiciary’s abilities to approve — or reject — antitrust settlements, and give state attorneys general a say into federal settlement approvals, Semafor’s Rohan Goswami scoops. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is pursuing companion legislation in the House. Live Nation squashed calls for a full divestiture of Ticketmaster, including from within the Justice Department’s antitrust division, instead settling with the DOJ days before trial. The result was a promise to get rid of a handful of concert venues and pay $280 million in fines. With Live Nation, “the American people got the raw end of the deal,” Klobuchar said. The bill is unlikely to go anywhere in the Republican-controlled Congress, but it’s on-brand for Klobuchar, who is now running for Minnesota governor.

Ireland seeks slice of AI boom

Irish companies are trying to get in on the AI data center boom in the US. Jenny Melia, CEO of Ireland’s government trade agency, Enterprise Ireland, is in DC this week amid the St. Patrick’s Day festivities to tout Irish investment in the US and find new opportunities for Irish businesses. On Monday, she met with Irish companies that are devoting millions to Amazon’s data center buildout in states like Virginia and Texas. Melia told Semafor that Trump’s economic policies haven’t dampened Irish investment in the US — quite the opposite. Irish companies “have a very strong confidence in the US market and the growth opportunity that’s in the US,” she said, noting that her organization has helped companies navigate tariffs by encouraging market diversification and increased US investment. Asked about the Iran war, Melia said companies are “still assessing” the impact on their costs.

— Morgan Chalfant

Dems vie for Durbin’s seat

Illinois Democrats will pick nominees for an open Senate seat and four safe House seats today, after running campaigns sometimes overwhelmed by money from outside PACs. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., has vastly outspent fellow Democrats Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly in the Illinois Senate primary to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin and leads both in polls; Gov. JB Pritzker seeded a super PAC to help Stratton, while Kelly’s House colleagues called it unfair of Pritzker to support one Black woman over another. The race for Krishnamoorthi’s open 8th District and three others in Chicago and its suburbs have seen tens of millions of dollars in spending by PACs affiliated with crypto, AI, and the pro-Israel group AIPAC. PAC spending has propped up former Rep. Melissa Bean, who faces progressive challenger Junaid Ahmed in the race for Krishnamoorthi’s seat.

— David Weigel

Blindspot: Iran and Cuba

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: President Trump was briefed on intelligence suggesting Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, may be gay, The New York Post reported.

What the Right isn’t reading: Cuba’s deputy prime minister told NBC that the country plans to allow Cuban nationals living abroad to invest in the domestic private sector.

David Ulevitch leads Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, a $1.776 billion pot dedicated to defense, energy, public safety, and other national priorities. This week, Compound Interest co-hosts Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami talked with Ulevitch about whether those industries deserve their conservative coding, why venture capital — with its roots in capital-light code — has a right to win in heavy industry, and why he doesn’t want the “moral liability” of deciding how the Pentagon uses the weapons Silicon Valley is building.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: NRCC Chair Richard Hudson will today present the results of a major House Republican research project seeking to understand which messages resonated with Hispanic voters in 15 battleground seats across the US in 2024.

Playbook: “There was no political interference” from President Trump in Netflix and Paramount’s tussle to take over Warner Bros., Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in an interview: While Trump was “curious about the mechanics of things and how things were going to go or whatever… he made it very clear that this was under the DOJ.”

Axios: Only around 60% of Americans now say they trust the government’s childhood vaccination recommendations, down from 71% last June, the Axios-Ipsos American Health Index found.

WaPo: “Because Illinois is one of the most gerrymandered states in the Union, today’s primaries will likely decide the state’s representation in Congress for years to come.”

White House

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