Washington, DC

1. Bessent hits the trail
2. Fundraisings to watch
3. Iran war expands
4. WH plays up Iran talks
5. Health cost worries rise
6. Big SCOTUS week

PDB: Palm Beach airport to be renamed after Trump

Trump attends Chicago opening night at Kennedy Center … Average gasoline price hits $4 a gallon … Hegseth to hold presser

Bessent’s back on the campaign trail

Republicans have an unlikely asset on the campaign trail in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The department chief visited New York’s Long Island Monday to tout newly enacted tax deductions and kids’ savings accounts across two of the country’s most competitive congressional districts, speaking with business owners and others in Nassau County where House Republicans’ campaign arm is targeting current Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen. If congressional Republicans hadn’t passed the party’s megabill, “we would have had the biggest tax hike in history,” Bessent told one attendee. He added that the savings accounts, known as Trump Accounts, “may end up being [Trump’s] great legacy” because they will “make the system work for everybody.” Bessent, who made a similar trip to Texas ahead of the Senate primary, is eyeing additional visits in the run-up to the midterm elections.

— Eleanor Mueller

What to watch this fundraising quarter

The year’s first campaign fundraising quarter ends at midnight tonight, and candidates and political action committees with good quarters will rush to announce their hauls. Candidates with nothing to brag about, however, can wait until the April 15 disclosure deadline. One Republican to watch tonight: Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who held a Ron Paul-style “moneybomb” on Monday to raise as much as possible; his Trump-backed primary foe raised $1.2 million last quarter. On the Democratic side, keep an eye on Michigan’s US Senate primary, where public health expert Abdul El-Sayed has proven competitive with Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow. Both rivals went after El-Sayed for scheduling an appearance with divisive Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, after which the Democratic hopeful saw a donation spike on ActBlue.

— David Weigel

Iran attacks point to expanding war

President Donald Trump threatened attacks on Iran’s water infrastructure while Tehran struck a Kuwaiti desalination plant and fully laden oil tanker off the Arab nation’s coast, further expanding the war beyond military targets. Gulf nations are highly reliant on desalination for fresh water, and damage to the region’s hundreds of plants would render its major cities unlivable, The Associated Press reported; attacks by any side could constitute war crimes. The tensions came as both sides maintained their strikes against one another, with Iran reporting explosions nationwide, while Israel and Dubai said they intercepted Iranian attacks. Still, oil prices fell and stocks rose following a Wall Street Journal report that Trump was mulling a swift end to the conflict.

White House plays up Iran negotiations

The Trump administration is talking up negotiations with Iran — while planning for contingencies should mediation prove impossible, officials say. On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized that the “remaining elements of the regime” have become more “eager” to negotiate, and downplayed public talk from Tehran suggesting otherwise. It’s still unclear to what degree the White House’s comments are part of a misdirection effort, as many of Trump’s allies suspect, coming as the Pentagon masses thousands of troops in the Middle East. The White House says it’s still trying to figure out whether the individuals they’re negotiating with can actually implement any sort of peace deal. “That’s part of the ongoing process that’s taking place,” Leavitt said, adding that anything Tehran says privately “will be tested” to ensure it can be taken at face value.

— Shelby Talcott

Health costs a bigger worry than economy

Americans are more anxious about affording health care than they are about inflation, according to new polling from Gallup that explores Americans’ top domestic policy concerns. Health care polled as Americans’ top issue for the first time since 2020, with 61% of US adults reporting they worry a “great deal” about its availability and cost. Half of Americans are “very worried” about inflation, and about the same share have a lot of concerns about the US economy overall. Still, the number of Americans who say they’re seriously worried about the economy has actually eased since the start of last year, driven by relief among Republicans as Trump settled into his second term. Health care affordability is likely to be a top issue on the campaign trail, after lawmakers failed to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expired last year.

Guide to outstanding SCOTUS cases

Today kicks off a potentially attention-grabbing week for the Supreme Court: The high court may issue opinions today at 10 am and is set to hear arguments on Trump’s birthright citizenship order tomorrow. A number of high-profile decisions remain outstanding, including a case involving Louisiana’s gerrymandered congressional map that could erode the Voting Rights Act. The justices heard arguments in that case last October, and later heard disputes over campaign finance limits and Trump’s ouster of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the FTC, in December, both of which have yet to be resolved. And the White House is still waiting for the court to rule on Trump’s effort to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook; the court appeared likely to side with Cook in oral arguments in January.

Can tiny homes — and tiny-home mortgages — solve the housing crisis? America needs millions more homes. Private-equity firms, red-tape nightmares, and homebuilders’ profit motive are all to blame. One startup, an offshoot of Airbnb, has a solution: Fully-built, crane-plopped tiny homes in your backyard. On this week’s episode of Compound Interest, presented by Amazon Business, Liz and Rohan dive into how Samara is trying to redefine what housing looks like, and whether it’s the start of a new asset class for Wall Street.

Blindspot: Podcasts and religion

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: Second lady Usha Vance launched a podcast focused on encouraging children to read.

What the Right isn’t reading: Immigration advocates are trying to personally appeal to conservative Supreme Court justices by invoking religion in briefs opposing President Trump’s birthright citizenship order, CNN wrote.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: President Trump is capitalizing on GOP infighting over the DHS funding crisis to press his case for getting rid of the filibuster, and has raised the issue directly with Senate Majority Leader John Thune in recent days.

Playbook: “A series of special elections and GOP primary battles in April and May will test not just the mood of the Republican Party, but also Trump’s vise-like hold upon it.”

WaPo: “The Iranians should ask the last Ayatollah if President Trump means what he says,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.

Axios: “I’ve been speaking about the frame of the American dream for years. And I think you have to acknowledge that there’s a flaw,” especially for lower-income Americans, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in an interview.

White House

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill naming Palm Beach’s airport after President Trump, hours before the president unveiled his plans for a skyscraper-shaped presidential library.

Congress

• Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., sent a cease-and-desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel after reports the agency could potentially release files from a decade-old investigation into Swalwell’s ties to an alleged Chinese operative.
• California Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff demanded more information on TSA’s collaborations with ICE.

Outside the Beltway

• Washington state enacted a new millionaire’s tax.
• California sheriff Chad Bianco, who’s also running for governor as a Republican, paused his investigation into alleged election fraud in last year’s special election.

Campaigns

• Former GOP Rep. Mark Sanford is launching a comeback bid for his old congressional seat in South Carolina.

Polls

• A new poll commissioned by the group Unite America found that a majority of Louisiana voters oppose the state’s new closed-primary system, according to the results shared first with Semafor.

Business

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to make a multimillion-dollar investment in defense companies shortly before the outbreak of the Iran war. — FT
• The CEO of Air Canada resigned after he was unable to offer consolatio