Washington, DC

1. Trump eyes AI order
2. GOP grapples with Iran votes
3. Letlow gathers support
4. Trump trades controversy
5. Dems’ oversight challenge
6. US backs Bolivia’s Paz
7. Struggle for Stars and Stripes

PDB: Nvidia’s record revenue 

Senate expected to vote on reconciliation package … DOJ teases ‘major’ Minnesota fraud announcement … Oil back above $100 after Iran says surrender a ‘delusion’

Trump to sign order on AI models

President Donald Trump could sign an executive order as soon as today that will invite the private sector to share some AI models with the federal government 90 days before releasing them to the public. The White House has already briefed firms including OpenAI and Anthropic on the order’s contours, which were first reported by Axios, and plans to host CEOs for an event marking its release. Government entities including the Treasury Department and the National Security Agency could be involved in the voluntary process, which would be far less stringent than had initially been discussed. Officials moved earlier this month to assure tech firms the Trump administration would not require them to submit their AI models for review, even after others had raised concerns that the models have become advanced enough to pose systemic risk.

— Eleanor Mueller

Congress grapples with Iran measures

Both the House and Senate are struggling with war powers resolutions as GOP lawmakers get antsy about the ongoing Iran conflict and its down-ballot effects. The House GOP yanked a measure from the floor Wednesday due to a slate of Republican absences that could have allowed it to get over the finish line. After the last war powers vote in the House tied, and a Senate measure advanced on Tuesday after four Republican senators voted with Democrats, the dam may be close to breaking. Still, with full attendance in the Senate, Republicans are likely to be able to sink the war powers resolution in the upper chamber later. And one GOP House skeptic of the war, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told Semafor he’d vote against the House measure too: “I think this is all political. It’s not a substantive conversation at this point.”

— Nicholas Wu 

Senate Republicans back Letlow in runoff

A group of Trump-aligned Republican senators are jumping in Louisiana’s Senate race a few days after their colleague was eliminated, backing Rep. Julia Letlow in her runoff against Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, Semafor’s Burgess Everett scooped. Sens. Jim Banks of Indiana, Katie Britt of Alabama, Tim Sheehy of Montana, and Rick Scott of Florida are all backing Letlow, who won Trump’s endorsement earlier this year. That’s three vice-chairs of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Scott, a former chairman, backing Letlow, right after she won the endorsement of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise earlier this week. That show of muscle is a sign that Republicans want to put the primary to bed after Sen. Bill Cassidy’s loss — and show Letlow as the heavy favorite, after she won 45% of the vote in the first primary round.

Trump trades collide with Hill push

Trump’s recent flurry of stock trades promises to bog down efforts to pass a wildly popular ban on elected officials trading stocks. Vice President JD Vance said this week the president’s “wealth advisers,” not Trump himself, were the ones who made the more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, many of which involved companies Trump has interacted with. Indeed, one CEO told Bloomberg the volume is more on par with a hedge fund than an individual. But the revelations are still likely to leave Democrats more loath to support any stock-trading ban that doesn’t encompass the president — and Republicans wary of passing even a lawmaker-only proposal that might be seen as casting judgement. “The GOP will never support a ban that implies anything Trump is doing is wrong,” said Richard Painter, former President George W. Bush’s ethics lawyer, calling the trades “unprecedented.”

— Eleanor Mueller

Waters expects Trump to dodge Dem probes

The Trump administration is not likely to comply with House Democrats’ oversight attempts if they win the chamber in November, a senior caucus lawmaker acknowledged on Wednesday. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told Semafor that her party would seek to probe potential corruption focused on cryptocurrency and other administration proposals, if it wins the majority in November. But she underscored that she has little hope for Democratic queries getting a response. “Am I sure that the administration would comply with [what] our needs are? You know better than to ask that question. Of course not,” Waters said. Democrats have signaled plans to pursue various threads related to the Trump administration, as well as to focus on corporations that cozied up to the president. The lesson from his first term, however, is the Trump White House will fight those probes tooth and nail.

GOP senators back Bolivia’s Paz

Republican senators led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch are condemning violent protests in Bolivia against center-right President Rodrigo Paz, urging Bolivia’s citizens to adhere to peaceful demonstrations as the country’s leadership works to “overcome two decades of failed socialist economic policies.” The statement, signed by Risch as well as Sens. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, Rick Scott, R-Fla., and John Curtis, R-Utah, expressed strong US support for Paz’s government, days after a top State Department official described the protests against his leadership as “an ongoing coup d’état.” Paz, who has restored US-Bolivia relations, was elected last year on a promise to enact economic “shock therapy,” but his early moves — like ending long-standing fuel subsidies — are proving unpopular. The US senators called on the international community to join “Bolivian efforts to stabilize its economy and promote economic prosperity” in the statement, shared first with Semafor.

— Morgan Chalfant

Dems: Protect military paper’s independence

Democrats are trying a new strategy to undo the Pentagon’s restrictions on its independent news outlet, the Stars and Stripes newspaper, Semafor’s Max Tani scoops. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., announced plans to introduce new legislation barring the Pentagon from censoring Stars and Stripes stories unless they’d endanger service members’ lives, requiring the paper’s publisher to be a civilian, and forcing the department to grant Stars and Stripes access to some military events closed to the broader press corps. The paper exists within the Department of Defense but has historically operated independently. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has sought to impose sweeping restrictions on journalists’ access to the Pentagon, though the department said its changes to Stars and Stripes’ editorial content are meant to remove “woke distractions” and do not rise to the level of infringing on its independence.

On Thursday, June 11, Tim Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics, will join Semafor on stage for The Future of Philanthropy.

For generations, philanthropy has backed ideas ahead of their time — from early childhood education to breakthrough research that later became public goods. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the sector faces a pivotal moment: under increasing political scrutiny, it’s more vital than ever to expanding opportunity and driving innovation.

Semafor editors will host on-the-record conversations on how philanthropy can scale solutions for workforce mobility and community resilience. Featuring: Emma Bloomberg, Founder & CEO, Murmuration; Marla Blow, President & Chief Operating Officer, Skoll Foundation; Richard Buery, Jr., CEO, Robin Hood Foundation; Asha Curran, CEO, GivingTuesday; Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, Bipartisan Philanthropy Caucus; Steve Preston, President & CEO, Goodwill Industries International; and Stacey D. Stewart, CEO, MADD and former CEO, March of Dimes.

June 11 | Washington, DC | Request Invite

Massie fell because of US-Israel politics

When Thomas Massie raised a glass of raw milk from the “Amish cartel” to honor his late wife on Tuesday, I flashed back to the Tea Party wave of Barack Obama’s first term. And I remembered: Massie was never supposed to be here. Before he became Trump’s sharpest Republican critic in Congress, Massie was a libertarian scientist who hated government spending and the taxes that paid for it. He ran for Congress in 2012 as a foe of regulation and backer of the Balanced Budget Amendment; debt held by the public was then an unthinkable $11 trillion. (It’s $31 trillion today.) Had Massie only broken with Trump over the Epstein files, or his refusal to support deficit spending, he likely would have won another term. What finally beat Massie was his opposition to spending on Israel, and to military support for the Jewish state.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: “People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the president and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger earlier this week.

Playbook: “Democrats will force Republicans to vote on the real contents of their bill,” a Democratic Senate aide said of today’s expected vote on the GOP’s $72 billion reconciliation package. “Higher costs, masked raids, blank checks for war, secret payouts, cop-beater checks, ballroom favors, and Trump family corruption.”

Axios: Palantir is challenging the Defense Intelligence Agency with a bid protest, seeking to be allowed to compete for a contract to overhaul the Pentagon agency’s data analytics system, a filing showed.

White House