Washington, DC

1. US strikes Iranian targets
2. Trump’s inflation challenge
3. Capitol Hill’s schedule crunch
4. Dem bills target Trump
5. Trump’s medical checkup
6. Pope on AI

PDB: Massie’s next move?

Cornyn, Paxton face off in runoff … Vance hosts state AGs for fraud meeting … Israel intensifies Lebanon strikes

Iran peace talks grow more complicated

The path toward a peace deal with Iran is growing more complicated after the US carried out what it characterized as defensive strikes against Iranian military installations and vessels. The Monday strikes came hours after President Donald Trump said talks to achieve a longer ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz were “proceeding nicely.” Diplomats are maintaining the push for peace, with Iranian and Pakistani officials in Qatar for talks, but Washington and Tehran remain far apart on issues like Iran’s nuclear program. “It’ll take a few days,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. As Trump endured criticism from Republican hawks over the potential emerging deal, he pushed to widen the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and the broader Middle East. However, Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are quietly pushing back on that suggestion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump short on inflation solutions

Aside from ending the Iran war and scrapping his sweeping tariffs, Trump has few good options for reining in inflation — let alone lowering prices as he’s promised, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller reports. The president points to the strength of the economy prior to the Iran war as proof that prices will sink as soon as the war definitively ends. But there’s little the executive branch can do to unilaterally lower prices, as former President Joe Biden can attest. “Trust me, if presidents had that dial on the Resolute Desk, they’d be turning it all the time,” said Jared Bernstein, who chaired the former president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Said Scott Lincicome, vice president of economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, of what is within Trump’s power: “There’s death by 1,000 cuts; this is the opposite, it’s life by 1,000 Band-Aids.”

GOP faces major pileup before midterms

Republicans are running into a sudden new problem after punting on their immigration enforcement bill: time. It’s not clear how Republicans will handle opposition to the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund when they return in June; some think they may need to rethink how the bill is devised given its exposure to amendments that will touch on the controversial fund. “I think it’s salvageable,” argued Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “Reconciliation is way too important to not do.” It’s one problem on a longer list of challenges that the GOP has dwindling floor time to address. The Senate is scheduled to be in just eight weeks until the August recess, then just three weeks in the fall before the midterms, while the House will be in for 10 weeks ahead of the election.

— Burgess Everett

Schiff takes on Trump’s $1.8B fund

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is pushing two pieces of legislation aimed at the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” according to details first shared with Semafor. One would ban payouts — including from the congressionally approved Judgment Fund — in lawsuits brought by the president or vice president, retroactive to January 2025. The second proposal would prevent the fund from paying the president and vice president, lawmakers, congressional staff, political appointees, senior executive branch employees, and presidential campaign employees. Schiff will introduce both bills next week and may try to attach them as amendments to Republicans’ party-line immigration enforcement bill, according to a person familiar with his strategy. In a statement, Schiff called the fund “the most brazen act of self-dealing corruption we’ve ever seen. We need to shut it down before he uses it to pay cop beaters, cronies and other criminals.”

— Burgess Everett

Trump heads to Walter Reed

Trump will head to a doctor’s appointment at Walter Reed Medical Center this afternoon — his third checkup in just over a year, and an occasion that could renew questions about his health. Trump turns 80 years old this summer and is the oldest president to be inaugurated. Last year, he was diagnosed with a condition that can cause blood to settle in the legs, and he is also often photographed with a bruised hand, which has invited scrutiny from critics (White House aides have attributed the bruising to “shaking hands every day”). Trump’s doctors maintain he’s in great health, though the White House has offered limited details about his condition. To be sure, Trump’s age “has not become a political liability as it did for his predecessor,” as Bloomberg notes. Today’s visit will include both medical and dental, according to NBC News.

— Shelby Talcott

Pope calls for disarming AI

Pope Leo XIV could be headed towards another clash with Trump, this time over artificial intelligence. In his first encyclical as pope — which stretched to more than 40,000 words — Leo called for governments to prevent the technology from “dominating humanity,” and warned that “merely regulating it is insufficient.” “Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed,” Leo reiterated to a crowd at the Vatican yesterday. “The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen.” His warnings about unchecked AI stand in contrast to Trump’s hands-off approach to the technology; the president recently backpedaled on plans for an executive order that would create a framework for vetting powerful models because he feared losing an edge to China. Leo also aligned himself with Anthropic, which has feuded with the Trump administration over guardrails around AI use in the military. Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah joined him at the Vatican yesterday.

Blindspot: Disney and Epstein

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: The FCC is seeking public comment on Disney’s request that The View be exempt from political equal time rules.

What the Right isn’t reading: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick donated $5 million to a super PAC supporting House Republicans before he testified behind closed doors to Congress about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. 

If you ski or snowboard, you probably have an opinion on Rob Katz’s business. On this week’s episode of Compound Interest, presented by Amazon Business, Vail CEO Rob Katz joins Liz and Rohan to talk about the criticisms of crowding, lift lines, and pricing of the season pass that changed winter sports forever. Plus, they discuss why the company doesn’t hedge weather, how the industry’s high-end clientele complicates customer relations, and why he isn’t hearing Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince’s bid to buy Park City.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Super PACs whose funding is obscured are pouring money into Democratic primaries to boost House candidates who Democrats view as weaker general election picks.

Playbook: Republicans warn that President Trump’s decision to back Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in today’s Senate runoff could turn off “major GOP donors who will be critical during an expensive general election.”

Axios: Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s longtime aide Mike Needham is being elevated to White House deputy national security adviser.

White House

• In comments to President Trump earlier this month, Chinese leader Xi Jinping lambasted Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for her country’s push towards “remilitarization.” — FT

Congress

• Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., who has been absent for weeks, is calling Republican officials but hasn’t given any details on his health. — NYT

Outside the Beltway

• Pope Leo XIV apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church for legitimizing slavery.

Campaigns

• Fresh from his primary loss, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said he’d filed papers to run for his House seat in 2028, but says he hasn’t made a final decision.
• Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., denied rumors she’s retiring. — Axios

Economy

• Traders are “pricing in that the Fed is virtually certain to start raising rates by December.” — Bloomberg

Courts

• Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche asked a court to allow the resumption of White House ballroom construction on security grounds, citing a shooting near the White House over the weekend.

Foreign Policy