Washington, DC

1. Democrats dubious of conventions
2. Trump’s Abraham Accords idea
3. Cabinet to Camp David
4. Debt delinquencies spike
5. Canada’s wartime help

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Dems try to cease ‘circular firing squad’

Minnesota Democrats will hold their party convention this weekend, as national Democrats weigh the utility of them after Michigan became a spectacle, Semafor’s Burgess Everett, Nicholas Wu, and David Weigel report. The main event is between Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan for the party’s Senate nomination. Flanagan is favored to win the state party endorsement, and her campaign and allies are urging attendees to be respectful and avoid a replay of the boos and jeers in Michigan. Democrats are running these calculations nationwide: Both Democratic senators in Colorado skipped their party assembly, and Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., is trying to survive after a poor showing at his. Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin told Semafor that it matters how Democrats present themselves at these events: “I’m kind of done with Democrats being a circular firing squad.”

White House calls Abraham Accords a deal ‘complement’

The White House is qualifying President Donald Trump’s call for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey to normalize relations with Israel as part of any deal to end the Iran war. Asked whether those nations’ participation in the Abraham Accords would be a must-have for any agreement, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly described it instead as a potential accompaniment. “As the President said, the Abraham Accords have provided massive economic benefits to all countries involved and enabled historic cooperation, so this would be a natural complement to a peace deal,” she said in a statement. Trump, who counts the accords as a major achievement, suggested the new nations sign on during a Saturday call with Gulf leaders, reportedly surprising them. Twinning the two issues would run into serious difficulty — or, as one person close to the White House put it, “screw the whole thing up.”

Trump gathers Cabinet at tense moment with Iran

Trump is gathering his Cabinet for a rare meeting at Camp David tomorrow at a tense moment in the war with Iran. Iran’s military is talking big — threatening to retaliate against the US for sinking two of its ships yesterday — but its top negotiator remains at the table, a sign a deal is still possible. Though Tehran is adamantly against giving Trump a victory on its nuclear program, the regime is in desperate need of economic relief, The Wall Street Journal reports. The White House is also eager to reopen the Strait of Hormuz; the Navy is again assisting ships through the strait today, with a Greek supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude crossing the waterway off the Omani coast. Trump’s team faces a pressing question tomorrow: how to keep the progress going.

Debt delinquencies rival Great Recession

Consumer sentiment is sinking and household data from the Federal Reserve suggests one reason why: Americans are struggling to keep up with their debt payments, as the cost of borrowing money increases. Delinquencies on auto loans, credit cards, and student loans have surpassed or are hovering just below where they were during the peak of the Great Recession, according to an analysis of first-quarter Fed data by financial analyst Mike Shedlock. There’s still a glimmer of good news: Defaults on mortgages and home equity lines of credit remain far lower. But mortgage interest rates just hit a nine-month high and are expected to continue rising as Federal Reserve members consider hiking interest rates to curb inflation.

US relied on Canada during Iran war

In the early days of Operation Epic Fury, the US faced a crisis helping its citizens evacuate from the region. Improvising, American diplomats in Abu Dhabi phoned a friend: Canada, Semafor’s Kelsey Warner reports. No formal agreement exists between the countries on consular services, so a plan was hastily arranged for the Canadian embassy to serve as a pickup point for new and renewed US passports so citizens could evacuate. That the US turned to Canada is surprising, given the countries’ strained relationship under Trump. But the Canadians “did not hesitate. The answer was an immediate yes,” a senior State Department official told Semafor. “We were kind of stuck,” the official added. “We had all these passports arriving by FedEx from the print facility in the United States,” but “we didn’t have a location to give them out.”

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White House

• President Trump said his “6 month physical” at Walter Reed “checked out PERFECTLY.”
• The Trump administration is proposing federal workers sign non-disclosure agreements to crack down on leaks. — WaPo
• Vice President JD Vance hasn’t put X back onto his phone since he deleted it for Lent, as Semafor’s Ben Smith first reported. — NBC

Campaigns

• California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer paid progressive influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina $400,000 to boost him, Semafor’s Max Tani reports.
• South Carolina’s Senate rejected a Republican plan backed by President Trump to redraw congressional districts and restart congressional primaries already underway, preserving the district of Democratic Rep. James Clyburn.

Immigration

• New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill criticized federal immigration authorities for trying to “ratchet [tensions] up” with protesters at a facility in Newark.

Courts

• A federal court ruled Alabama’s new voting map discriminates against Black voters and can’t be used so close to the November elections, a decision the state is expected to appeal.
• The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in a dispute over what federal immigration judges can publicly say about immigration, and it tossed an attempt by Florida to sue Western states for issuing commercial trucking licenses to drivers who don’t speak English.

Business

• SpaceX hiked the Pentagon’s drone connection cost for Starlink by fivefold after the start of the Iran war. — Reuters
• BP ousted chair Albert Manifold over “serious concerns” about his conduct.

Congress

• The Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to more than 250 companies calling for them to express support for voting rights and oppose redistricting efforts that seek to eliminate majority-Black House districts.

Technology

• Federal law enforcement agencies are monitoring and labeling anti-AI and anti-data center activism as potential “anti-tech extremism.” — WIRED
• According to Israeli researchers, Iranian hackers were responsible for a computer breach of Los Angeles’ transit system in March, which caused the city to shut down part of its network.

Energy

• The Trump administration is moving forward with a plan to give startups Cold War-era plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads to turn into fuel for nuclear power plants.

World

• China’s EV exports to Europe surged 36% in April.
• Wary of President Trump, Iceland is weighing joining the European Union. — NYT
• Syria’s leadership has located remnants of former President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program.

— Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in response to the question of whether Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton can beat Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Graph Massara and Lauren Morganbesser, copy editors

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