Washington, DC

1. Johnson visits White House
2. SCOTUS releases four decisions
3. State leads Venezuela response
4. Miran’s successor testifies
5. Zagging from AI

Bayer ▲ 17% after the Supreme Court restricts lawsuits over Roundup.

Johnson meets with Trump to break logjam

Speaker Mike Johnson met with President Donald Trump at the White House this afternoon in an effort to break an impasse over the president’s voting bill. Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony yesterday for a bipartisan housing bill in protest of his party’s inability to pass the legislation, called the SAVE Act. Republican leaders have tried to convince their conservative critics that they can advance the bill through the party-line reconciliation process, but a reconciliation bill is unlikely to pass before the midterms. Plus, election provisions might not pass muster under the process’ strict rules. But getting Trump’s sign-off on the plan could be the key to unlocking the currently deadlocked House, where conservative hardliners have threatened to block legislation. Trump issued a social media post this afternoon telling them to end their blockade: “No more grandstanding, please!”

— Nicholas Wu

SCOTUS hands Trump immigration wins

The Supreme Court issued four major decisions today — victories for Trump’s immigration agenda, Bayer, and gun-rights advocates. The court ruled to allow the administration to end Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants and permitted officials to physically turn away asylum seekers along the US-Mexico border before they enter the country, giving the administration more flexibility in border enforcement policy. The court also ruled on two other contentious cases, siding with Bayer to limit thousands of lawsuits alleging that pesticide companies failed to disclose cancer risks and striking down a Hawaii law requiring gun owners to obtain permission from property owners before carrying firearms on private property. The decisions advance parts of Trump’s agenda while leaving major fights ahead: Eight cases have yet to be decided this term, including disputes over birthright citizenship and mail-in voting, which could further define the limits of presidential power.

— Lauren Morganbesser

Trump administration sends help to Venezuela

The Trump administration is sending help to Venezuela after deadly earthquakes hit the country. The State Department is leading the effort with support from the Defense Department, including the US Southern Command, which says it will provide “airlift, logistics, and lifesaving capabilities.” The State Department has also launched “a disaster assistance team and task force,” and plans to mobilize $150 million in assistance through partnerships. The Virginia Task Force 1, an urban search and rescue team, says it’s mobilized a crew of 80 people and six dogs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, traveling overseas for discussions related to Iran, said he spoke with Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez today. Semafor is told that more relief is expected. The natural disaster will test the administration’s response abilities after the dismantling of USAID, which typically led international disaster responses in the past.

— Shelby Talcott

Trump’s new economic messenger gets a trial run

Trump’s pick to succeed Stephen Miran as chair of his Council of Economic Advisers, Christopher Phelan, is going to the mat for the president before he’s even confirmed. The University of Minnesota professor told members of the Senate Banking Committee this morning that “it’s too early to tell exactly what the effects of tariffs are.” He also refused repeatedly to acknowledge that headline inflation is higher than when Trump took office, prompting Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to retort: “I don’t want to know how fast you can dance, I want to know if you can answer simple, factual questions.” The Commerce Department said this morning the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures index, rose 4.1% over the past year. “America is the best place in the world to be a participant in the economy, at any level,” Phelan said.

— Eleanor Mueller

View: Back to basics for activist investors

The AI era is the perfect time for the right breed of activist: those with real plans to tear up business models and remake them for this particular moment of upheaval. Take SaaS companies: a whole crop of companies like Adobe and Salesforce are trying to protect against a wave of vibe-coding startups eating their lunch. It’s the perfect time for an outsider to come in with a better way. And there’s precedent here: activist ValueAct pushed Adobe in 2011 to move from a license-based model to that SaaS model, a shift that led to a 2,220% rise in shares over 10 years. There’s also a group of unsexy companies that are flying under the radar as everyone else focuses on AI: chemicals, industrials, real estate, even forestry. They offer a chance for a back-to-basics approach targeting companies with finite assets that are underutilized, underperforming, or underappreciated.

On Wednesday, July 22, Claire Casey, President of the AARP Foundation, will join Semafor’s The World of Work in Washington, DC to unpack how institutions are adapting and thriving in an increasingly fragmented economy.

As companies face rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, and shifting workforce expectations, leaders are rethinking performance, trust, and long-term success. To explore how AI adoption, workforce transformation, and evolving leadership demands are reshaping the future of work, Semafor editors will sit down with business executives and workplace innovators including Katy George, Corporate Vice President, Workforce Transformation, Microsoft; Claire MacIntyre, Chief People Officer, Sam’s Club; Mary Moreland, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Abbott; and more.

July 22 | Washington, DC | Request Invite

White House

• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was acting as a White House “liaison” when he urged a Libertarian congressional candidate in Iowa to drop out of his race to help Republicans maintain control of the House. — WaPo
• The Trump administration plans to allow companies to build critical-mineral processing plants on US Army bases to boost domestic production. — Bloomberg

Iran

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked a Singapore-flagged cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, testing President Trump’s ceasefire deal.
• Iran estimates that states managing the Strait of Hormuz will bring in $40 billion in fees for safety, security, and environmental maintenance. — WSJ

Courts

• A federal judge temporarily blocked a Trump administration rule limiting graduate school student loans for some borrowers.
• A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked President Trump’s order requiring the Postal Service to restrict mail-in ballots in states that don’t provide lists of eligible voters.

National Security

• Several US soldiers wounded in a deadly Iranian drone strike in Kuwait say the Pentagon downplayed the severity of their injuries to the public. — CBS News
• The Commerce Department banned majority Chinese-owned Polestar from selling its electric vehicles in the US. — WSJ

Technology

• The White House helped Meta’s and Google’s CEOs avoid testifying at a Senate child-safety hearing in return for support on related bipartisan legislation. — Politico
• Apple raised prices on Macs and iPads, citing the soaring costs of memory and storage chips amid the AI boom.

Health

• A growing faction within the anti-abortion movement is pushing to remove legal protections for women who obtain abortions and allow such women to face criminal penalties. — NYT

Outside the Beltway

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the Florida detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has closed.

— Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., threatens to postpone a hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin after a heated exchange with Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill.

Laura McGann, editor

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

Lauren Morganbesser, copy editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu, David Weigel