Washington, DC

1. Iran tensions escalate
2. NCAA bill pressure
3. Term limits push
4. SAVE Act struggles
5. China whiplash
6. Troy Jackson rises
7. Gubernatorial race shakeup

PDB: Vances welcome fourth child

Rubio in Manila for ASEAN meetings … Burnham to be sworn in as UK prime minister … Oil hits $90 a barrel

Trump under pressure as Iran tensions mount

Despite domestic pressure over the conflict, President Donald Trump is inching closer to all-out war with Iran after three US soldiers were killed during a weekend of back-and-forth strikes. US officials say that the administration is sending more warplanes to the region, a sign it’s preparing for more. With fighting ramping up — the US military conducted its ninth day of attacks on Sunday — the window for a peace deal appears to be closing, though negotiators on both sides signaled they remain open to talks. Trump, meanwhile, remains steadfast in his belief that the conflict is worth it to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That’s a difficult pill for Republicans to swallow, as many of them eye the midterms — and the war’s economic effects — anxiously. The escalating tensions coincide with rising gas prices, one of voters’ big concerns amid the Iran conflict.

— Shelby Talcott

Cruz makes late push on college sports

College athletics’ future hinges on the next three weeks as Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., try to tame the SEC and Big Ten and pass their college sports bill, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Cruz told Semafor that he’s had “very positive conversations” with both conferences, as several senators indicated they can’t sign off on the bill until those groups do. Both conferences said they still want changes to the antitrust and pre-emption language and are willing to eat a “sh*t sandwich” to get the bill done if meaningful movement occurs in their direction, a person familiar with the conversations said. (Semafor got the full list of what both conferences want changed.) Cantwell and Cruz are open to changes but are on a tight timetable; Cruz said not acting would do “irreparable damage” to college athletics.

Dems advocate for committee term limits

A group of younger Democrats serving in Congress, as well as state and local governments, are pushing for committee leadership term limits in a new video shared first with Semafor. “Some of the most powerful people in Washington would rather die in their committee chairs than admit they can’t do the job,” says the narrator in the three-minute video from Majority Democrats that slams a Democratic “gerontocracy.” The video underscores Democrats’ ongoing frustrations over the age of many of their committee leaders, highlighting the late Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., who led the House Agriculture Committee and faced scrutiny over his health before being ousted in a challenge from a younger lawmaker. The group of several dozen Democrats includes rising stars like Texas Senate nominee James Talarico, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Reps. Pat Ryan of New York and Joe Neguse of Colorado.

— Nicholas Wu

The House GOP’s SAVE Act problems

The House GOP is trying to attach the Trump-backed SAVE Act voter ID legislation to bills coming to the floor this week. Republicans are expected to bring up a long-awaited ban on lawmaker stock trading and will add the SAVE Act to it. The stock trading bill already faced skepticism from Democrats for not including the executive branch, and adding the SAVE Act is sure to spike any remaining Democratic support. Republicans are also teeing up the budget blueprint to fulfill Trump’s Iran conflict funding request, bolster farm aid, and legislate parts of the voter ID bill. But they’re not pushing to add it to legislation punting the government funding deadline until after the midterms. The Senate is likely to take the SAVE Act language out of any bills the House attaches it to, given opposition from senators like Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

— Nicholas Wu

Trump’s whipsaw China policy continues

Trump’s latest lashing of China for alleged interference in the 2020 election epitomizes his whipsaw treatment of Beijing. The stern rhetoric Trump used during his recent primetime address on elections is a departure from his effusive praise for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whom he’ll welcome to the White House in September. The White House also has discouraged agencies from pursuing policies that could provoke China in recent months as Trump pursues trade deals with Beijing, Reuters reported. The Chinese foreign ministry called Trump’s election comments a “false allegation and serious smear.” There’s no sign yet it will alter Xi’s planned visit, however, and the administration doesn’t seem to be focusing on China as it renews scrutiny of the nation’s voting systems, Politico notes. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters Friday that US-China trade policy wouldn’t change, adding: “This isn’t a story about China.”

Maine Dems rally around Jackson

Maine Democrats appear poised to nominate Troy Jackson for Senate, after the former state Senate president won more than 90% of delegates for a convention to determine who will replace scandal-plagued Graham Platner. Three of Jackson’s opponents quit the race after county party meetings where Jackson’s supporters heavily outnumbered them, and the campaign released a video from a weekend rally that portrayed him as a “working-class fighter” already facing Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in November. In a new memo shared first with Semafor, the centrist think tank Third Way discouraged Democrats from letting recent developments convince them the entire electorate is moving left; swing voters, the memo argues, won’t show up in “social media likes, crowd sizes, or primary wins in deep blue places.”

— David Weigel

Wisconsin gubernatorial race shuffled

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers endorsed Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley to replace him in November, ending the two-term Democratic governor’s neutrality and pitting him against a socialist rising star — and against Mandela Barnes, who once served as his lieutenant governor. The endorsement capped days of chaos ahead of the August primary, after a campaign finance scandal forced outgoing Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez to quit the race. Crowley, who had ended his campaign days earlier and endorsed Rodriguez, told Semafor that he began getting calls when her scandal broke, and was moved to run again after the Republican Governors Association began buying flattering “attack ads” against state legislator Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist competing in the primary. “When another party is spending money in a different party’s primary, that should cause some alarm,” he said.

— David Weigel

Blindspot: Mail ballots and abortion

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: A federal appeals court panel allowed the Postal Service to implement changes to mail-in ballot delivery procedures amid legal challenges, handing a win to President Trump.

What the Right isn’t reading: Anti-abortion activists are making their mark abroad in places like Africa, in part due to the Trump administration’s reduction in funding to NGOs and UN agencies that promote abortion access, The Washington Post reported.

What are you missing? Most political coverage tells you what to think. Tangle shows you how both sides are thinking. Every weekday, we break down one major story with the strongest arguments from the left and right — plus the facts. More than 500,000 readers already subscribe. Start reading for free.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is leaning into a corruption argument against President Trump, releasing a report today arguing the Trump family has made “eye-popping profits” off the presidency.

Playbook: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is taking a careful approach to endorsing candidates on the left this cycle. “That doesn’t mean that not endorsing in a race is rejection by any means, but I think that me choosing to enter a race has a high bar because of — I put a lot of energy into every candidate that I endorse,” she said.

Axios: The release of Chinese AI model Kimi has some Trump administration officials exploring levers to prevent US companies from using Chinese AI platforms.

White House

• Second lady Usha Vance gave birth to Alec Vance, her and Vice President JD Vance’s fourth child.
• President Trump said his Qatari-donated Air Force One is going to get its security measures “maxed out” and will be finished in a month, a tacit admission that the plane may not have maximal security features as-is.
• Trump called for a review of the scientific reference manual used by federal judges, claiming that it contains “fraudulent, biased, and misleading” entries on climate change orchestrated by Democrats.

Congress