Principals

1. Trump pushes taxes on rich
2. Hawley’s tax cut moves
3. Tax markups
4. US-UK trade deal
5. Surgeon general fight
6. Failed crypto vote
7. An American pope
8. Bill Gates’ warning

PDB: Trump to replace controversial DC prosector nominee

Trump signs more executive orders … China exports to US plummet, rise to Asia and Europe … Hang Seng index ⬆️ 0.40%

Trump complicates tax talks

President Donald Trump is pushing Republicans to create a new, higher tax bracket for upper-income earners — further complicating the path of their already-fraught party-line tax bill. In a call with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, Trump proposed to tax individuals’ income at $2.5 million and above at 39.6%, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Burgess Everett report. The nudge came after weeks of him wavering on the idea of raising taxes on higher earners. Johnson himself dismissed talk of a rate increase just last month, and Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that he is “not excited about the proposal, but I have to say, there are a number of people in both the House and the Senate who are.”

Hawley’s working-class push

Josh Hawley isn’t on the Senate Finance Committee or in GOP leadership, yet he’s still in a plum position to push Republicans’ tax cuts toward his vision for the party, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Leveraging his strong relationship with Trump, Hawley wants to more than double the child tax credit to $5,000 and dramatically expand who is eligible for it, plus other tax deductions currently not available to lower-income earners. Hawley came into Congress after the 2017 tax cuts became law, so it’s a crucial opportunity for him — and for his party to make good on its promises. “I would try to make it the biggest tax cut for working families in American history,” he said. Notably, if party leaders don’t include a bigger child tax credit in their bill, he said he’ll offer it as an amendment on the Senate floor.

House GOP power through on taxes

House Republicans are muscling ahead with a key phase of Trump’s tax agenda, even as their conference remains divided over crucial issues like Medicaid and state and local taxes. The House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees have jurisdiction over most of the contentious provisions — and both panels are lining up votes for Tuesday, giving lawmakers just days to coalesce around a path forward. On his way to a meeting of Ways and Means Committee Republicans at the Library of Congress Thursday, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington said his own committee is still “planning to mark up, or to roll up, the reconciliation bill and send it to Rules by the end of next week.” The Texan added that “if we don’t have the collective courage to advance these reforms, it’s going to come” at the cost of “permanent tax policy.”

— Eleanor Mueller

Trump hopes for momentum on trade

Trump unveiled the first of what the White House hopes will be many trade pacts, a framework for an agreement with the UK that would streamline the customs process for US goods and lower trade barriers on a variety of US exports. In exchange, auto, steel and aluminum tariffs targeting Britain will be reduced, though there’s disagreement regarding the specifics. The details are still being worked out, which means a final pact isn’t guaranteed. The White House faces a steeper climb for other deals as the clock ticks down on Trump’s 90-day pause for more substantial levies. On Thursday, the EU rolled out a plan for hitting back at US tariffs; moving forward with it, White House adviser Peter Navarro said, would be a “grave mistake.” Next up this weekend: US-China talks. Trump officials are considering a “dramatic tariff reduction” to ease tensions, Bloomberg reports.

Surgeon general pick fends off Loomer

Right-wing agitator Laura Loomer may have successfully lobbied Trump to push out several national security aides, but she might not win in her latest fight against Casey Means, the president’s new surgeon general pick. Loomer sparked a firestorm on the right by attacking Means, the sister of a top adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But for now, people inside and close to the administration are dismissing the pushback: One person close to the White House described the attacks as merely “social media masturbation,” and argued Loomer doesn’t have the pull necessary to win this time around. And Means might have an easier time getting confirmed — despite the fact that several senators said they’re unfamiliar with the doctor turned wellness influencer, others said they like what she’s had to say.

— Shelby Talcott and Burgess Everett

Senate crypto negotiations implode

Almost a week of intense bipartisan talks was not enough to save a key cryptocurrency bill when Senate Republicans denied Democrats’ bid for more time to finalize compromise language — and Democrats protested by voting against advancing the measure Thursday. The stalemate marks a painful loss for cryptocurrency firms, which have long advocated for legislation regulating digital assets known as stablecoins. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who pushed to delay the vote until Monday, said afterward negotiators had ultimately abandoned changes that would stop Trump from profiting off crypto because “a lot of us had recognized that that made it very difficult for the Republicans.” Instead, “it was just tidying up some national security issues and some consumer finance issues; waiting for some feedback from Treasury” that were outstanding. Already, the GOP is looking to paint itself as “the only path to real crypto wins.”

— Eleanor Mueller

Political world reacts to first American pope

Trump and Vice President JD Vance offered warm words toward Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost after he was elected Pope, despite his record of criticizing the Trump administration. Trump called the selection of the first American pope — who will go by the name Leo XIV — a “great honor.” But other Trump allies, like Loomer, fumed following a search of Leo’s X history, calling him a “total Marxist” and “anti-MAGA.” The new pope, 69, hails from Chicago and spent much of his career in Peru. He presided over Pope Francis’ 2022 reforms, in which three women were added to the bloc that decides which bishop nominations advance, but is seen as more moderate than his predecessor. One priest described him to The New York Times as the “dignified middle of the road.”

Bill Gates warns about US aid cuts

The Trump administration’s cuts to global humanitarian aid programs will cost lives, Bill Gates told Semafor’s Yinka Adegoke in an interview to mark the Gates Foundation’s 25th anniversary. “USAID was a wonderful organization that I think if people had known what they do, they wouldn’t have cut that money. But here we are,” Gates said. “I’d say in the next five years, some of our key figures, like the number of children who die or vaccine coverage levels, some of those will actually go backwards.” The billionaire philanthropist said he plans to donate “virtually” all his wealth over the next 20 years and sunset his foundation in 2045, though he said the move wasn’t driven by US cuts.

Clay Travis started his career with a stunt on his blog involving a pudding strike and NFL streaming rights. From roots in new media, he founded OutKick, a conservative sports and politics site that Fox Corp acquired in 2021. This week, Ben and Max bring on the outspoken media entrepreneur to discuss how sports and conservative politics have become intertwined, how gambling and sports media have become intertwined, and how to attract an audience of men. They also ask about his current role as a Fox News personality and his 11 interviews with Donald Trump. Plus, he and Max duke it out over the NBA’s ratings.

Blindspot: Death penalty and Albania

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: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called for the death penalty for two Mexican nationals charged in a human smuggling operation that ended with a boat capsizing and several people dying.

What the Right isn’t reading: Former Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita is trying to help a Trumpy candidate win in Albania’s upcoming elections.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: After a group of New York Republicans publicly rejected an option proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee to raise the SALT, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent a text to the group that read in part: “A negotiation with the tax writers will be much more productive internally.”

Playbook: Fox News’ Bret Baier said that President Trump “of course” contributed to the declining trust in media. “He kind of broke the system, and maybe that was part of his MO, what he wanted to do. But middle America didn’t trust what they were getting from a lot of media.”

Axios: The US-UK trade deal — which will see UK imports continue to carry a 10% tariff — shows that other allies may be in for a tough ride. “If the UK isn’t getting down to zero, it is very unlikely that anyone is,” Evercore ISI’s Sarah Bianchi wrote.

White House

• FEMA’s acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was fired a day after telling Congress that it wouldn’t be in the “best interests of the American people” to eliminate the agency, which President Trump has talked about scrapping. — Politico
• President Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who’d been on the job since 2016.

Congress

• President Trump withdrew his nominee for DC’s top prosecutor, Ed Martin, after his nomination was derailed by opposition from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. He nominated Fox News star Jeanine Pirro to replace Martin and said Martin would instead serve as the new director of a working group on “weaponization” of the government.
• The House approved legislation to adopt Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

Campaigns

• In an interview with The View — part of a post-presidential media tour he’s embarked on this week — Joe Biden blamed the Trump campaign’s superior ads and the pervasiveness of sexism for Kamala Harris’ loss. Biden also insisted he could’ve won the election if he’d stayed in the race. That “sounds like delusion to most Democrats, when they’re speaking candidly (though, of course, they rarely do so about Biden on the record),” Semafor’s David Weigel writes.

Health

• Ivanka Trump, in her first appearance since her father was elected to his second term, spoke about her business venture to increase Americans’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables. — Axios

Economy

• US productivity declined during the first quarter of this year, the first such drop since 2022.

Courts

• Federal prosecutors opened a criminal probe into New York Attorney General Letitia James related to allegations from President Trump’s allies that she may have falsified property paperwork. — The Guardian
• A federal court found Alabama’s congressional map was intentionally discriminatory against Black residents.

National Security

• The Pentagon will begin removing as many as 1,000 transgender service members from the military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.

Immigration

• The Trump administration plans to bring its first white South African refugees stateside early next week. — NYT

Foreign Policy

• Russian President Vladimir Putin will stage a massive military parade to mark the Soviet victory in World War II, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other world leaders in attendance.
• Ukraine’s parliament overwhelmingly approved its mineral deal with the US.

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

And Graph Massara, copy editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Joe Morelle is a Democratic congressman from New York.