Good morning. Cool and rainy today with a high around 51. More rain is possible overnight, with a low of 35.
He did it: Alex Ovechkin scored goal No. 895 yesterday, passing Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time goal scorer. Here’s a nice appreciation of the feat by our own Jacob Raim, and our photographer Evy Mages got this shot of fans reacting at the Wharf:
The Nationals will host the Dodgers today. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Franz Ferdinand, “Right Action.” This Scottish band is so fun live, and they play the Anthem tonight. I could choose almost any of their tunes to jam out to this morning, but I love the Saul Bass-inspired video for this song, so let’s go with that.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Tariff turmoil: Overseas financial markets saw huge drops this morning as worry over President Trump‘s new tariffs persists. (NYT) Administration officials defended the tariffs over the weekend. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “There doesn’t have to be a recession.” Some Republicans are nonetheless becoming more critical. (Washington Post) Trump, who spent part of the weekend golfing, said, “sometimes you have to take medicine.” (Rolling Stone) Democrats hammered Trump for playing golf. (ABC News) “[B]ankers, executives and traders said they felt flashbacks to the 2007-8 global financial crisis.” (NYT) “Your Playbook author has only ever seen one example up close of a leader taking bold and purposeful economic action which instantly crashed the national economy. And she was outlasted in her job by a head of lettuce.” (Politico)
Meanwhile, on the Hill: The US Senate finished a budget resolution, but it hasn’t received a warm reception in the House. (Politico) Proposals to cut Medicaid would affect a lot of states, but South Dakota, Missouri, and Oklahoma would be especially hurt. (NYT) Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin proposed fighting journalists. (The Oklahoman)
Immigration: A federal judge ordered the administration to return Marylander Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US, calling its decision to deport him “wholly lawless.” The Justice Department placed attorney Erez Reuveni on leave after he said Abrego Garcia shouldn’t have been deported. (AP) Most of the Venezuelan migrants the administration deported to prison in El Salvador have no criminal records. (CBS News) A judge moved the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University student who was snatched off the street late last month, to Vermont. (AP)
Administration perambulation: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is “focused on his status as the leader of a minor cabinet department” and has ordered subordinates to bake cookies for him and for guests. (The Atlantic) The IRS plans to cut 25 percent of its workforce. (ABC News) Layoffs at NIH could delay a promising cancer treatment. (Washington Post) Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged people to get vaccinated against measles, which would probably not be a headline for any other health secretary. (Politico) Here’s how national security adviser Mike Waltz added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chat where administration officials discussed an impending military operation. (The Guardian)
Local billionaires corner: Elon Musk is beefing with Trump adviser Peter Navarro, and he doesn’t appear to like the tariffs. (New York Post) Navarro said there’s no rift. (Axios) Some around town are concerned that the government’s antitrust case against Meta could be derailed by the “growing relationship” between Mark Zuckerberg, who just bought a house near the Naval Observatory, and Trump. (Politico) Here’s a list of local billionaires. (Axios D.C.)
• Trump wants to hold a military parade in DC on his birthday, and plans appear to be falling into place for him to do so. (WCP)
• The anti-Trump “Hands Off” marches brought out a lot of people around the country, including reportedly 100,000 on the Mall. (Washington Post)
The best thing I drank last week, by Ann Limpert
I’m the kind of drinker that fixates—like, I tend to order the same thing over and over again for years. There were the Scotch on the rocks years, the bloodies-before-dinner years, and during the pandemic, the dirty martini years, which are…still going. Of the million or so I’ve had, none has ever been as smooth or delicious as the version I just encountered at Stephen Starr’s swank reboot of the Occidental. I don’t know what sorcery is behind it—it’s just Belvedere vodka, extra-dry vermouth, manzanilla olive juice (none of that trendy castelvetrano BS), and a tiny bit of Maldon salt—but it’s perfect. Other nice touches: it’s poured at the table and they don’t fill the glass to the very top, which this chronic martini-spiller appreciates. (1475 Pennsylvania Ave., NW)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Photos from this weekend’s “Hands Off” march.
• 5 new brunch spots.
• How a giant inflatable Mars sculpture got loose at the Kennedy Center last week.
• DC’s historic Metropolitan AME Church, which won the Proud Boys’ trademarks in court, is now selling merchandise that combines the group’s logo with Black pride slogans.
Local news links:
• Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears is officially the GOP candidate for governor in Virginia. She’ll face Abigail Spanberger this fall. (Washington Post)
• Interim US Attorney Ed Martin “compared the prosecution of pro-Trump insurrectionists to the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans” at a Florida fund-raiser for January 6 defendants. (Mother Jones)
• Justin Fisher, a former GAO statistician, and his wife, Emily Fisher, an executive at the Smart Electric Power Alliance, turned themselves in to DC cops, who are investigating the defacement of two Teslas as a hate crime. (Washington Post)
• T.J. O’Leary, a teacher at St. Agnes School in Arlington, jumped into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor during a field trip to help rescue a father and son. (NBC 4 Washington)
• Police arrested a man they say is responsible for a “stabbing spree” in Trinidad neighborhood last week. (NBC 4 Washington)
• Three MLB umpires live in Northern Virginia. (WTOP)
• More and more people are reporting getting ripped off by the food trucks near the National Mall. (WUSA 9)
• Skunks with rabies found in Maryland. (WUSA 9)
Did you miss our 100 Very Best Restaurants List? It’s here.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
