Good morning. Cloudy with shower chances and a high around 76 today. Shower chances persist overnight, with a low near 65. The Nationals visit Cleveland this evening. 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:
Steve Earle, “Someday.” Earle plays a sold-out solo acoustic show at the Birchmere tonight.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
The war: The US bombed sites in Iran yesterday, characterizing the operations as “self-defense.” The timing was unusual, as President Trump spent the weekend teasing an any-moment-now peace deal with the Iranians in the war he started in late February—which began amid nuclear negotiations with Iran. (AP) Before the strikes, Iran had acknowledged progress in the talks but denied any settlement was imminent, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal could be done quickly. (NBC News) Now he says it could take “a few more days.” (Politico)
Deal memo: Some Republican lawmakers, including US senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, criticized the outlines of a potential deal that occurred over the weekend. (AP) In what appears to be a response to the bad reviews, Trump then added a new dimension to the talks, demanding that other Middle East nations normalize their relations with Israel, a request that’s “highly unlikely to be heeded.” (WSJ) The draft deal included an eventual end to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the US’s subsequent blockade of Iranian ports, as well as a commitment by Iran to ship enriched uranium out of the country. It did not appear to address Iran’s ability to enrich nuclear matter in the future or its missile program, though Iran did appear to drop its demand for reparations from the US. (AP)
Back at home: Trump eulogized the 13 US service members who’ve died during the war at a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday, saying their sacrifice ensured Iran would “will never have a nuclear weapon.” (USA Today) Read about their lives. (CNN) But Trump’s negotiations and pressure techniques with regard to Iran so far have had little effect on its nuclear program. (NYT) Meanwhile: The price of oil, which had fallen on reports of an imminent deal, rose on Tuesday. (Reuters)
Fund, fund, fund: Cruz also said Republican senators “were screaming” at acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during a meeting Thursday about the nearly $2 billion fund Trump secured from the Department of Justice to compensate people who feel the federal government had been “weaponized” against them, including people convicted of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. (NBC News) Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the slush fund a “payout pot for punks.” (Politico) DOJ removed press releases about January 6 prosecutions from its website over the weekend, saying it was “stripping” it of “partisan propaganda.” (AP) The fund drew another suit; plaintiffs on this one include former federal prosecutor Andrew Floyd and Jonathan Caravello, a California professor who was acquitted last month of charges that he returned a tear gas canister to Border Patrol agents during a raid on a cannabis farm last July. (NBC News) How would the fund work? Great question. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, “much — if not most — of the fund’s workings could remain hidden.” (Washington Post)
Gabbard, Gabbard, nay: Tulsi Gabbard resigned as the US director of national intelligence Friday. Gabbard said she was leaving her job to care for her husband, Abraham Williams, who has been diagnosed with bone cancer, but she’s also been “largely sidelined” within the administration over her tepid support for the Iran war. (WSJ) “A source familiar with the matter said that Gabbard had been forced out by the White House.” (Reuters)
Another White House shooting: Authorities shot and killed 21-year-old Nasire Best, who they say produced a weapon near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest, on Saturday and proceeded to shoot at US Secret Service agents. It’s the third time in a month that someone has fired a gun near Trump. (AP) A bystander was also shot and hospitalized. (NBC News) Best’s life after graduating from high school in Maryland “seemed to take one wrong turn after another,” and he had begun to say “that he was Jesus Christ.” (Washington Post)
Green break: The administration on Friday abruptly ordered green-card applicants to return to their home countries while they apply for permanent status, a radical new policy that’s likely to draw legal challenges. (NBC News) Trump’s new focus on legal immigration comes after his violent crackdowns in the US became unpopular. (NYT) Meanwhile: A judge in Tennessee dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego García, the latest loss the US has taken in its campaign against the Maryland man, who it once mistakenly deported to El Salvador. (NPR) Here’s a timeline of Abrego García’s legal battles. (AP)
Health is other people: Trump will return to Walter Reed today for what the White House described as a “routine annual” visit—though it’s the third time he’s been there in the last 13 months. (NPR) Trump’s bouts of swollen legs and hands and his apparent sleepiness during televised meetings are contributing to Americans’ growing concerns about his health—only 44 percent of people polled last month thought he was in good enough shape for his job, and just 40 percent said he possessed the mental acuity the gig requires. (Washington Post)
Administration perambulation: Vice President JD Vance invited Republican state attorneys general to a meeting on fraud today at the White House a week before he invited Democratic AGs—and gave Dems one day to accept. (Politico) Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the head of the Federal Reserve on Friday. (CNN) Longtime Rubio aide Mike Needham will get a big national security job in the White House. (Axios) US Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey got pepper-sprayed outside an ICE facility in Newark yesterday amid a demonstration. The state’s Democratic governor, Mikie Sherrill, wasn’t allowed inside the facility. (New Jersey Globe) The feds charged American journalist Thomas Pauken II, who writes under the name Tom McGregor, with “acting as an agent for the Chinese government.” (Politico)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Our critic reviews two new chicken joints: Carla Hall‘s Bumblebirds and Rob Sonderman‘s Little Engine.
• Dan Snyder‘s old Fairfax estate is back on the market.
• Photos from the party for our list of the area’s 500 Most Influential People Shaping Policy.
Local news links:
• Many people visited the Arlington gravesite of Staff Sergeant Alan Shaw, who was killed in Iraq in 2007, after his widow, Sharrell Shaw, posted that she couldn’t make the journey from Arkansas this year and asked people to take photos. (Fox 5)
• Thirteen new statues went up at Freedom Plaza, including one of Caesar Rodney, a rather obscure founding father who enslaved hundreds of people. (NBC4 Washington)
• Demonstrators rallied for two days against Trump’s planned Triumphal Arch over the weekend. (DC News Now)
• The District’s Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment has funded talk shows by Donnie Simpson and Carol Joynt but declined to answer detailed questions about their costs. (ABC7)
• Authorities rescued 15 people from a sinking boat in the Potomac Saturday night. (WUSA9)
• Accused Georgetown Cupcake keg-thrower Charles Joseph Ali was arrested after his father recognized him in a police alert. He pleaded not guilty on Friday. (WTOP)
• A driver crashed a minivan into a house in Arlington on Friday. The driver was injured; no one else was hurt. (ARLnow)
• Police in Laurel said two people got shot after meeting to complete a sale arranged online. (WUSA9)
• Wharf developer Monty Hoffman is selling his swanky waterfront condo. It’s listed at $11 million. (UrbanTurf)
• RIP Katharine “Lee” Moody, an Alexandria photographer who lovingly documented Old Town. (Zebra)
• Lizzo has collaborated with DC’s UCB on a single due out next month. (WTOP)
• Willard concierge Robert Watson talks about his five decades on the job. (Washington Post)
• Two Guam kingfishers—a species that’s extinct in the wild—were born at Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Front Royal facility last month. (WUSA9)
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.
