Good morning. Some showers early, then partly sunny and humid today, with a high around 94. Showers and thunderstorms are possible this afternoon. Rain chances continue overnight with a low near 70.
Sports this weekend: The Mystics visit the New York Liberty Friday and the Minnesota Lynx Sunday. The Nationals visit Tampa Bay on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Washington Freedom, the region’s Major League Cricket team, opens its season with matches against the Seattle Orcas Saturday and against MI New York Sunday in Dallas. Loudoun United FC visit Birmingham Legion FC on Saturday.
I wish you a joyous and meaningful Juneteenth. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available as a morning email newsletter: Sign up for Washingtonian Today here. See you Monday.
I can’t stop listening to:
Drama Squad, “Da Wop.” Drama Squad will join New Impressionz, TOB, and UCB at the Yaddiya-hosted Moe Fest: A Demonstration of Peace & Unity today at Harrison Park (13th and V streets, Northwest).
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:
Spieling the deal: President Trump defended his peace framework with Iran yesterday, saying, “There’s not one nation that came to us and said ‘please keep dropping bombs on them, please keep dropping bombs’ — the stupid people say that.” Trump later added that if the US wasn’t satisfied with further negotiations, “We go back to bombing.” (Politico) Trump unexpectedly signed a memorandum of understanding about the peace deal yesterday while in France, citing the prospect of “economic catastrophe” if his war against Iran continued and saying he didn’t want to be remembered like Herbert Hoover is. (WSJ) If other countries have ballistic missiles, Trump said, it would be “a little bit unfair” to deny them to Iran. (Reuters) Language like that isn’t helping this accord land well among Republicans, who like other critics can’t help but notice that it is not markedly better than the deal President Obama struck with Iran 11 years ago, which Trump discarded during his first term. Its economic incentives for Iran in particular are rankling some in the GOP. (NYT)
Vance’s dance: Trump deputized Vice President JD Vance, who reportedly opposed the war, to talk up the deal, which some on the right are beginning to attribute to him. (Washington Post) During a day of oscillating statements about the agreement, Trump “added that if everything went wrong, he might blame it on Vice President JD Vance.” (NYT)
Meanwhile, in the Senate: Trump’s abrupt derailment of Jay Clayton‘s nomination to be director of national intelligence is the latest rug-pull for GOP lawmakers, who are increasingly airing their frustrations with the President publicly. (Politico) For his part, Trump feels frustrated that he “has been hearing a lot of “no” from John Thune, the Senate’s top Republican.” (WSJ) The “slights are adding up” for rank-and-file members, too. (NBC News) Not helping: “Senators Suspect Trump Shifted Secret Service Funds to Build His Ballroom.” (NOTUS)
Administration perambulation: The administration will pay “hundreds of millions of dollars to abandon plans to build wind farms in the Atlantic and Pacific,” the third such deal it’s made to assuage Trump’s loathing of wind power. (NYT) The FTC sued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, claiming it made “deceptive claims” about gender-affirming care. (Politico) The Justice Department sued the state of New York, among others, over what it says was fraud in a Medicaid-funded health-benefit program. (Hill) Trump settled a lawsuit he initiated with his niece, Mary Trump. (NOTUS) The NBA champion Knicks will visit the White House, ending an informal league boycott. (Washington Post) The Reflecting Pool is experiencing “more algae in it than at any recorded point in the month of June for at least five years” after Trump painted its bottom blue. (Washington Post) Is the pool green from an algae bloom or is it blue? Like that dress so many years ago, elements of your perception may affect your answer. (Atlantic)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• The troubled Potomac Interceptor is not the only threat to our region’s drinking water: Drought and data-constructor construction have local organizations and lawmakers scrambling to catch up.
• The summer solstice is Sunday. Here are some ways you can mark the occasion around town this weekend.
Local news links:
• Janeese Lewis George‘s lead in the DC mayoral primary remains formidable as the District continues to count votes. (Washington Post) There’s plenty of criticism about why the count is taking so long. (NOTUS) Doh! In yesterday’s newsletter, I incorrectly wrote that Elissa Silverman was ahead in race to secure the Democratic nomination to be an at-large member of the DC Council; she was running in a special election to serve out Kenyan McDuffie‘s term as independent member and will have to run again in November to secure a full term.
• DC cops and federal agencies said they broke up a crack-cocaine ring near Hendley Elementary School in Southeast DC. (WTOP)
• Police in Montgomery County say a former teacher entered an elementary school yesterday and assaulted staff members before being apprehended. (Fox 5)
• Police in Fairfax said a pedestrian was killed after being struck by two vehicles on Route 1 early this morning. (DC News Now)
• Police in Arlington said they helped dismantle a Lego-theft scheme. (ARLnow)
• Five people were rescued after a boat caught fire at Hains Point (DC News Now)
• Some Arlingtonians can now have their takeout delivered via robot. (ARLnow)
Weekend event picks:
Today: Daniel Tosh plays the first of two nights at the Warner Theatre.
Friday: The National Museum of African American History and Culture honors Opal Lee—the “Grandmother of Juneteenth”—with an all-day celebration of her 100th birthday.
Saturday: It’s the Capital Pride Parade!
Sunday: Day Two of Wale‘s Nationals Park takeover sees him performing with UCB and foggieraw.
There’s so much happening this weekend. See lots more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
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.
