Good morning. Mostly sunny today with a high around 91 that, thanks to high humidity, could feel more like 100. Slight shower and storm chances overnight, with a low near 73.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Anyone Awake, “I’d Want Anyone.” Yes, there’s a big show at Nats Park tonight, but may I suggest a little indie rock as well? These Idaho kids summon my memories of Bright Eyes; they’ll play DC9 tonight with fellow Gem State musicians the Stone Popes.
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: Today’s the deadline set in the original US-Iran ceasefire deal for formally ending the war and for coming to an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. To put it mildly, neither of those goals is likely to be met today. (AP) Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz “appeared to grind to a near standstill” over the weekend. (Reuters) Iran used the ceasefire period “to prepare for a bigger fight.” Don’t expect a resolution any time soon. (WSJ) A quote that claimed Iran was working on nuclear weapons, attributed to Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, rocketed around Israeli and conservative media circles this weekend. It’s fake. (NYT) US Central Command head Admiral Brad Cooper visited the reportedly troubled carrier USS Abraham Lincoln Saturday. (Washington Post) President Trump on Friday said the ship’s nearly nine-month deployment was “not nearly long enough.” (Washington Post)
The military: Trump ordered the US military to scale back military exercises with South Korea that began this morning, “citing his good relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.” (AP) In the social media post that was the vehicle for this order, Trump also criticized South Korea for failing to “join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” (NYT)
Meanwhile, back at the Blanche: Attorney General Todd Blanche said he wouldn’t pledge his department’s independence from Trump, for whom he has worked as a personal attorney. (Axios) Blanche said it was “absolutely not the case” that Trump would order up DOJ prosecutions, as he did with Blanche’s predecessor. (Politico) The US Attorney’s office in Chicago probed the finances of a company once co-owned by the daughter of the New York judge who oversaw his hush-money case. It’s the latest sign such offices “have increasingly been drawn into Mr. Trump’s effort to target his adversaries.” (NYT) Blanche also said he supported US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro, who’s been in hot water with Trump since she dropped charges against a canoeist he believes vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. (NYT)
Speaking of which: Trump claimed over the weekend that vandals were to blame for dead grass on the site of his July 4 event. (AP) The feds arrested and charged Melissa L. Farris of Kentucky with vandalizing the World War II Memorial by spray-painting a cryptic message on it and pouring a substance that caused the water to form bubbles. Farris live-streamed herself committing both acts. (Washington Post)
Administration perambulation: Trump used to emphasize the aesthetic considerations of his planned White House ballroom. Now he markets it as a “military complex.” (WSJ) Speaking anonymously—seriously?—journalists who unwittingly flew on a decoy plane after Trump secretly switched to a different aircraft due to Iranian threats on his life said “the broader press corps [are] unsure whether they can trust the Trump White House to consider their personal safety.” (Washington Post) Trump on Friday waved around a Washington Post article touting lower prescription drug costs. But the article attributes the drop mostly to President Biden‘s policies. (Guardian) The Trump family’s crypto business “has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to become a bank.” (WSJ) Bills created with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are filled with errors and are wreaking havoc in the congressional office that examines them. (Politico)
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert:
There’s one recipe I make over and over all summer long—Julia Moskin’s Seville-style gazpacho from the New York Times (I blend it up once a week and keep it in the ridiculously giant Stanley my daughter begged for and then forgot about). The other day though, I was reminded at Leesburg’s Wine Kitchen that not all great gazpachos have to come from tomatoes. Chef John Cummings’s memorable version is spun from locally grown honeydew melon, and he serves it with sumac/orange yogurt, cucumber relish, and roasted peanuts. Get it while you still can.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Will a judge allow the Kennedy Center’s planned workarounds to proceed? A few clues from his last ruling may point to what’s next.
• Bourbon Steak’s lounge reopened Saturday with plans to recapture its past glory.
• Yes, there are Republicans in local DC politics (if not, typically, in office). Meet a few of them.
Local news links:
Lights out and away we go: The Freedom 250 Grand Prix is scheduled to take place Sunday in downtown DC, with practice and quali runs the day before. You’ll need tickets to the race to visit three Smithsonian museums along the route over the weekend. (WTOP) A physics professor explains why manhole covers along the route had to be welded shut. (City Cast DC)
• Trump plans to festoon his ballroom—sorry, military complex—with golden Great Seals of the United States, according to documents filed with the US Supreme Court. (Axios D.C.)
• The Commanders easily beat the Dolphins in a preseason game Friday. Out of apparent disrespect for Jayden Daniels, here are five takeaways about the win. (NOTUS) Backup QB Marcus Mariota was injured and will miss the rest of the preseason. (AP)
• A Virginia judge declined to block a new law that bans many hemp products in Virginia. It went into effect Saturday. (WUSA9)
• Hayden Panettiere, the actress and DC statehood advocate who also appeared in the locally set 2000 film “Remember the Titans,” has died. She was 36. (NYT)
• A DC man got 17 years for taking part in armed robberies of mail carriers in 2022. (WTOP)
• Around a thousand people showed up for that eat-an-apple-with-me thing at Meridian Hill Park this weekend. (Washington Post)
• Yet another beaver attack in Maryland! What is going on???? (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.
