Good morning. A pleasant day awaits: Sunny with a high around 85. Clear overnight, with a low near 62. The Nationals begin a four-game homestand against Colorado tonight.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Butthole Surfers, “Dust Devil.” Tom Stern’s documentary about the legendary Texas band, “Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt,” shows at the Alamo Drafthouse’s Bryant Street location in DC tonight. There will be a live-streamed Q&A, too.
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: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced an impending “economic D-Day” campaign against Iran in an op-ed Sunday. (FT) Bessent will announce the plan at a press conference this afternoon. His op-ed was long on praise for Bessent’s boss, President Trump, but short on specifics. (Reuters) Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, vowed the country would “retaliate in a seismic manner” and would target ships carrying oil outside the Strait of Hormuz. (AP) As the war Trump started in February nears the six-month mark, Iran has “exposed America’s Achilles’ heel: the vulnerability of Iran’s neighbors.” (Atlantic) Meanwhile, as the USS Abraham Lincoln makes its way back toward the US from a record-length deployment, US Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Manuel Aviles, the father of a sailor aboard. (AP)
Maple grief: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed retaliatory tariffs against the US after trade talks fell apart this weekend. (Washington Post) The US imposed 50 percent tariffs on many Canadian goods Saturday. (AP) Carney called the tariffs a “new attack by the Americans on Canada” and “an attack in a war.” (Politico) Some Republicans signaled concern about Trump’s economic approach over the weekend. (NYT) Concessions the US offered Canada during the talks may prompt other countries to seek revisions to deals they made with the administration. (Washington Post) Canadian soccer fans booed the US National Anthem over the weekend. (CBC)
Ballroom update: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed construction on Trump’s ballroom to continue while it ponders pausing a judge’s order to halt work. (SCOTUSblog) Trump’s claims that the ballroom would provide a secure facility underneath are undercut by the fact that the US secretly built a very secure bunker underground during the Obama administration. (Washington Post)
Penta-gone: The Pentagon fired the editor-in-chief, the publisher, and a reporter at the typically independent news outlet Stars and Stripes. (Stars and Stripes) Publisher Max Lederer had already announced plans to retire. Andrew Brey, a Defense Department official, asked Lederer to fire the EIC, Erik Slavin, and a reporter, Lara Korte, who took part in a CBS News interview in which they stressed the publication’s independence. (Washington Post) The Pentagon had installed a new deputy publisher at the outlet without Lederer’s “prior knowledge.” (AP)
Administration perambulation: Ed Martin‘s unusual career at the Department of Justice has apparently ended. (Washington Post) Key staffers are leaving the White House ahead of the midterms, which one former Trump official chalks up to them “seeing the writing on the wall.” (Politico) A federal appeals court in New York ruled that John Sarcone, once Trump’s acting US Attorney for New York’s Northern District and now its First Assistant, was serving illegally and can no longer participate in a probe of Trump’s perceived foe and New York Attorney General Letitia James. (CNN) Trump threatened to sue the Center for American Progress over a report that said his deployment of National Guard troops in DC had not lowered crime. (NYT) The President personally intervened in DOJ’s antitrust action against Live Nation following a February meeting with its CEO “to discuss how to improve bookings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” (WSJ) Trump appears to have gained at least 23 pounds since 2023, which concerns some doctors. (Washington Post)
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert:
The BLT at Manifest Bread is a giant thing of beauty, with fat slices of tomato and plenty of bacon. But it was the more compact roast beef sandwich on a Portuguese roll that blew me away at a recent lunch. The thin, tender slices of (not gray!) beef are topped with melty onions and a horseradish cream that has serious bite. Plus, it doesn’t fall apart when you eat it—it’d be the perfect picnic sandwich.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• A planned lesbian bar in Arlington will celebrate Washington Blade cofounder and gay-rights activist Lilli Vincenz.
• WMATA and bus drivers are at odds about enforcing fares. How did we get here?
Local news links:
Vroom to grow: House Speaker Mike Johnson and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said they’d like to bring an IndyCar Grand Prix back to DC next year. (NOTUS) Kyle Kirkwood won Sunday’s race in downtown Washington. (NBC News)
• The Washington Post must rehire Karen Attiah, an opinion columnist it fired last year, an arbitrator ruled. (NYT)
• Police in the District arrested a man in Kalorama who they say terrorized an 18-year-old and then falsely claimed to live in a house on Tracy Place, Northwest, once occupied by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. (NBC4 Washington)
• Cops in Prince William County arrested a Manassas man who claimed to be a police officer, apparently in a quest to secure a parking spot. (WTOP)
• Xscape Theatres in Brandywine closed abruptly last week, challenging a church as well as cinephiles. (NBC4 Washington)
• Google leased a large office building near Union Station and plans to consolidate other offices in the area there eventually. (WBJ)
• The Garage, a punk venue in rural Montgomery County, is fighting to stay open amid a county order to cease operations. (NBC4 Washington)
• The Commanders lost a preseason game against Detroit Saturday. Here’s a look at their potential 53-man roster when the season starts in a couple of weeks. (NOTUS)
• Alexandria plans to deploy dozens of goats next month to eat invasive species in a West End park. (ALXnow)
• A nominally green tree frog with a condition that causes it to appear blue is drawing crowds at Fairfax’s Huntley Meadows Park. (Washington Post)
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.
