Good morning. My heart is ringin’ and my soul is singin’ on this 21st day of September. Mostly cloudy today with a high around 77. Rain is likely overnight, with a low near 61. The Nationals visit Detroit tonight. The Capitals host Philadelphia in Hershey for a preseason game.
🏛️ Next Wednesday is the deadline for nominations for this year’s class of Washingtonians of the Year—the local heroes who make our region a better place to live (here’s our most recent group of recipients). Take a look at our call for nominations and please put forward someone you think deserves recognition! 📫 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 here.
I can’t stop listening to:
Sierra Hull, “Boom.” The mandolinist and singer plays 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:
Another ICE storm? An ICE agent shot and injured a Venezuelan man who was delivering for DoorDash in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. Protesters gathered at the site of the shooting, which appears to have occurred during a traffic stop, throughout Sunday. (Texas Tribune) The Department of Homeland Security didn’t say how it came to pursue and wound Wilber Rafael Garces Perez but described him as being in the country illegally, a status it attributed for former President Biden. An attorney for Garces Perez says he’s now in ICE custody and that his family doesn’t know where he is. (AP) Meanwhile: Immigration officials detained a US citizen in Evanston, Illinois. Local police “reported seeing blood” on one agent’s hands. (Evanston Now) There’s video. (WLS)
The war: More US troops than the Pentagon has reported have died in the Gulf region during the war with Iran President Trump started in February. (Washington Post) The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they wouldn’t attack US ships in the Red Sea but cautioned the US and other nations against interfering with their campaign against Saudi Arabia. (AP) The rebels launched attacks aimed at the Saudi capital of Riyadh over the weekend, and the US and Iran traded more threats. (Reuters) There’s a shortage of oil supertankers available in the region, which threatens to push gas prices even higher. (WSJ) Trump abruptly called off strikes against the Houthis on Sunday and described himself as being in “‘deciding mode’ on what to do in the larger war with Iran” that he has struggled to end. (NYT) The President will meet with Gulf leaders and others over the next two days as he attends UN meetings in New York. (Reuters) He’ll also meet with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. (CNN)
Trump’s weird weekend: The President kicked off his weekend by banning reporters from CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House. (Washington Post) The outlets announced this morning that they will sue to regain their access. (Politico) Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town when he instituted the ban, and other senior staffers were reportedly “surprised by the directive.” (Politico) Before Trump issued the ban, his close aide Natalie Harp reportedly showed him “showed him clips of anchors” on MS Now bad-mouthing him amid a “week of setbacks.” (WSJ) Meanwhile, the President augmented his plans for a Triumphal Arch near Arlington Cemetery by claiming it would be a “a top grade Military Complex” with snipers and drones as well as a memorial. (NYT) Trump “has subtly acknowledged some degree of responsibility” for the Iran War’s unpopularity and its subsequent drag on Republican candidates in November’s midterm elections. (Washington Post) A GOP strategist described Trump as “kryptonite” at the moment. (Politico)
Administration perambulation: David Milstein, an aide to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and the stepson of conservative radio host Mark Levin, “solicited cash gifts from Israeli citizens to celebrate his upcoming wedding.” He later described the solicitation as a mistake. (Politico) Trump announced a deal with Denmark over security for Greenland. Danish leaders described the agreement quite differently than he did. (NYT) The administration is planning “sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court,” which it hopes to “dismantle.” (WSJ) Reportedly frustrated by “a perceived slowdown in the administration’s attempt to force conservative cultural changes on academia,” White House staff are preparing an executive order that would give Trump more control of grants. (NYT) A federal judge in Rhode Island said the administration illegally ended a solar program. (Washington Sun) Mail delivery in many parts of the US has slowed down due to cost cuts. (Axios) The Pentagon plans mandatory testosterone screenings for male service members over 30. (Task and Purpose) Walmart, OpenAI, and Anthropic are among the corporate sponsors for a Make America Healthy Again conference planned for later this month. (Politico) Trump said his son Donald Trump Jr. repaid Umar Kremlev, the Russian boxing impresario who bankrolled his most recent wedding. (Washington Post)
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert:
After countless nights of waiting for a Resy Notify to come through, I finally got into La Merna, the new Dupont spot for Chicago-style tavern pizza (I snagged the last two bar seats as a walk-in on a jam-packed Monday night). I loved the midwestern vibes—the wood-paneled space feels like it’s been around forever, and there’s a chalkboard behind the bar where you can buy other customers shots of Malört. And yes, the giant, cracker-thin pizzas are worth the hassle of getting in, especially an unexpectedly fiery pie topped with crumbled Italian sausage and giardiniera.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Is the US barreling toward a constitutional crisis because a judge won’t let Trump slap his name on the Kennedy Center? It’s sure beginning to look that way.
•Meadowlark Botanical Gardens has a Korean bell garden—the only place in the western hemisphere you can see an attraction of this type. If you’d like to see it, here’s what you need to know to plan a day trip.
Local news links:
Kennedy Center latest: Organizers of a protest Friday at the Kennedy Center tell Washingtonian that 2,500 people formed a human chain around the building. We’ve got photos. (Washingtonian/Instagram) The New York Times published a bracing look at the arts complex’s dissolution under Trump’s control. The article includes the fact that the center worked to replace items in its art collection that honors John F. Kennedy with art—not a surprise to Washingtonian readers—that features Trump. (NYT)
Jayden Daniels latest: The Commanders QB suffered a gruesome elbow injury in a game against Dallas that Washington subsequently lost. (ESPN) Is that a wrap on the season already? (Washington Sun) Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos said he was rooting for Dallas. (NBC Sports)
• Yellow Line trains will run only between Huntington and Arlington Cemetery until this afternoon because of a derailment. (Fox 5)
• The defense rested Friday in DC Council member Trayon White‘s bribery trial. White didn’t take the stand. (City Cast DC)
• The planned two-month closure of Waterside Drive in DC has been delayed after crews “discovered a large, early-1900s utility line.” (WUSA9)
• Virginia’s rules for its planned recreational marijuana market are taking shape. (Axios Richmond)
• Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada resigned abruptly on Friday. The move comes amid a county investigation into an unnamed executive who reportedly “had been absent from work for at least five days to attend an out-of-state conference in June 2026 without taking leave or adjusting their schedule to make up the time.” (Washington Sun)
• Careful what you say in a bar around here! “Three Republican power players” are reportedly in hot water after a comedian overheard them “spouting off about Trump” at the Four Seasons. (Axios)
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.
