Good morning. Sunny with a high around 71 today. A low near 49 overnight. The Capitals host Los Angeles this evening.
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I can’t stop listening to
Texas Is the Reason, “Back and to the Left.” The beloved ’90s band has reunited; they play Union Stage tonight with Her Head’s on Fire and Common Sage.
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
Ukraine
“Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” President Trump told reporters yesterday. “They haven’t been doing much.” The President was defending his decision to waive sanctions on Russia that he’d signed a few weeks earlier, and the remark signaled the degree to which he seems to have turned on Ukraine. (Washington Sun) Trump “appears to have settled on” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “as a person to blame for his struggles with high energy prices and worsening political prospects ahead of the midterm elections,” and the US has begun to hold up transfers of vital Patriot missiles to Ukraine. (Washington Post) Zelensky will meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo today to try to patch things up. (Reuters) Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will then fly to St. Petersburg to try to “show the benefits of deal-making” with Russian President Vladimir Putin via a hostage-release agreement. (NYT) Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, disparate actions by GOP lawmakers who support Ukraine “underscore just how little power Trump’s own party has had in reining in his attacks on longstanding allied relationships.” (Politico)
Just KenCen
White House investigators are examining a text message, purportedly from former Kennedy Center honcho Ric Grenell to a Turkish billionaire, which promises access to the President in return for a multimillion-dollar donation to the institution, whose finances crumbled after Trump took it over. The rich guy, Turhan Mildon, is married to former Trump attorney Alina Habba, who “who stormed into the Oval Office on Oct. 9 and accused Grenell of hoodwinking her husband.” But evidence for her account is scant and frankly weird and Grenell, who denies Habba’s accusations, reportedly said you can tell the text message is a fake because it uses British spelling. (Axios)
Midterms mélange
Another day, another bad poll: Reuters/Ipsos found Trump’s approval at only 31 percent—a record. (Reuters) The President plans rallies in red states this week in hopes he can shore up support for the GOP. (NYT) Trump said US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, who’s in a tight reelection race, had been portrayed as “some kind of a Shylock-type guy” by critics. The last time Trump used that term in a speech, he claimed afterward that he didn’t know it was antisemitic. (Bloomberg)
Administration perambulation
The US Department of Justice accused 28 people in California of voting illegally. That’s a bit short of the 20,000 voters in the Golden State DOJ has claimed may be noncitizens. (NYT) Trump announced billions of dollars in aid to US farmers buffeted by his war in Iran and trade policies. (Reuters) The BBC hopes to call Jack Smith to testify in its defense against a $10 billion lawsuit Trump filed against the British broadcaster. The former special counsel “has not objected to the subpoena.” (Washington Sun) The University of North Carolina made a deal with the administration to restore federal funding. (Bloomberg) Think your grocery bill is through the roof? Consider the plight of purchasers of MAGA hats, the price of which has more than doubled in the last decade. (Washington Sun) Trump wants to rename New Mexico. (Washington Post)
Perfect Saturdays, by Daniella Byck
We’re entering the final gasp of spooky season before the Christmas creep sets in. If you feel there are not enough daytime hours for all your autumnal pursuits, three corn mazes in Maryland offer night access. You can explore toy-themed Maryland Corn Maze in Gambrills on October 24 and 31 from 7 PM to 9:30 PM. Scan QR codes scattered around the labyrinth to participate in a game. In Thurmont, Magnolia Meadow Farm is offering night entry on October 24 from 6 PM to 10 PM. Purchase a glow stick to illuminate your maze walk and then launch apples from cannons for additional fall fun. For another dark pathway, head to Cornfusion in Manchester on October 23 and October 24 from 7 PM to 10 PM. Bring a flashlight or purchase your light onsite.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com
• A feud between Medium Rare’s owners has turned nasty, with a lawsuit that alleges embezzlement by one and the attorney for another calling the legal action “a poor man’s hostile takeover.”
• La Bonne Vache in Georgetown was destroyed by a fire.
• We road-tripped to Stafford County to visit what’s purportedly the sixth-worst McDonalds in the US. It didn’t seem that bad, but one employee says we just got lucky.
Local news links
East Po and down
US District Judge Ana Reyes “said she didn’t buy the administration’s arguments” that tree-clearing at East Potomac Park was unrelated to Trump’s plans to soup up the public golf course there. (NBC News) Reyes pushed back against government attorneys’ suggestion that she treat Trump’s social media posts about the course as executive orders, not settled policy. (Washingtonian) “There is no universe in which all of this coincidentally happened all at the same time,” Reyes said. (AP) Trump called Reyes a crazed lunatic.” (WUSA9)
Other local news
• DOJ will investigate conditions at the DC Jail, where some inmates recently filed a suit saying they’d been fed bugs and mice. (Washington Post)
• DC Council member Trayon White introduced legislation that would halt the District’s practice of doubling the fines on traffic tickets not paid promptly, a move I am sorry to disclose would likely benefit one member of my family quite a bit. (City Cast DC)
• The Commanders fell to San Francisco last night despite a furious late-game comeback attempt. A potential silver lining for increasingly despondent Washington fans: There’s no game next week. (Washington Sun) The Wizards couldn’t reach a deal with Bilal Coulibaly, so he’ll be a free agent at the end of the new season, which begins tomorrow. (Washington Sun)
• DC Council member Charles Allen called for the closure of Café 8, the Barracks Row bar where a National Guard member and a patron were shot Sunday night during an altercation. Allen cited what he called a “pattern of violence taking place outside this establishment.” (WUSA9)
• Riders on a Red Line train to Shady Grove spent almost an hour in a tunnel yesterday when their train went kaput. (NBC4 Washington)
• The US Supreme Court will hear a case brought by parents in Montgomery County who say admissions policies at county magnet middle school programs disadvantage Asian American kids. (Washington Post)
• Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday has died. She was 66 and had a form of brain cancer. (Washington Post)
• US Representative Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia says his office in Leesburg received a suspicious letter. Authorities are investigating reports of other lawmakers receiving such missives. (NBC4 Washington)
• Who’s behind a campaign to keep Waymo’s self-driving taxis off DC’s streets? Some listed as members of a group fighting the machines say they didn’t know anything about it. (Washington Post)
• Wolf Trap nursery in Vienna will close next year. It’s been in business since 1972. (Northern Virginia)
• No brains were eaten—but perhaps some minds were blown—during a zombie flash mob in Old Town. (ALXnow)
Things to Do
• Local YA author Paula Chase discusses her new book “Off Balance” with Ciera Burch at Politics and Prose this evening.
• Volunteer to plant, weed, and generally improve the garden at THEARC Farm.
See more ideas for this week 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.
