Good morning. Mostly cloudy with a high around 54 and a chance of showers after 1 PM. A low near 44 overnight.
Sports this weekend: The Capitals visit Boston Saturday. DC United will play Inter Miami Saturday in Baltimore. The Wizards visit New Orleans Sunday.
I’m sorry to remind you that Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday. I’ll see you early Monday with my eyes a bit blearier than usual! 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:
Jacky Cougar & the Vampyres From Africa, “Altamont Blues.” Jacky Cougar’s Jack Abok says he wants his project’s self-titled LP “to mean to the listeners what the Beatles White Album meant to the Manson Family.” Frankly, a quote like that is an excellent way to convince me to listen to your record. Jacky Cougar & the Vampyres From Africa play Rhizome tonight with Ceremony East Coast, Osmia, and Caustic Hologram.
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.
Tell *us* where to go: Typically, we’re the ones giving readers travel recommendations. But this year, we’re asking you to share your opinions, too. Nominate your favorite place to stay in our travel survey, and you could win a $100 gift card—and your picks may end up in our May issue.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
War latest: Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah sites near Beirut, and Iran targeted Tel Aviv. (NYT) “U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday.” (Reuters) An NYT analysis “indicates the school building was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base.” (NYT) President Trump said he wanted to be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader. (Axios) Asked about rising gas prices at home, Trump said, “If they rise, they rise.” (Reuters) Republicans in the House of Representatives narrowly defeated a resolution that would have restricted Trump from prosecuting his war in Iran without Congressional approval. (NBC News)
Noem more drama: Trump fired Kristi Noem yesterday, ending her rather colorful tenure atop the Department of Homeland Security. He intends to nominate US Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to replace her and said Noem would become “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a job that does not yet appear to officially exist. (AP) Trump was ” livid that she said under oath that he had signed off on spending $220 million in ads that promote herself.” Noem’s, um, close adviser Corey Lewandowski will depart alongside her. (WSJ) With regard to Noem’s ad campaign, Trump said he “spent less money than that to become president.” (NBC News) He told Reuters he “never knew anything about it.” (Reuters)
Let’s insert a line break for readability. Noem “handpicked contractors to lead a $100 million campaign to recruit Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers instead of allowing competitive bidding for the jobs.” (NBC News) US Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said he would push to investigate Noem for perjury over her assertion that Lewandowski hadn’t approved DHS contracts; documents say otherwise. (NYT) What the heck is the Shield of the Americas? Here’s what we know so far. (The Hill) From a bizarre photo op at a Salvadoran prison to falsely labeling US citizens her employees killed in Minneapolis “domestic terrorists,” Noem’s tenure is a marvel to revisit. (NYT)
The new guy: Trump shouldn’t have much trouble muscling Mullin’s nomination through the Senate, even though Mullin recently called his fellow GOP Senator Rand Paul a “freaking snake.” (Politico) DHS is still shut down as Democrats seek reforms to immigration-enforcement tactics, that fight continues. (Punchbowl News) Meanwhile: ICE has detained Estefany Rodríguez, a Nashville journalist who has reported critically on the agency. A native of Colombia, Rodríguez was “following all the legal steps to citizenship.” (Nashville Banner) A DHS employee fatally shot another US citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, last March, something the department didn’t acknowledge until last month. (Washington Post)
Annals of Justice: The Florida bar is investigating Lindsey Halligan, who filed flimsy prosecutions against some of Trump’s perceived enemies when she served as the interim US Attorney for Virginia’s Eastern District. (NYT) In an incredible coincidence, DOJ said it would seek to “suspend state bar ethics investigations into current and former DOJ lawyers.” (Bloomberg Law) The department finally published FBI interviews with a woman who claimed Trump had sexually assaulted her as part of its ongoing release of files related to the deceased, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. (Politico)
Administration perambulation: The National Capital Planning Commission delayed a vote on Trump’s planned White House ballroom, saying it had received “significant public input” about the project. (Washington Post) Dozens of states sued to stop the tariffs Trump imposed after the Supreme Court struck down his previous impost regime. (AP) Trump canceled a report into the state of nature in the US. It will proceed independently. (NYT) Andrew Paul Johnson, a January 6 rioter Trump pardoned, got a life sentence for child molestation. (NBC News) Pardoned J6 rioter Bryan Betancur, who was arrested after he live-streamed himself touching women’s hair on the Metro, was extradited from Maryland to Arlington. (WUSA9) US Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas abandoned his scandal-plagued bid for reelection. (NYT) Texas AG Ken Paxton suggested he’d drop out of a Senate primary there if Republicans in Congress passed a voter ID bill. Trump plans to endorse Paxton’s opponent, the incumbent John Cornyn, which could complicate Paxton’s proposed negotiations. (Politico) Health Secretary RFK Jr. said Education Secretary Linda McMahon helped his niece Zoe Hines get a contract with WWE. (New York Post)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• 🌸 🌸 🌸 NPS’S PEAK BLOOM PREDICTION IS IN 🌸 🌸 🌸
• Holy frijoles! The Taco Bell 50K will return later this year.
• Looking for more than one place? These adjacent properties are all on the market—and you can see them this weekend.
• This imaginary dinner party looks fun.
• The Caps will wear their new cherry blossom sweaters next week.
• Here are seven ideas for how to celebrate Women’s History Month around town.
Local news links:
• Andre Wright, the No. 2 official in the DC police, lost his police powers yesterday and was placed on administrative leave. (NBC4 Washington) Police officials said the move was “related to the text messages found on Wright’s work phone.” (Washington Post)
• Louis Geri of Vineland, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to bringing explosives to St. Matthew’s Cathedral, where a mass celebrating the beginning of the US Supreme Court’s term was held last year. (AP)
• Police say three people slashing tires in Silver Spring stabbed a person who confronted them in the head. (DC News Now)
• Cherry blossom SmarTrip cards will arrive in two weeks. (WUSA9)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: Joshua Bell performs with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields at Strathmore.
Saturday: “Treemonisha,” Washington National Opera’s first work since the troupe left the Kennedy Center, has its debut at Lisner.
Sunday: Lav Diaz‘s historical epic “Magellan” shows at Smithsonian’s Asian Art Museum.
See lots more picks for the weekend 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.
