Good morning. Welcome to June. Partly sunny with a high around 79 today. A low near 54 overnight. The Nationals host the Marlins today. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Built to Spill, “Fool’s Gold.” The indie-rock stalwarts play 9:30 tonight with Guerilla Toss.
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: Iran and the US traded fresh attacks late this weekend. The US said it attacked Iranian communication facilities after it foiled an Iranian drone attack, and Iran appears to have responded with an attack in Kuwait. Both countries characterized their actions as defensive. (WSJ) What about that peace deal we were hearing was close before the weekend? President Trump complained online about “political hacks” who he said were “chirping” at him and claimed Iran “really wants to make a deal.” (Reuters) But as of this morning, a deal remains elusive. Trump cast himself over the weekend as unhurried. (CNBC) He made some edits Saturday to the deal text negotiators had hammered out. (Axios)
Stuck: Under the draft agreement, the future of Iran’s nuclear programs will be under discussion for a period of time. That’s roughly the same situation before the war, and Iran has every incentive to “try to stretch the negotiations for months or years.” (NYT) Oil prices inched up overnight. (AP) Trump’s economic adviser Kevin Hassett argued that “real wages are going up” amid soaring prices for Americans. (ABC News) That message hasn’t really caught on with people who responded to a recent poll. (Politico) Meanwhile: The US has quietly “guided around 70 commercial ships” through the Strait of Hormuz over the past few weeks, which suggests some firms are willing to take chances to end the deadlock in the gulf. (NYT)
Bad weekend, Part I: Trump flipped out after a judge ordered his name be removed from the Kennedy Center and put a stop to a planned two-year closure for renovations that he claims is necessary. In posts, he suggested “he was considering casting the Kennedy Center aside as one of his personal projects.” (NYT) The center’s current leadership plans to appeal. (NYT) Trump could “simply remain chair and let the center languish,” Philip Kennicott writes in a good column about what’s next. (Washington Post) In the emptied building, Janay Kingsberry writes,”there is little sense of how the center might come back to life at this point.” (Atlantic)
Bad weekend, Part II: Trump’s planned $1.8 billion taxpayer funded slush fund for people who claimed to have experienced “weaponization” of government suffered a double tap on Friday, when a federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked its administration, and later that day when another federal judge suggested she may reopen the precipitating case amid an investigation into its settlement. (Politico) Senate Republicans and some White House aides have suggested Trump drop the fund, which is becoming increasingly stinky, politically speaking. (WSJ) January 6 rioters want money from it. (AP) More blue states want to tax proceeds at 100 percent. (Washington Post) A tick-tock of the deal Trump essentially made with himself. (NYT)
Bad weekend, Part III: Meanwhile, Trump said a planned state fair on the National Mall that most announced performers fled from would become a MAGA rally that he would headline instead. (NPR) In an unusual bid to connect with today’s entertainment consumers, Trump boasted he “gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime.” (NYT)
Administration perambulation: Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi punted questions about the administration’s handling of files on the deceased, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to Todd Blanche, the current acting AG, and FBI Director Kash Patel, who she said had, unlike her, been actually in charge of the effort. (NYT) The White House’s late Friday release of a report on Trump’s visit to Walter Reed has sparked fresh questions about his health. (Axios) The journalist John Solomon may get a White House gig. (NYT) Criticism mounts of a plan to throttle customs operations in blue states floated by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. (NYT) DHS officials did a U-turn on green cards, saying only some applicants would have to return to their home countries to apply. (NYT) The publication Lawfare has restored much of the Justice Department’s January 6 website after DOJ deleted it. (Lawfare) Christian Castro, an ICE agent accused of shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis in January, was arrested in Texas. (Politico) US troops who wish to attend the UFC cage-fighting match at the White House on Trump’s birthday must “meet height and weight requirements.” (Washington Post) A meteor wicked exploded off the Massachusetts coast Saturday, NASA said. (CBS News)
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert:
Restaurants that do just one thing obsessively well are one thing DC needs more of. Take Marv’s Dogs, the tiny new hot dog spot from Diane Gross and Khalid Pitts, the proprietors of Cork wine bar and market. The star offering is its Chicago dog, a snappy beef frank set on a glossy poppyseed bun—like the relish, it’s house-made—with the usual sport peppers, pickle spear, yellow mustard, and celery salt. Two other excellent reasons to visit: a downstairs mini-arcade where you can play Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man; and honey-vanilla soft serve that’s destination-worthy on its own. (4936 Wisconsin Ave., NW.)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Flummoxed by ranked-choice voting in DC? Here’s an explainer.
• An appreciation of Mom N Pop Antiques, a beloved shop on Georgia Avenue in Park View that closed recently.
• Kuro, a new Japanese vinyl bar, just opened in Park View.
• Here’s how GWU’s recently announced sticker price of over $98,000 for some students stacks up against tuition and housing costs at other area universities.
Local news links:
Big local meteorological news: The Capital Weather Gang have parted ways with the Washington Post and are no longer a gang, according to their new site. (WTOP)
• The Washington Nationals fired team executive Sean Hudson after James O’Keefe‘s group released a recording of him saying a bunch of stuff. (Athletic)
• The NTSB is investigating Friday’s deadly bus crash on I-95 in Virginia. The driver of the bus faces charges of involuntary manslaughter. (Washington Post)
• Lawmakers will return to Richmond to try to solve a budget impasse soon. (Virginia Mercury) Some Virginia Democrats are upset with Governor Abigail Spanberger‘s veto spree. (Washington Post) She removed Virginia Tech rector John Rocovich last week. Letters are being traded. (Washington Post)
• A deal to plop an Arlington alternative high school into Amazon’s HQ2 campus is nigh. (WTOP)
• Ricardo Munn of Bowie died after falling into the water while docking a boat in DC on Friday. (WUSA9)
• DC police are looking for a man “wearing pink glasses and a blue-and-pink fanny pack” in connection with an overnight stabbing in Navy Yard. (ABC 7)
• Rickie C. Maddox, the interim CEO of Alexandria’s troubled public-housing agency, announced plans to step down. (ALXnow)
• What is Ledo Pizza planning??? (Ledo Pizza/X)
• A horse got its leg stuck in a pedestrian bridge in Maryland and was rescued. (DC News Now)
• An emu got loose in Maryland, got hit by a car but was apparently okay, and was returned to its owners by state troopers who subdued it by way of dog leash. (DelmarvaNow)
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.
