Washington, DC

1. DC stays out of Maine
2. Dem Israel divisions
3. A new ‘forever war’?
4. Primetime Trump
5. ‘Far-left terrorism’ summit
6. US immigration divide
7. World Cup blackout

PDB: Global opinions of China improving

Trump meets with Darline Graham … Leavitt returns to briefing … SpaceX Starship test flight scheduled

Senate Dems sideline themselves in Maine

Senate Democrats have fought a proxy war over the future of their party in Senate primaries for months now — but they’re calling a truce in Maine, as the state’s Democrats sprint to nominate a new candidate to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. That means that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who propelled Graham Platner and endorsed Troy Jackson in the state’s gubernatorial primary, isn’t backing Jackson in the Senate primary. “It’s best that the people of Maine make their own decisions without outside influence,” Sanders told Semafor. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., another leading progressive, is also staying out of it — as are the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Still, Schumer is eager to land a candidate — and thinks the race is more winnable than it was a few weeks ago, before Platner imploded.

Democrats lean further away from Israel

Congress isn’t voting to end aid to Israel anytime soon. But Wednesday’s amendment vote is a preview of Democratic tensions to come after nearly half of the caucus voted to support it, including leaders like Whip Katherine Clark and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It has progressives predicting a sea change on the issue, especially after three incumbents were ousted by candidates who ran to their left on Israel. “Nothing will be the same on this issue ever again,” Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, declared. With over a third of the House Democratic Caucus backing legislation known as the “Block the Bombs Act” to prohibit the transfer of certain weaponry to Israel, and a vocal contingent of Israel-skeptical, Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates likely to come to Congress next year, these divisions are poised to grow larger.

— Nicholas Wu

Trump risks ‘forever war’ as strikes ongoing

The US and Iran exchanged a new wave of attacks, quashing any hopes of a rapid end to the conflict. Washington struck a tanker and targets in northern Iran, while Tehran fired on US military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. President Donald Trump claimed the Strait of Hormuz was open, but the renewed exchanges have largely shut the waterway, and analysts told The Wall Street Journal that keeping control would require either risky naval escorts or a major land invasion of Iran. Trump risks a “forever war” comparable to those in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam, a security expert wrote in The New York Times, because he overestimated his ability to turn military might into “political and diplomatic success.”

Trump’s primetime topics still a mystery

Trump will discuss elections, Iran, and possibly other topics during a primetime address tonight that has Democrats nervous. Trump said he would talk about voting systems and “free and fair elections,” and reports suggest he will use old files to argue that US election systems are vulnerable. Trump has refused to accept the 2020 election results; while the intelligence community has found foreign meddling in US elections, there isn’t evidence of those efforts altering vote tallies or the outcome. “Conspiracy theories about stolen elections cannot become a pretext for weakening our democratic system,” read a memo from the office of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. Schumer is planning a rapid response effort to rebut any false claims. The White House is keeping its cards close: “The truth is, nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say, which is why everyone should tune in,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

— Morgan Chalfant and Shelby Talcott

Rubio hosts ‘far-left terrorism’ summit

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting at least 65 delegations from around the world today for an event focused on “transnational far-left terrorism.” The gathering will include remarks from Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, and others, according to a senior State Department official, who described the event as “a pivotal moment in an eight-month-long effort” for the agency. The administration’s emphasis on far-left terrorism has sparked debate, with critics arguing the focus is misplaced. “This has been a blind spot for a lot of our partners,” the official told Semafor, when pressed on the decision to prioritize crackdowns on far-left extremism as opposed to extremism writ large. “We have to be able to protect the American people, and we have to wrap our arms around what that problem looks like.”

— Shelby Talcott

Migrants in US like where they live

Despite Trump’s crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, migrants living in the US are more likely than those in any other country to describe the community they live in as a good place for immigrants. Ninety-six percent of US residents born elsewhere said so when polled by Gallup in 2024 and 2025 — a period that covers part of Trump’s second term. Oman, the UAE, and Canada are all next behind the US, with 91% of immigrants living there expressing similarly positive sentiments about their regions. But the US also stands out for its divisions. Out of all advanced economies, the US sees the largest gap between how migrants and how native-born Americans rate their communities on this question. Eighty-one percent of native-born Americans say their communities are a good place for immigrants to live, meaning there’s a 15-point gap with their non-native counterparts.

Saudi faces World Cup blackout

US soccer fans — including Trump — have been glued to their TV screens watching the World Cup, which will culminate in Spain’s faceoff against Argentina in New Jersey on Sunday. But many fans in Saudi Arabia have been unable to legally watch the tournament, Semafor’s Matthew Martin scoops, after the network that holds the regional broadcasting rights was blocked in the kingdom. Neither BeIN, the Qatari-owned platform that has the rights to air games across 24 countries in the Middle East, nor its streaming service has been available in Saudi Arabia since the tournament began last month. The unexplained ban has forced soccer fans to rely on unauthorized streaming sites and VPNs to watch the world’s most popular sporting event. Saudi Arabia, which is itself due to host the 2034 World Cup, previously blocked BeIN during an economic boycott of Qatar from 2017 to 2021.

Centrist Democrats’ comeback plot

Last month, after Abdul El-Sayed and I wrapped up our interview in the Detroit suburbs, I mentioned the ongoing effort by centrist Democrats to link him to Graham Platner. The candidate laughed. He liked to joke that he was already running for Senate as a Muslim with the middle name Muhammad, “and now I have to carry that guy?” If centrists have their way: Yes, he does. They want the debacle in Maine, where the left got its candidate and tumbled face-first into disaster, to be front of mind for Democratic primary voters. But so far, the moment has revealed how hard it is for the party to fight an insurgency without a clear leader. Ten years after some Bernie Sanders delegates marched out of the Democratic National Convention, the party is still cautious about using its resources to beat the left.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: “The Democratic Party has to have the willingness and ability to have a conversation about the Middle East and Israel,” Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Mich., said. “If we can’t do that, then we are going to get our clocks cleaned in elections coming up because all we’re doing is fighting each other.”

Axios: “President Trump’s primetime address from the East Room tonight is forcing TV networks to choose: Air potential 2020 election falsehoods, or risk backlash from a White House that’s shown little hesitation in confronting the media.”

Playbook: One Trump administration official said of the president’s planned speech tonight: “the people I talk to are scared sh*tless.”

White House

• White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel launched an intensifying probe into whether someone in the administration leaked information to the press about President Trump’s Qatari-donated Air Force One jet, and asked for some officials’ phones. — CNN
• Trump said Iran has released an American woman detained in the country since 2024.

Congress

• Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., says he will vote against House rules until President Trump ousts White House adviser Alex Bruesewitz, with whom Fine has feuded.
• The House education committee blessed Trump’s dismantling of the Education Department.

Outside the Beltway

• The National Park Service quietly replaced informational panels at the slavery memorial at the President’s House exhibit, on the site of George Washington’s former Philadelphia home.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired his defense minister amid a broader cabinet reshuffle.