Washington, DC

1. Asymmetrical warfare
2. Powell appeal pressure
3. Trump buys time
4. Donations for TSA workers
5. The other Iran war

S&P 500 ▼ 0.6% in third straight losing week.

Pentagon to send ‘911 force’ to Iran

The Pentagon is sending about 5,000 Marines and sailors, including an “expeditionary unit,” the “911 force” of the US military, to the Middle East and deploying more warships to the region, a reflection of an emerging threat: asymmetrical warfare. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has touted the US military’s success in taking out thousands of Iranian military targets from the air, but the Iranian regime has been able to leverage its geography to maintain a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and inflict significant costs on a far more powerful opponent. President Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t rule out “boots on the ground,” but Hegseth has said he believed the war could be won without them and contended that the current conflict “is not Iraq.” But as the newest troops arrive in the area, the question of what constitutes victory will be tested.

Tillis pressures DOJ to drop appeal in Fed case

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro immediately promised to appeal a federal judge’s decision to toss subpoenas her office issued to the Federal Reserve, calling it an “outrageous decision.” The judge accused Pirro’s office of seeking political retribution against Fed Chair Jerome Powell on behalf of the president. “There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will,” District Judge James Boasberg wrote in a decision unsealed Friday. In response, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., warned appealing would “only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh,” whose Fed nomination he’s pledged to block until the probe is officially dead. Pirro said at a press conference she would appeal, panning Boasberg as an “activist judge” and Powell as “claiming victim status” with “a woe-is-me video.”

— Eleanor Mueller

Trump boasts he has ‘plenty of time,’ while paying dearly for it

Trump’s latest message on Iran is that he’s got “plenty of time” to achieve his goals, but the administration’s moves to stabilize oil prices suggest Trump needs to buy time with the US public, and he’s willing to pay a high price for it. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration would lift sanctions temporarily on Russian oil already at sea, which will add about 128 million barrels to global supply. Even with this week’s historic releases of strategic oil reserves from the US and allied nations, the added barrels are just a week of global demand. And the sanctions change gives Vladimir Putin a geopolitical win and further boosts Kremlin revenue that much of the West has sought to cut off since the invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

This April, Anthony Scaramucci, Founder & Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, will join global leaders at Semafor World Economy — the premier convening for the world’s top executives — to sit down with Semafor editors for conversations on the forces shaping global markets, emerging technologies, and geopolitics. See the first lineup of speakers here.

TSA workers miss a paycheck

About 50,000 TSA workers missed a paycheck today, as lines extend for hours at airports nationwide and workers turn to gift-card and donation drives. The Department of Homeland Security shutdown has dragged on for 27 days with no obvious resolution in sight. Republicans hoped that the ouster of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would satiate Democrats who want changes to Trump’s immigration enforcement practices. But Democrats have said to Semafor’s Burgess Everett that replacing Noem is not necessarily enough. As Republicans amplify the pain among unpaid workers and Democrats try to counter with proposals to fund DHS agencies unrelated to immigration, next week will bring an inflection point: That’s when Sen. Markwayne Mullin, the Oklahoma Republican Trump picked to lead DHS, testifies in confirmation hearings.

Pro-Iranian hackers wage a digital war

Pro-Iranian hackers are targeting the US and its allies, providing Tehran opportunities to gather intelligence and retaliate against critical infrastructure. On Thursday, an Iran-linked hacker group claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on American medical tech company Stryker, crippling the company’s operations. Iranian-linked hackers have also targeted cameras in Middle Eastern countries to improve the regime’s missile targeting. These efforts are not new for Iran, whose cyber attacks in the past have included hacking Trump’s 2024 campaign, water infrastructure in New York and Pennsylvania, and a Las Vegas casino. While air and naval strikes dominate headlines, cyber operations highlight a less visible but increasingly important dimension of modern conflict, one that allows Tehran to target the US and allies far from the battlefield and impose the costs of war on civilians.

Iran

• All six crew members aboard a midair refueling aircraft that crashed over Iraq have died, according to US Central Command.
• Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and “likely disfigured,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a press briefing at the Pentagon.

Politics

• The House Oversight Committee requested an interview at the end of March with Tova Noel, one of the prison guards on duty when Jeffrey Epstein died, as part of its investigation into the late convicted sex offender, reports Nicholas Wu of Semafor.
• Allies of Vice President JD Vance told reporters he was a skeptical voice in the runup to the war in Iran and that he opposes it. — Politico
• Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., wants to take on Sen. Ed Markey in the Democratic primary this fall, but first he’s got to get on the ballot. — Boston Globe
• Former Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema admitted to an illicit romantic relationship with her former bodyguard, but claimed she could not be sued by his estranged spouse in North Carolina because they had not been intimate there. — TMZ
• Marquee endorsements in the Illinois Democratic Senate primary are stirring up intra-party tensions as each faction fears the vote will splinter.

Anti-Muslim Posts

• Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Al., tweeted that “the enemy is inside the gates” alongside a photo from September 11, 2001 and Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York hosting an iftar dinner at City Hall. Mamdani condemned Tuberville’s post, which was one of many anti-Muslim messages posted on X after the celebration, as bigotry.
• Congressional Democrats prepared resolutions to formally censure Reps. Andy Ogles, R-Tn., and Randy Fine, R-Fl., for earlier social media posts expressing anti-Muslim sentiment.

Pentagon

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is considering big changes in the JAG corps. — The Atlantic

Foreign Policy

• Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed that his government is in talks with the US, seeking “solutions to the bilateral differences” amid the island’s ongoing economic implosion and humanitarian crisis.

— Politico, explaining Republican consultant Juleanna Glover’s deep network in DC while reporting on her ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Brendan Ruberry, copy editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu, David Weigel