Washington, DC

1. Will Trump switch gears?
2. Housing bill clock
3. Hormuz traffic surges
4. Dems’ Ebola push
5. Economic sentiment test
6. Bolton’s day in court

PDB: NYC board approves Mamdani’s rent freeze

Trump to address Faith and Freedom Coalition conference … Rescue teams arrive in Venezuela after deadly quakes … Nasdaq futures ⬇️1.2%

Only Trump can end his own blockade

President Donald Trump is in a predicament only he can solve. His focus on the GOP voter ID bill is preventing Congress from reviving a key surveillance law, plugging up the House floor, and even keeping him from signing a bipartisan housing bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson met with Trump yesterday afternoon at the White House, insisting afterwards that Trump wants “to stop the blockade in the House.” Still, it’s not clear what Trump will do — if anything – to end the impasse. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with [the housing bill]. He says it’s not a big deal,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Trump is urging Republicans to do “whatever it takes” to pass the voting bill, said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. House conservatives are attempting to attach the voter ID legislation to annual defense legislation, but it faces slim odds to becoming law.

— Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott

House Republicans start housing bill clock

House Republican leaders are at last sending Trump bipartisan housing affordability legislation, officially starting the clock for him to sign — or veto — the measure within 10 days before it automatically becomes law. “Congress has work to do, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Johnson said after his meeting with Trump yesterday, adding that Republicans are “transmitting the housing bill to the White House.” Republicans hadn’t sent the measure prior to the meeting, people familiar with the matter told Semafor, as lawmakers weighed how to respond to Trump’s flip on the legislation. Senate Banking Committee members found ways to subtly tout key provisions at a Thursday hearing. “The much-celebrated — at least, by members of the Senate — housing bill that we passed actually reinforces the notion that there is a way for us to impact positively affordability,” said Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C.

— Eleanor Mueller

Hormuz traffic tests US-Iran truce

Tankers crept through the Strait of Hormuz, despite a new vessel attack rattling an already unsettled energy market. Traffic through the waterway has more than tripled since a US-Iran interim peace deal, but remains far below prewar levels. A key test of the truce is looming today as four empty supertankers head into the strait: Their journey would suggest shipping companies are confident that existing measures allow them to load cargo and freely leave for ports elsewhere. The potential resumption of oil flows is already reshaping energy-market dynamics. With supply now abundant, Iraq’s president told The National that his country would suspend its OPEC membership if production quotas weren’t increased, following the UAE’s withdrawal from the group last month.

Trump pushed to work with WHO on Ebola

A group of Democratic senators led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., introduced legislation requiring Trump to rejoin the World Health Organization and coordinate with the body on the Ebola response, Semafor’s Adrian Elimian scooped. The legislation would require Trump to take “all necessary steps” for the US to rejoin the WHO within 30 days after its enactment, and to immediately collaborate with the organization on the Ebola response. It would also authorize funding to cover WHO membership contributions and support the organization’s efforts to tackle the virus. The legislation is highly unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate, but is an answer-of-sorts to Trump’s supplemental budget request including $1.4 billion in Ebola funding. A State Department spokesperson blamed the WHO for a delay in alerting the globe to the Ebola outbreak, and called the organization “ineffective and historically hostile to necessary reforms.”

Data could show inflation fears easing

The latest indicator of whether Americans’ economic sentiment is improving after Trump’s deal with Iran is imminent. The University of Michigan today publishes its final consumer sentiment survey for June; its last reading, released earlier this month, suggested consumers’ worries were easing somewhat from their wartime record low in May. Americans’ economic confidence, while weak, started to recover this month, according to earlier Gallup polling — a sign things might be moving in the right direction. Today’s survey will follow the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, PCE, which showed prices rose in May at the fastest annual pace in three years. Even so, consumer spending was stronger than expected. “The US consumer is not cracking,” one analyst said. The May inflation report could be the worst it gets, but the problem will still persist.

Bolton expected to plead guilty

Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton will appear in federal court in Maryland this morning, and he’s expected to plead guilty to mishandling sensitive national security information. The case against Bolton alleges that he shared diary-like notes containing classified information with family members as he prepared to write his memoir. While Bolton is one of a handful of Trump foes targeted by the Justice Department, the evidence in the case is substantial based on the 26-page indictment. A plea deal — which reportedly will see him plead guilty to one felony and pay a $2 million fine — could allow the president’s onetime adviser to avoid prison time. It still needs approval from a judge. Trump may celebrate Bolton’s guilty plea, but other Justice Department efforts to prosecute his enemies — like James Comey and Letitia James — are either struggling or dead.

Debatable: Trump’s DC renovations

Trump’s renovations to the nation’s capital extend far beyond the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant writes. The Trump administration has undertaken scores of construction projects across Washington, DC since he took office for the second time, from the new White House ballroom to repairs of fountains and statues sitting on federal land. The projects could end up costing taxpayers more than $1 billion, according to The New York Times. The scale of Trump’s DC renovations, coupled with the peeling paint and algae bloom plaguing the Reflecting Pool project, has critics arguing that the projects are an excessive use of federal funds. But Trump’s defenders see worthy repairs that have been needed for years. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., called the renovations a “perfectly appropriate use” of taxpayer dollars.

From launching Call Her Daddy in 2018 to becoming one of the most successful podcasters in the world, Alex Cooper has built a highly influential media brand — and now she’s expanding into the creative agency space. On this week’s episode of Mixed Signals, Unwell co-founder Alex Cooper joins Max and Ben live from Cannes Lions to talk about growing her media business beyond podcasting, how her creative agency ended up going toe-to-toe with Call Her Daddy in revenue, and why she’s more interested in the marketing than most talent in her field. Plus, what she’s learned from her interview with Michelle Obama.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pushing back on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s approach to funding defense programs depleted by the Iran conflict, arguing that another party-line reconciliation bill should be a last resort.

Playbook: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is planning to deliver a sweeping speech on patriotism on the occasion of America’s 250th birthday, saying “the president is incapable of meeting the moment.”

Axios: “The Senate is now behaving like the Senate,” a longtime ally of President Trump said of signs of rebellion among GOP senators. “More to come. If he loses the Senate, his presidency will be effectively over. Yet he’s acting like it doesn’t matter.”

White House

• Vice President JD Vance said that Watergate would be a “12-hour news story” if it happened today.

Courts

• Stanley Woodward, the No. 3 Justice Department official, has told antitrust lawyers that he wants them to stop taking cases to trial and instead attempt to settle them. — WSJ

Outside the Beltway

• A New York City board voted to approve Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze.
• Gregg Phillips, a high-ranking official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who once claimed he had teleported to a Waffle House, has gone on leave.

Campaigns

• Californians will vote in November on whether to impose a one-time wealth tax on billionaires, despite pressure from Governor Gavin Newsom and other top Democrats to drop it, according to the union pushing the measure.
• Republican nominee for New York governor Bruce Blakeman generated outrage among Democrats after he said congressional candidate Brad Lander “would be a camp guard in the concentration camp if he could,” over his criticism of Israel; both are Jewish.

Business

• JP Morgan Chase promoted Troy Rohrbaugh to the role of co-president, making him a potential frontrunner to succeed CEO Jamie Dimon.

National Security