Washington, DC

1. Hegseth’s Hill headwinds
2. China deal questions
3. No Iran resolution
4. AI execs take DC — again
5. Trump’s campaign schedule
6. Rubio pressed on Ethiopia
7. US-Kenya near minerals deal

PDB: Trump to reverse clean car rules

Trump makes announcement … Senate votes on college sports bill … SpaceX attempts orbital Starship flight

GOP steamed at Hegseth over war costs

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing GOP resistance as he tries to secure $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon next year, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott report. The growing reluctance reflects real concerns within the party over Hegseth’s leadership and his relationship with Congress, as well as the ongoing war with Iran. “This could turn into a real standoff with the military caught in the middle,” a Trump administration official told Semafor. And Hegseth’s big asks — he also wants a separate $88 billion to cover costs associated with the Iran war — are only heightening existing skepticism from some Republicans. “We don’t like what we’re seeing when it comes to the pulling of officers off of the promotion lists,” one Republican senator said. In a statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson noted that the department has conducted more than 500 briefings on the budget request, including some bipartisan ones.

Lingering questions over US-China talks

The dust is still settling following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer indicated that the administration would share more information about trade talks, including discussions about standing up the “Board of Trade” with China. The White House says that the two sides agreed to slash tariffs on $30 billion in “non-sensitive goods,” but it’s unclear where that leaves the dispute over rare earths. And there are continued questions over Trump’s stance on US arms sales to Taiwan. US Ambassador to China David Perdue denied Trump held up a weapons package to avoid upsetting Xi, but wouldn’t say if it would move now. “There are continued conversations about other sales,” Perdue said on Fox News, revealing Trump also offered to sell China weapons during the meeting — a stunning admission sure to unsettle lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Trump won’t rule out Iran strikes

Republicans are publicly calling for Trump to end the Iran war, but he doesn’t appear to be heeding them. Trump over the weekend rejected Iran’s latest ceasefire proposal, before telling Axios he expects more talks this week. Asked whether he’d approve another volley of military strikes on Iran before the midterms, Trump told Fox News that it’s “possible” but was noncommittal. On NBC, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz dismissed Iran’s latest offer as a “cynical attempt” to end the conflict, and insisted that domestic politics “have nothing to do with this.” Iran’s foreign minister, meanwhile, said the regime is “fully prepared for the war to be resumed” but didn’t rule out a diplomatic resolution. We’ll be watching for any more Republicans to break with Trump on the war.

AI panic clouds Washington meetings

After a weekend of alarming headlines about AI mishaps, public sector breaches, and agents gaining unauthorized access to outside systems, tech and AI CEOs are descending on Washington yet again this week. They’re more likely to be fêted than reprimanded as a whole. Given the Trump administration’s continued rejection of sweeping AI rules in favor of letting American companies quickly grow and accelerate, discussion about strict regulatory regimes is unlikely to be high on the agenda. First, there’s a Tuesday meeting at the White House with Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and AI CEOs from the frontier labs, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to Semafor. Meta is among those invited. That same day, an event dubbed “America’s Golden Age” will feature the president, more tech and AI executives, and Trump Cabinet members as they unveil a new government website.

— Ashley Gold

Trump, Vance step up campaign travel

Expect Trump and Vice President JD Vance to hit the road for the next few weeks leading up to the midterms, though their destinations might not always be what Republicans would expect. Trump, for one, is expected to head to Oklahoma and Alabama this week despite both being solidly red states. And Vance is being deployed to Texas and Florida as the White House looks to try and energize the core Trump base. They’re picking up their political travel as Republicans face growing headwinds ahead of the November elections. The conflict with Iran continues to impact Americans at home, while polling shows Trump’s favorability continuing to plummet. Trump’s decision to visit Alabama in particular has raised some eyebrows, given it’s not one of the many states where the party is playing defense.

— Shelby Talcott

Rubio pressed to intervene in Ethiopia

Senate Democrats led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intervene as renewed fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia raises fears of a return to the 2020-2022 civil war. In a statement shared first with Semafor, the senators warn that the African Union-brokered deal ending that war, an agreement Washington backed, is “unraveling.” The group of senators — which includes all Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Africa panel — criticized both sides of the conflict. They condemned a drone strike, suspected to involve the Ethiopian military, on a truck carrying US-funded food aid, and accused the Tigrayan forces of undermining the region’s interim government, refusing to disarm, and forcibly conscripting civilians. They also faulted the Trump administration for letting sanctions on regional actors lapse days before hostilities resumed.

— Adrian Elimian

Kenya, US nearing critical minerals deal

The US and Kenya are in “very advanced” talks on a critical minerals deal, Nairobi’s mining minister told Semafor. Hassan Ali Joho said discussions with Washington, DC centered on the creation of refineries and processing plants in Kenya that would partly supply the US. The minister’s comments come weeks after a senior American official said the US was ready to help Kenya develop its local mineral processing. Washington has unveiled several investments across Africa this year as it looks to challenge China’s influence there, though it could be years before the new US projects become productive. African nations, meanwhile, have sought to capitalize on this critical minerals push to capture more value from the supply chain: Ministers across the continent have complained that refining and processing is largely done overseas and are pushing for investments and job creation at home, a condition Kenya is attaching to its negotiations with the US.

— Alexis Akwagyiram

Debatable: A diesel export ban

A debate in Washington about how to lower diesel prices is dividing lawmakers and Trump administration officials, as the president says he’s “very seriously” considering an export ban. Members from agriculture-heavy states, like Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, say a ban on diesel exports would provide much-needed relief for farmers. But the idea ran into swift opposition from the oil industry, with the head of the American Petroleum Institute arguing that curbing exports “would only compound the problem” by creating challenges for domestic refiners. Experts say that the move could initially make diesel cheaper but would ultimately drive up prices for both diesel and gasoline. And while Trump initially endorsed the move, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and many Republican lawmakers are skeptical. Dan Eberhart, an energy executive and GOP donor, said that such a ban could “help politically” at the outset but would be counterproductive in the long run.

— Morgan Chalfant

White House

• President Trump reposted a series of messages criticizing Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., after she rebuked his immigration policies in a campaign video.
• “I trusted that our team would be tested when I was less than my healthy self,” chief of staff Susie Wiles, who recently announced she was cancer-free after a breast cancer diagnosis, writes in USA Today. “It was.”

Congress

• Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Tim Kaine of Virginia and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont plan to force a vote this week on a resolution to require the State Department to report to Congress on violence in the West Bank, according to an aide. — Burgess Everett
• Lawmakers of both parties panned the Trump administration’s airing of pro-Trump ads paid for by the federal government.

Outside the Beltway

• The Trump administration has considered building a baseball park in Grand Teton National Park that could host a Major League Baseball game. — WaPo

• UK police arrested five men on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism after three suspicious vehicles were seen traveling toward an air base used by the US A