Bulldoze the Ballroom?

Today’s notice: What do Democrats do with all the stuff Trump has built? A scoop about the executive branch ignoring the GAO. A scoop about the Pentagon delaying cleanup of forever chemicals. And a scoop about a dad getting a new job at HHS. Plus: Beating D.C. speed cameras in court and what Bill Pulte thinks is “pretty, pretty, pretty cool stuff.”

THE LATEST

Should a Democratic president bulldoze Trump’s ballroom? It’s a complicated question that has already split the nascent 2028 Democratic presidential field, NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz reports. It’s also one of many questions candidates will be asked regarding how they see the office after Donald Trump finally departs the White House.

The much-hyped Freedom 250 UFC fight is set for Sunday in the giant cage parked like a visiting interstellar delegation’s craft on the White House lawn. In our new sports section, Roman Stubbs explores how the moment fits into the relatively short history of UFC: “To go from being attacked by every serious politician in the country to being on the White House lawn is pretty interesting,” UFC co-founder Campbell McLaren told him.

In the longer history of the presidency, it’s another I can’t believe he actually did it moment for Trump.

Trump will leave a legacy of a vastly upsized executive branch, willing himself near-monarchial powers to build buildings, force corporations to kowtow and rework much of the federal bureaucracy as he sees fit. The big question for his opposition since he was reelected in 2024 is: How much of it do they want to keep?

It won’t just be the ballroom if Trump has his way. There will be the arch, the “National Garden of American Heroes,” the vast office buildings emptied out by shuttered departments and on and on.

Which brings us back to the bulldozing. “I imagine that’s going to be one of those little litmus-test things that everyone’s going to have to commit to,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom told NOTUS recently when asked if the next president should tear the ballroom down. “But destruction is not strength. We have to be builders. What’s destroyed, history can’t be replaced, so even if you tore it down again, what do you rebuild in its place?”

Call him one of the Remodel Caucus. Other members include former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (“If they build something stupid, maybe the best thing we can do is reuse it for something better,” he told NOTUS).

The Tear-Down Caucus only has two members among the might-run so far: Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona. “I think we have to be ready to really wipe out any of the illegal acts that this president has done,” Gallego said, “and that includes any of these architectural enhancements.”

Open tabs: Trump and Allies Are Working on Plan to ‘Expunge’ Impeachments (WSJ); Prominent Biden envoy unloads on the White House he served (Politico); National Mall Vandalized With Giant Anti-Trump Message (NOTUS); Elon Musk is the world’s first trillionaire (on paper) thanks to the SpaceX IPO (WaPo)

From the GAO

A government ghosting scoop: A growing number of federal agencies are quietly ignoring a tried-and-true federal government practice: opening up to the Government Accountability Office. NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery reports that the Trump administration is stonewalling the GAO, either refusing access or ignoring requests altogether.

Who are some of the worst offenders, you might ask? Officials cited the Office of Management and Budget, Housing and Urban Development, the Commerce Department, the Education Department and the Small Business Administration as particularly noncooperative. Coincidentally, they also did not respond to NOTUS’ detailed questions.

From the Hill

A weird moment for FISA: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act faces an unpredictable future at least for the short term, NOTUS’ Avani Kalra and Kadia Goba report. Congressional authorization will expire on Friday after Democrats refused to back a short-term extension yesterday. But the program was recertified in March by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, allowing FISA to continue collecting information under the law for one year.

What happens next depends on who you ask. Some lawmakers said the surveillance program would be crippled because Congress failed to act; some said it’s no big deal because the court already did.

Behind all this was outrage over Bill Pulte, whom the president appointed acting director of national intelligence over the objections of a slew of lawmakers from both parties who pointed out Pulte had no experience in the intel world. Yesterday, Trump announced former SEC Chair Jay Clayton would be nominated to soothe angry members of Congress — but that announcement came after lawmakers were on their way out of town.

Pulte was left to juggle his two jobs — Federal Housing Finance Agency director and acting DNI. He arrived for a homebuilders association panel five minutes before it was supposed to end yesterday. “I was doing my other temporary job,” he told the moderator, NOTUS’ Raymond Fernández reports. “Just temporary,” he repeated.

“We’re not going to ask,” the moderator said.

“It’s pretty, pretty, pretty cool stuff, though,” Pulte responded.

From HHS

Happy Father’s Day from HHS: The Health and Human Services aide assigned as White House liaison picked her own father for a high-profile spot on a critical health care panel that makes preventive care decisions affecting millions of Americans, NOTUS’ Paige Winfield Cunningham reports.

Malia Shirley, charged with screening candidates for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, picked Mark Shirley — who in addition to being her dad is an osteopathic doctor who works in the emergency department of a Nebraska hospital.

NOTUS METRO

He fought the D.C. traffic cameras, and he won: The attorney Matt Ricciardi just had a $100 speeding ticket he got for going 61 in a 50 mph zone tossed by the District’s highest court after a three-year legal fight. NOTUS’ Martin Austermuhle reports on how his novel approach opened the door for potentially thousands of other drivers to contest tickets handed out by the city’s more than 200 speed cameras.

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NEW ON NOTUS

“Forever chemicals” sticking around for a while longer: Previously unreported updates to Department of Defense records show the DOD is again delaying PFAS cleanup at nearly 200 military sites, NOTUS’ Anna Kramer and Joe Gould report. The average delay is about a decade and affects sites in 42 states as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

More: Thune and Schumer Lack the Thick Skin of Their Predecessors, by Paul Kane

House Republicans Keep Losing Outside of Washington. They Blame Washington. By Daniella Diaz and Reese Gorman

Labor Unions Can’t Keep Up With AI, by Jade Lozada

NOT US

• Trump Stormed Out of His Meet the Press Interview. Kristen Welker Tells Us How It Happened. By Aidan McLaughlin for Vanity Fair
  
• As senators depart, will their traditions endure? By Nina Heller for Roll Call
  
• Cloudbusting in California, by Fintan O’Toole for The New York Review of Books
  

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