Common Ground

Today’s notice: The shifting sentiment on Gaza. The petty politics of reserving space on Capitol Hill. A preview of how the trans care debate could play out around CR time. After hot crypto summer comes hot (mulled?) crypto fall.

THE LATEST

Is Washington closer to speaking with one voice on Gaza? The Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 exposed deep divisions in U.S. politics that have remained front-and-center ever since.

But this weekend, the widely-reported humanitarian disaster underway in Gaza has created a rare rhetorical unanimity in Washington. Reps. Summer Lee and Hakeem Jeffries, along with Democrats in the vast ideological gulf between those two, issued strong statements condemning civilian deaths and demanding action.

America Firster Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted that the current Gaza aid situation is “horrific,” just a few days after strong Israel ally Sen. Lindsey Graham sounded a (slightly) critical note when he told NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt, “I’d like to get some aid in.”

Mounting pressure like this, including from a panoply of international voices, reportedly led to Israel creating aid corridors for the time being.

When asked about Gaza on Sunday, however, Donald Trump did not indicate that he plans to rethink his approach.

“We gave $60 million two weeks ago for food, for Gaza, and nobody acknowledged it,” Trump told reporters with him in Scotland. Trump said the U.S. would be sending more aid in, without weighing in on the debate over how and if it will actually make it to Gazans.

“It would be nice to at least have a ‘thank you,’” Trump added.

Open Tabs: Massie Open to Maxwell Pardon (NY Post); Trump And The Politics of Presidential Vacations (AP); Father of pilot in DCA crash seeks answers. (WaPo); The Real Cost of Trump’s ‘Free’ Plane (NYT)

From the Campaign Trail

Georgia drama. “People are pissed. Trumpworld is pissed,” a source close to the president’s political operation tells NOTUS’ Reese Gorman in a ripper of a story about increasingly bad feelings between Trump and Gov. Brian Kemp.

The main character: former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, who Kemp is pushing as the best opponent for incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff. The Trumpworld response: “You think in Georgia they would’ve learned their lesson with someone tied to football,” a source close to Trump tells Reese, a less-than-subtle reference to the 2022 trainwreck named Herschel Walker, now the president’s nominee for ambassador to the Bahamas.

From the White House

Working remotely. As noted, the president is in Scotland – allowing him to announce a trade deal with the European Union from the new ballroom at his Scottish golf club, Turnberry. Tariffs on most EU-produced goods, including cars, will be set at 15%. The 27-nation bloc will also make a $750 billion investment in U.S. energy and up its existing investments by more than half a trillion dollars.

Trump was asked by a reporter if he rushed this deal to push his ongoing Jeffrey Epstein challenges off the front page. “Only you would think that,” Trump said.

From the Hill

World’s pettiest deliberative body: Multiple House Democrats and staffers tell NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson they are having trouble holding meetings because they can’t reserve rooms to meet in. One frustrated senior aide: “It seems like any Democratic requests are just disregarded, not prioritized.”

Wait. What? Many Democrats are not actually ready to say their Republican colleagues are actively blocking them. Riley and Reese describe a hectic time in the Capitol where Republicans were literally taking up all available space to confer and push through their reconciliation bill, which by its very nature did not require Democratic input.

The majority’s take: “The last time Democrats controlled the Capitol it was locked down from the public for over two years,” a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson said. Now it’s not, the spox went on, and “there has been zero change in the procedure or rate of room requests and approvals.”

THE BIG ONE

Trans health care CR roadblock? “I don’t think that’s an issue that’s really negotiable,” House Appropriations health subcommittee chair Robert Aderholt tells NOTUS’ Oriana González in a detailed look at how conservatives like him, along with the White House, are pushing for the appropriations process to include a total ban on any federal funding (usually through Medicaid coverage) for gender-affirming care.

Such a ban was stripped from the reconciliation bill by the Senate parliamentarian, and people like Aderholt hope they can get it done in must-pass spending bills – including a CR.

Senators are already dismissing this idea. The House could theoretically put this ban in easily with its GOP majority. But Democrats hold a lot more power in this appropriations process than they did in reconciliation because of the 60-vote threshold needed for cloture. Sen. Patty Murray told Oriana she’d “fight tooth and nail” against “any harmful rider that would rip away access to gender-affirming health care for people who need it.”

NEW ON NOTUS

Commanders and control: Republicans with large Native constituencies have so far not been eager to back Trump’s latest hot-button talking point: forcing Washington’s football team to rename itself the Redskins. But for the most part they’re not opposing it, either, NOTUS’ Em Luetkemeyer reports. Sen. James Lankford: “I’m not a Commanders fan, so I don’t care what they’re called. I follow the Steelers and the Cowboys.”

New crypto bill acronym alert: Alright GENIUSes, the cryptocurrency industry is telling lawmakers, time for a little CLARITY. NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal and Taylor Giorno report on what this growing industry wants when Congress gets back (after getting most of what the industry wanted before the Hill went on recess). The new nickname references the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. “This is where the rubber is meeting the road,” a source familiar with industry’s political strategy said.

Worth 1,000 words: Video from inside a makeshift ICE detention center in a federal building in downtown NYC published recently has sparked calls for a formal investigation into the site from New York-area Democratic reps. It’s just the latest attempt at Hill oversight of the site, which has so far been largely stymied by the Trump administration and Republicans, NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak writes.

More: Massie Vows to Keep Pushing Trump on Epstein After August Recess, by Brett Bachman; House Ethics Panel Says AOC Violated Gift Rules by Nuha Dolby; Trump Says He Has ‘Nothing to Do With’ Epstein by Violet Jira

NOT US

• YouTuber Tim Pool Wants Answers—and Trusts No One, by Maggie Severns for The Wall Street Journal
• This Democrat Wants Cognitive Standards in Congress. Her Colleagues Disagree. By Annie Karni for The New York Times
• DOGE builds AI tool to cut 50 percent of federal regulations, by Hannah Natanson, Jeff Stein, Dan Diamond and Rachel Siegel for The Washington Post
• Researchers quietly planned a test to dim sunlight, by Corbin Hiar for Politico

WEEK AHEAD

Tuesday: Trump is scheduled to return to the U.S. after his visit to Scotland.

Wednesday: Federal Reserve scheduled to announce its latest moves on interest rates.

Thursday: Senate Armed Services Committee scheduled hearing on the nomination of Michael T. Powers to serve as Comptroller at the Pentagon.

Friday: White House tariff deadline.

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