Confrontations

Politics Is Preparing for Things to Get Worse: At the White House press briefing yesterday, Karoline Leavitt fielded two questions about Donald Trump’s possible approach to an opposition movement expected to only get louder as the week goes on.

On protests: “Of course the president supports peaceful protests. What a stupid question,” she told NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright after Jasmine asked if the president would allow peaceful protests at this weekend’s big military parade (Trump said Tuesday, “If there’s any protester that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force.”)

On the First Amendment: The president has not spoken of protecting the First Amendment rights of protesters, one reporter pointed out. “Two things can be important at the same time, and the president, as I just answered, supports the right of Americans to peacefully protest,” Leavitt said. “He supports the First Amendment. But that is not the majority of the behavior that we have seen taking place in Los Angeles.”

Even the nation’s most powerful are treading with caution. Multiple Democratic lawmakers told NOTUS’ Oriana González and Riley Rogerson of their plans to buy liability insurance policies. The need to get the insurance is brought up “every couple of weeks” among members with the “support of or encouragement from leadership,” one lawmaker said.

After the indictment of Rep. LaMonica McIver and the president’s public call for Gov. Gavin Newsom to be arrested, there’s not a lot of trust in the White House’s promise.

“Donald Trump is prosecuting his political enemies, and it’s better to be prepared,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has had a policy for two years.

Democrats’ Tightrope: Newsom has been out front pushing back against the White House’s approach to unrest in Los Angeles, but he has not been joined by other potential 2028 hopefuls.

One reason? Strategists see Republicans winning public opinion: Immigration enforcement has been popular. “We can’t simply oppose the idea of it because Trump does it in a way we don’t like,” a strategist told NOTUS’ Alex Roarty.

Newsom is trying to focus on the universally scary concept of a president deploying the military to clash with Americans on U.S. soil. And on a less popular form of immigration enforcement: mass roundups of undocumented migrants with no serious criminal record.

That’s still not a sure bet: “It’s a dangerous situation if we allow ICE to become the boogeyman and ICE agents to become the villains instead of the policies behind what they’re doing,” strategist and DNC veteran Hyma Moore told us.

Trump has some liabilities, too: His supporters in the Latino community were expecting to see deportations of criminal migrants, not images of federal agents rounding up undocumented people without serious records. “I think there’s some collateral. They’re getting a lot of press, it depends on that number,” Rep. Carlos Giménez told NOTUS.

Tom Emmer Is Confident About the One Big, Beautiful Bill: “I fully expect that [the Senate] will pass whatever they’re going to pass, and send it back before the July 4 deadline, and that we will be passing it over here and getting it to the president’s desk by Independence Day,” Emmer said in a interview with NOTUS’ Reese Gorman. The House majority whip said representatives will work over the July 4 recess if they have to.

He’s also hoping his colleagues will grill his fellow Minnesotan today. Gov. Tim Walz is set to appear before the Oversight Committee for “A Hearing With Sanctuary State Governors,” and Emmer has some advice for Republicans on the panel.

“Minnesotans did not create passive-aggressive behavior. We perfected it,” he said. “I don’t think Tim and I need to worry about passive-aggressive behavior. He doesn’t much care for me, and I’m not a big fan.”

Winsome Earle-Sears’ Yelp Review Trail: The Republican candidate for governor of Virginia appears to have regularly confronted customers who gave her home-repair business bad reviews online in the years before she ran for lieutenant governor, Dave Levinthal reports for NOTUS.

Before Earle-Sears closed it, Shenandoah Appliance Plumbing and Electric had 2.6 stars on a five-star scale across 17 reviews on Yelp and 3.1 stars on Google across 45 reviews. Earle-Sears’ gubernatorial campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

New on NOTUS

• David Hogg Is Leaving the DNC After Sparring With Party Leadership: The move comes after members voted to hold a redo of his vice chair election this week.
• Rep. Buddy Carter Tops Georgia GOP Senate Field in New Poll: An internal poll conducted for the Carter campaign and obtained by NOTUS shows the Georgia congressman ahead.
• Senators Fear ‘Dystopian’ Future as Bankrupt 23andMe Prepares to Sell Itself: A rare moment of bipartisan outrage.
• House Republicans Think Their Crypto Bill Stands a Better Chance Under Trump: The House tests the political climate for a bill that would regulate digital commodities.
• Congress Wants to Know Where the Department of Defense’s Budget Is: Secretary Pete Hegseth faced a grilling from both Republicans and Democrats.
• Trump ‘Appreciative’ of Elon Musk’s 3 a.m. Apology: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk posted on X.

Not Us

• Most GOP lawmakers plan to skip Trump’s big parade, by Lisa Kashinsky, Calen Razor and Mia McCarthy for Politico
• GitHub is Leaking Trump’s Plans to ‘Accelerate’ AI Across Government, by Jason Koebler for 404 Media
• ‘Come and get me’: Gavin Newsom has entered the meme war, by Tatum Hunter for The Washington Post

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