Saying Their Piece

The biggest conversation on the Hill last night wasn’t reconciliation. It was about lawmakers feeling safe after the tragic events in Minnesota. One of that state’s senators (and former lieutenant governor), Tina Smith, confronted Sen. Mike Lee after the Utah Republican’s viral post saying the murder of a state legislator and her spouse, as well as the shooting of another lawmaker and his spouse, are “what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”

What she said: Smith told reporters she wanted to convey “how much pain that caused me and the other people in my state, and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten canceled a town hall in Michigan after her name appeared on the alleged shooter’s extensive list of targets. She said she plans to reschedule it, but fear among elected officials like her is palpable right now.

Democrats in the House are asking for a bigger security stipend. Members are entitled to $10,000 for the installation of security measures and $150 a month to maintain them. Democrats in the House are set to meet today to discuss what protection members can get. Personal security details, an incredible expense, are only reserved for top Hill leaders and members who have received credible threats.

The security conversation unites: Beyond the political scorekeeping, the feeling on Capitol Hill was powerlessness, NOTUS’ Hill team reports. “It is so unfortunate what happened in Minnesota, it raises this dark reality that we are all one vote away from losing our lives,” Rep. Norma Torres, a member of the House Administration Committee, which has oversight of member security, told NOTUS.

Who Gets the Last Word? Donald Trump left the G7 Summit in Canada early, but not in a huff the way he did when Justin Trudeau was heading the meeting in 2018.

NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright reports from Canada on how Prime Minister Mark Carney is getting none of the “51st state” ribbing his predecessor, Trudeau, had to deal with.

“The president is a very pragmatic person, he’s going to deal with people who can solve his problems,” a former Trump foreign policy official told Jasmine. “It’s not like some miracle’s being worked here.”

As for leaving ahead of schedule: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt cited “what’s going on in the Middle East” as the reason for Trump’s early departure. “You probably see what I see, and I have to be back as soon as I can,” Trump told reporters.

Trump returns to some frostier relations with political allies. “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying,” Trump said at a G7 press availability before his departure was announced. “Let him go get a TV network and say it so that people listen.”

Carlson is among the most vocal cadre of Trump supporters vehemently trying to stop the U.S. from getting more involved in Israel’s conflict with Iran. There are some big names here: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted up a storm this weekend urging the U.S. to stay out.

At something like the G7, it’s clear whose take is final. But in these MAGA fights, it’s more opaque.

NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports that agriculture and hospitality industry groups don’t know who to believe after reports surfaced that Trump had ordered ICE not to arrest migrants wholesale at their work sites. The administration seemingly backtracked on that directive Monday, according to The Washington Post. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff were reportedly told to resume raids at farms, hotels and restaurants (Stephen Miller has won this battle, it appears, but it remains unclear who will win in the end).

SALTy Dogs Bite? The reconciliation bill fight is looking more and more like a staring contest between the House and Senate.

The top line: On Monday, Rep. Mike Lawler and a handful of other SALT-focused blue state Republicans vowed to withhold support from any revised Senate version of the bill that altered the SALT cap increase included in the House version.

The DNC Fight That’s Not About David Hogg… is about geographic representation. The DNC doesn’t give “a flying flip about Oklahoma,” said Kalyn Free, Oklahoma’s DNC representative who filed the vice chair elections challenge that eventually vacated Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta. (Kenyatta won his vice chairmanship again on Saturday.)

Free is running for the other vice chair position. “The voice that I bring to the DNC is a voice that is not currently being heard, and that is a voice from rural America and a voice from Indian Country,” she told NOTUS’ Em Luetkemeyer.

Speaking of Plans to Expand Democrats’ Appeal: “The reality is, in most districts we’re competing in, just getting all the Democrats isn’t enough,” said Jason Bresler, the DCCC’s political director in 2018. “That doesn’t mean you have a lot of Republican votes, but we at least need to keep the door open for them. And vets do that.”

Rep. Jason Crow is heading up veteran recruitment for the DCCC this time around, NOTUS’ John T. Seward and Alex Roarty report. But it will be hard to beat the number the DCCC recruited in 2018: More than 50 veterans ran as Democrats that time.

New on NOTUS

• Republicans Are All About MAHA — And Propping Up the Sugar Industry: Both the House and Senate versions of the budget reconciliation bill give a massive bump to the U.S. sugar program.
• American Bar Association Sues Trump Over ‘Unprecedented’ Threats to Legal Profession: The legal complaint is the largest counterstrike to date against Trump’s feud with many of the nation’s largest law firms.
• Sen. Bernie Sanders Wants an Investigation of RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Firings: His letter was obtained by NOTUS.
• Trump Fired a Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner He Previously Appointed: Trump terminated Chris Hanson’s position at the independent agency Friday “without cause,” Hanson said in a statement.
• Federal Watchdog Agency Finds the Trump Administration Illegally Impounded Library Funds: Trump first targeted the Institute of Museum and Library Services in a March executive order.

Not Us

• Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Security, by Alexandra Berzon, Nicholas Nehamas and Tara Siegel Bernard for The New York Times
• 51st state? Bring it on, these Canadians say. By Cat Zakrzewski and Amanda Coletta for The Washington Post
• HHS plans ‘bold, edgy’ campaign on ultra-processed foods and diabetes, by Sarah Todd for STAT

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