Trump’s Other Job

Today’s notice: Donald Trump and Mike Johnson do the Spiderman pointing meme. What the DOJ is and isn’t doing to get ready for the midterms. And: local and sports coverage, now on NOTUS!

THE LATEST

The “election integrity” question. Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has taken a series of interesting actions (and inactions) that have alarmed current and former prosecutors, causing them to question the agency’s preparedness for the midterm elections, NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery scoops.

The DOJ has canceled election-integrity training sessions for prosecutors and FBI agents. It has deleted a nearly 300-page guide to prosecuting election offenses. It has fired a majority of the lawyers in the Public Integrity section while also failing to replace the director of its Election Crimes Branch. Moreover, the DOJ has not taken the usual steps to establish a “command center” to monitor and address the typical emergencies that pop up around Election Day, sources tell Jose. That team would address things like voter intimidation and targeted disinformation.

“That’s really concerning,” said Ryan Crosswell, a former public corruption prosecutor who recently ran for Congress as a Democrat. “And this just feeds into the fear that rather than protect elections, the DOJ may try to interfere with them.”

The DOJ did not provide any answers to detailed questions about the training cancellations and the election command center, but a department spokesperson said its top priorities are now “ensuring the integrity of U.S. elections and protecting Americans against voting fraud and civil rights violations.”

Delayed results from California’s primary election have already fueled conspiracies on the right — linking the (very long) time it takes to count mail-in-ballots in the (very) Democratic state to the idea that Democrats are cheating. Those theories have made it to Donald Trump, who stormed out of an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday after she pushed the president to provide evidence of election rigging in California and, his longtime obsession, in 2020.

“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” Trump told Welker, claiming the lengthy vote-counting process is “cheating on the election.”

Open tabs: Trump Says He Never Promised No New Wars (NYT); Iran fires missiles at Israel for first time since ceasefire (Axios); Donald Trump, Knicks fan, heads back to New York to root on his team (AP); US Supreme Court poised to rule on gun laws and transgender athletes (Reuters)

From the Hill

Remember, you don’t have to be a member of the House to be the speaker. A feature of Trump’s second term has been a very narrow majority in the House of Representatives, making House Speaker Mike Johnson’s difficult job even harder and forcing him to lean on Trump to twist arms.

There’s a running joke on the Hill that Trump is actually running the House, and Trump is in on it too. In at least one meeting with Johnson and other lawmakers, Trump ribbed him over how often the president has to get his own members in line, NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reports.

“I have two jobs: being president and being speaker,” Trump has said. But it goes beyond that. According to two sources who spoke with Reese, there have been several instances when members seeking to bring legislation to the floor were directed by Johnson to obtain the administration’s approval first.

But not everyone thinks this is a problem. One senior GOP aide said, “It stands to reason that the White House would have input into and help pass the legislative agenda that Republican House Members and the President ran on and that 77.3 million Americans voted for.”

From the campaign

At a town hall last night, Senate candidate Graham Platner said nothing about the allegations that he intimidated some of the women he previously dated. His voters didn’t either, Christa Dutton reports from Maine.

What was on their minds? Citizens United. Industrial salmon farming. Congressional committee assignments. What he thinks out-of-towners don’t get.

Some Democrats see Platner as a risk. Does Maine? “Maybe if you’re outside looking in,” one voter said. They added: “People in Maine know him, and those things are not important. Well, they’re important, but what we need to focus on is what he proposes to do to make our lives better.”

New this morning in Texas: Dan Cogdell, who was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s defense attorney in both his impeachment trial and a long-running securities fraud case, has endorsed Democrat James Talarico, NOTUS’ Stephen Neukam reports.

NOTUS METRO

Our local news and sports coverage debuts today! Just as in-person early voting begins, we’ve got interviews with both frontrunners in the rollicking contest for D.C. mayor. Plus, a look at this season’s Nationals team and a profile of Mystics forward Shakira Austin.

How to manage (and stand up to) Trump has been a top pitch from Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie, but so too are the perennial issues of affordability and public safety. While McDuffie has said Lewis George — a current councilmember and self-identified democratic socialist — can’t be trusted to keep D.C. safe, she’s managed to corner him on affordability concerns.

Public safety and affordability are inextricably linked, McDuffie tells NOTUS’ Michael Brice Saddler. “It’s challenging to get to some of the issues around affordability if people don’t feel safe. Attracting new residents and new businesses is difficult in an environment where the competitiveness has been diminished in terms of quality of life in some people’s eyes,” McDuffie said.

Is that pitch connecting with voters? Maybe not. A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll put Lewis George 11 points ahead among registered Democrats who are likely to vote. She tells NOTUS’ Martin Austermuhle that D.C. residents are “absolutely” ready for a democratic socialist mayor. “I am a believer in sewer socialism, and that is making basic government services work for people. People have been crying out for the government to just have the basics work well. People are tired of hearing what the government can’t do,” she said.

From the NOTUS Sports desk.

The Nationals’ man with a plan. Paul Toboni, the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations, is asking fans for patience — but he seems to realize what a hard ask that is, he tells NOTUS’ Jesse Dougherty.

The Mystics’ wisest 25-year-old. Forward Shakira Austin is emerging as a key leader as D.C.’s WNBA team starts a season with one of the youngest rosters in the league, NOTUS’ Dave Sheinin reports.

NEW ON NOTUS

Detainees say they experienced “psychological torture” at Delaney Hall, an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey, at the center of daily protests, NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery reports. In lawsuits — more than 530 have been filed this year — detainees describe food deprivation, inadequate medical care and unsanitary living conditions. “My detention conditions violate basic standards of human dignity,” one detainee wrote.

NOT US

• The Interview: Scott Pelley on the Bari Weiss Era and His Last Days at ‘60 Minutes,’ by By Lulu Garcia-Navarro for The New York Times
• A flesh-eating pest threatens Trump’s beef price hopes, by Grace Yarrow for Politico
• Trump considers buying Chagos Islands, by Connor Stringer and Tony Diver for The Telegraph
• The Absurd World Cup, by Chris Jones for The Atlantic

WEEK AHEAD

Tuesday

Primary Election Day in South Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada and Maine.

Wednesday

Congressional baseball game at Nats stadium.

Thursday

Possible Supreme Court ruling announcement day.

Friday

Days of hype around the UFC fight at the White House kick off with a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial.

Sunday

Trump’s 80th birthday

The UFC fight at the White House

A fourth round of No Kings protests.

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The newsletter was produced by Kate Nocera, Nike Johnson and Dianna Heitz.