Is This the Distraction? With Pete Hegseth by his side at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, Donald Trump announced that more bases once named for Confederate leaders would again bear their former names. He also called out “Gavin Newscum,” the leader of the state he has sent federal forces to. Last night, Rep. LaMonica McIver was also indicted for “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers” by an interim U.S. attorney who was recently Trump’s personal lawyer.
Politics is conditioned to view Trump’s actions as some variant of 3D chess. Democrats on Capitol Hill have watched events unfold in Los Angeles and warned allies to stay focused on the big Medicaid cuts Republicans are debating instead. Sen. Chris Murphy took some flak on Bluesky this week after he told MSNBC that the events of the past few days were “probably also a distraction from the main story” (meaning the bill).
“Listen, it can be two things at once,” Murphy told NOTUS yesterday of Trump sending the National Guard and Marines to LA. “I mean, it’s important in and of its own right. But, its primary intent is likely to distract the entire conversation away from the massively unpopular bill that’s going to destroy our economy.”
Democratic governors are watching what Gavin Newsom is going through closely. The deployment is, flatly, “an alarming abuse of power,” the Democratic Governors Association said. They did not caveat that with a but it’s probably just a distraction.
Dems are still figuring this out. “What Donald Trump does is he breaks norms and exhibits dangerous behaviors, and the idea is to back Democrats into a corner and defend the status quo,” a party strategist said Tuesday. “Yes we need to stand up to Trump but we also need to show that we care about the things American voters care about.”
At the White House, this Democratic debate about “distraction” is seen as “an idiotic thing to say.” That’s what press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright. “The president is responding to destruction and criminal behavior and violence against law-enforcement officers. This is called decisive leadership in action.”
Where in the World Is Rep. Mark Green? Guyana, five sources told NOTUS’ Reese Gorman. Green, who announced he’s retiring from Congress for an exciting opportunity in the private sector, didn’t exactly offer many details on that gig.
If you got it, work it: A source said multiple lobbyists who were visiting Green for what they believed were legislative meetings were surprised to find it was Green who had something to sell them: a mysterious business opportunity in South America.
All of this is raising eyebrows, to say the least. “What the fuck?” a fellow Republican House member said.
Green said in a statement that he “never solicited a lobbyist or executive to purchase a company I own, or am planning to own, or am planning to work for.” For close readers: That’s not a denial that he asked lobbyists to invest.
You Say You Want a Revolution? Well… The White House firmly but carefully told fiscal hawks attempting to water down Trump’s campaign promises in the reconciliation bill that it is Trump, not them, who runs this spending revolution.
“The president’s tax priorities are nonnegotiable,” Leavitt told NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright after Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul expressed a desire to change House bill provisions that cut taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security income.
The divide: The hawks want to prove to conservatives once and for all that Republicans can severely cut government spending and move things closer to a balanced budget. The populists are eager to show working-class MAGA voters that their votes are appreciated.
The pressure campaign: Leavitt appeared at a Senate GOP conference meeting at RNC HQ on Tuesday, where the White House presented polling that Sen. Josh Hawley said made clear “what the public really wants and needs is working-class tax cuts.”
JD Vance met with Johnson on the Hill. The Wisconsin senator said he told the VP his vote can be won if there’s a promise of another reconciliation bill where fiscal-hawk priorities could be addressed. Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham is reportedly also talking about a Two Big, Beautiful Bills solution.
Hegseth’s Big Day: The secretary of defense is back on the Hill today, this time in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The big headline from Hegseth’s appearance on the House side Tuesday was when his special assistant, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, said the deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles would cost about $134 million, and for the Guard, at least, would last 60 days.
Kennedy promised not to fill an advisory committee with anti-vaxers at a press conference Tuesday. He promised that “credentialed scientists, highly credentialed physicians” who use “evidence-based medicine” would fill the slots on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, whose members he fired this week. The new names would be announced ahead of ACIP’s next meeting, he said.
The latest on the MAHA Commission report: Scientists are again dismissing the way their work is being used in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s signature project, calling citations misleading and saying their findings have been misconstrued, NOTUS’ Emily Kennard and Margaret Manto report. The department stands by the report.
David Sacks on Mission. In this post-Elon Musk-Trump breakup era, more eyes are on the remaining Silicon Valley heads in the administration. Sacks, the White House AI and crypto czar, spent Tuesday at Washington’s AWS Summit.
“I do think that the doomer-cult mentality, or whatever you want to call it, has captured the minds of a lot of people,” Sacks, whose venture capital firm Craft Ventures has invested in several AI-focused companies, said of those pushing state-level AI regulation.
New on NOTUS
- David Hogg Leans Into DNC Drama With Another Primary Endorsement: The 25-year-old’s progressive group waded into the special election to replace the late Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly.
- Congressional Hispanic Caucus Endorses Rep. Robert Garcia to Be Top Dem on Oversight Panel: While not a huge surprise, the endorsement reveals that Garcia is gaining traction.
- Pete Hegseth Sold Tons of Stock the Week Before ‘Liberation Day’ Stock Market Plunge: Hegseth made between $100,000 and $550,000 in stock sales ahead of Trump’s tariff announcement.
Not Us
- Republican senators mystified by $1 billion added to their megabill, by Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller and Shelby Talcott for Semafor
- Amid a growing call for new leaders, several New Englanders from political dynasties are running for office in 2026, by Sam Brodey and James Pindell for The Boston Globe
- Trump using L.A. unrest to push his big bill in D.C., by Marc Caputo for Axios
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