Good morning. Rainy and gusty today with a high just around 62. Rain continues overnight, with a low near 50.
Sports this weekend: The Nationals are at Atlanta today, tomorrow, and Sunday. D.C. United host Montreal Saturday. Loudoun United FC host Detroit City FC at Segra Field Saturday. Old Glory DC visit the CA Legion Sunday.
How well do you know DC? We launched a new game, Districted, that tests your geographical knowledge. Give it a try!
Have a great Memorial Day. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available as a morning email newsletter. Sign up here.
I can’t stop listening to:
Big Daddy Kane, “Ain’t No Half-Steppin’.” The influential MC plays a special performance with the Duke Ellington School Orchestra tonight at the Bethesda Theater.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
The war: Iran’s Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered the country to keep its stock of enriched nuclear material. That edict comes as the country has toughened its stance on its nuclear program—it says negotiations about ending it won’t start until the US and Israel guarantee they won’t attack Iran again. (Reuters) US intelligence assessments say the country is also “rapidly rebuilding certain military capabilities degraded by US-Israeli strikes.” (CNN) The cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been “a financial artery for the IRGC, the powerful political, military and economic force that dominates Iran.” President Trump pardoned Binance’s founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, last October. (WSJ) Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told senators yesterday that the US had paused arms sales to Taiwan to help preserve the US military’s stock of munitions. (Hill) Defense Department assessments show that the US used “far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves.” (Washington Post)
Meanwhile, at home: White House aides are worried not just about the average price of a gallon of gas exceeding $5.02—its high point during the Biden administration—but also the rising yields on Treasury bonds, which are already causing the cost of consumer credit to rise. (Politico) A gallon costs $4.552 on average today. (AAA) Mortgage rates hit a nine-month high yesterday. (WSJ)
Burn the votes: House Republicans yanked a vote on a measure that sought to end the war on Iran that Trump started in February because they didn’t have enough votes to stop it. (NYT) Meanwhile, Senate Republicans gave up on passing a reconciliation bill that would have funded ICE and CBP operations before Memorial Day. (NBC News) That move came after acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche “struggled Thursday to quash GOP concerns” over Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for people who feel they are victims of government “weaponization”—including January 6 rioters. Blanche told senators no funds would go to anyone convicted of assaulting police during the riot. (Politico) “It’s difficult to overstate the erosion of goodwill between Trump and Senate Republicans.” (Punchbowl News)
Slush hour: Applications to the fund are already pouring into DOJ, even though no commissioners have yet been named. Trump’s ally Michael Caputo has applied for millions, and hundreds of January 6 rioters intend to apply. So has Michael Cohen, and James Comey has joked that he may file a claim. (NBC News) A bipartisan bill that would kill the fund has sprouted in the House. (Politico)
D’oh J: Federal prosecutors in Chicago dropped all charges against the “Broadview Six” protesters arrested outside an ICE facility in Illinois last year. US Attorney Andrew Boutros told the judge the decision “was due to improper handling of the grand jury proceedings by the lead prosecutor in the case.” (CBS News) Two of the defendants said they planned to apply to Trump’s slush fund. (Chicago Sun-Times)
DH-mess: Five people have died by suicide in ICE facilities this year alone—the highest number of deaths in such facilities in two decades. (NBC News) Meanwhile, new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is moving ahead with a plan to reduce CBP operations at US airports in so-called “sanctuary cities”—including Chicago. (Atlantic)
Administration perambulation: Trump said he would send 5,000 US troops to Poland after the Pentagon canceled a deployment of 4,000 troops there last week. (AP) The White House yanked Trump’s planned executive order on AI after David Sacks, Trump’s former “AI czar,” “voiced industry concerns about the measure.” (Politico) The Commission of Fine Arts, a body stuffed with Trump appointees, approved his planned Triumphal Arch project at Memorial Circle. (NYT) A federal judge seems unlikely to halt work on Trump’s paint job in the Reflecting Pool. (NYT) DOJ announced it had arrested and charged 15 people in Minnesota whom it accused of Medicaid fraud. (Politico) Elon Musk‘s Grok AI thing “has been a flop” with federal government customers. (Reuters) Trump said he supported the most recent push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. (Washington Post) He also said he probably wouldn’t attend his son Donald Trump Jr.‘s wedding to Bettina Anderson this weekend, saying he’d “get killed — by the fake news, of course, I’m talking about”—whether or not he showed. (NYT)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Our June issue is on newsstands now. Take a peek at what’s inside.
• Attention, music-lovers: You’ll want to add these summer tours and festivals to your calendars.
• Here’s our party photographer Dan Swartz‘s roundup of galas and dos around town last month.
Local news links:
• DHS has ordered all Americans who have visited Congo and two other African countries that are the sites of a deadly Ebola outbreak to travel through Dulles, where the agency said it was “focusing public health resources to implement enhanced public health measures.” (NBC4 Washington)
• Police in DC said Charles Joseph Ali of Rockville threw a keg through Georgetown Cupcake’s window. (WTOP)
• Police in Fairfax charged two people with stealing almost “$10,000 worth of Legos, small appliances, clothing and other merchandise” from local merchants. (WTOP)
• A Virginia judge dismissed a criminal case against Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at an elementary school. Prosecutors alleged Parker ignored warning signs about a six-year-old who later shot his teacher. The judge said Parker’s actions didn’t constitute a crime. (NBC4 Washington)
• An infant died in a hot car in Spotsylvania County on Wednesday. His mother has been jailed. (NBC4 Washington)
• Firefighters rescued two people and a dog from a blaze in McLean early Friday. (WUSA9)
• Authorities in Fauquier County arrested Mason Griffith “after being tipped off to his plan to sell a young fox.” (WUSA9)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: Jazz in the Garden returns with an American theme. This edition’s performer is DC’s Oh He Dead. (These performances may be canceled for inclement weather; ticket-holders should keep an eye on their email.)
Saturday: It’s Day 2 of the IlluminAsia Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
Sunday: Your last chance to see “The Great Gatsby” at the National Theatre.
See lots more picks for the weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
