Principals

1. Rubio rises
2. Waltz falls
3. Crapo-Smith relationship
4. Tariff exclusions?
5. China weighs trade talks
6. Global rundown

PDB: White House to release budget proposing massive cuts

US awaits April jobs report … Hang Seng index ⬆️ 1.74% ... AP: Trump birthday parade may feature more than 6,000 soldiers

Rubio’s responsibility grows

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s star is rising inside the Trump administration: In addition to running the State Department, the onetime Trump critic-turned-ally is also serving as acting administrator for USAID, acting archivist, and now also Trump’s interim national security advisor. That last title was added Thursday after Mike Waltz was ousted, and came as a surprise even to some of Rubio’s staff. It’s unclear how Rubio plans to juggle four jobs (“insomnia is helpful,” one Trump ally joked) but it is a sign of Trump’s confidence in the former Florida senator. He’s widely liked internally and is seen as being in lockstep with Trump on foreign policy — Trump even shifted responsibility for Venezuela talks to him in March. Now, Rubio is one of the president’s most trusted Cabinet members.

— Shelby Talcott

Why Trump removed Waltz

Mike Waltz’s departure from the White House marks the first high-level staff shake-up of the second Trump administration. Waltz attracted major scrutiny after inadvertently adding an Atlantic editor to a sensitive Signal group chat, the groundwork for his ouster had been laid for some time. Waltz’s traditionally hawkish views of national security created tension with more isolationist players in the White House, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott, Burgess Everett, and Morgan Chalfant reported, and he was seen as imperious and abrasive by White House colleagues. Trump’s decision to tap him as US ambassador to the UN is an obvious demotion; Trump cares little about the UN position. It will also require him to face a Senate gauntlet — and more questions about the Signal controversy. Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, a target of right-wing agitator Laura Loomer, was also said to have been ousted from his role.

Smith and Crapo team up on tax cuts

Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo and Missouri Rep. Jason Smith have come a long way since the Senate GOP and Crapo blocked Smith’s bipartisan tax bill last year, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Eleanor Mueller report. “Obviously, Crapo wasn’t on the same page” as Smith before, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Semafor. “But I sense that things are completely different now, and I think it’s driven by the realization that it’s an absolute necessity that we be successful here.” Indeed, Republicans said the two top tax writers are working well together, despite big personality differences. Smith is ubiquitous on the airwaves and doles out swag to the Ways and Means Committee; Crapo is sphinx-like on policy and rarely speaks in party meetings. And yet they are holding hands to handle a shared challenge: making sure their two chambers don’t end up with divergent tax visions.

Big push for small biz relief from tariffs

Trump’s tariffs are starting to bite small businesses — and Capitol Hill and the business community are taking notice and asking for action. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told Semafor he’s talking to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about providing exclusions from tariffs to small businesses because “in the absence of an exclusion, their success, the American Dream, disappears.” The administration isn’t saying no, despite Stephen Miller’s comments brushing off the Chamber of Commerce’s Thursday request for tariff exclusions. “Initially, we were told there would be no exclusion, and no member of Congress needed to ask for it. Now they’ve said something different, which is: there will be some exclusions,” Moran said. “Where this exclusion process matters the most in my world is small manufacturers, where a particular part comes from someplace that’s critical to their ability to stay in business.”

— Burgess Everett

Trump targets China over Iranian oil

China said it is assessing potential trade talks with the US, the first concrete sign that negotiations could be on the horizon. The statement from China’s Commerce Ministry, which implored US officials to show “sincerity” toward Beijing, came as Trump said that the US would not do business with countries that purchase Iranian oil and as the US officially closed a loophole allowing cheap imports from China without tariffs. The secondary sanctions on Iranian oil would amount to huge new sanctions on China, which imports more than 1 million barrels of oil per day from Iran. It’s unclear how serious the threat is, and one analyst told CNBC that US secondary sanctions are unlikely to impact China’s imports of Iranian oil unless the Trump administration targets Chinese state-owned enterprises. US oil prices rose after Trump’s comment.

Global rundown

Japan and the EU lauded progress on trade talks with the US, but warned Washington of consequences if deals were not reached soon. … The UK right-wing populist party Reform won a special election against the ruling Labour Party, bucking Trump’s drag on conservative movements elsewhere. … A Euroskeptic nationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine is the favorite to win the first round of Romania’s weekend election.

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Blindspot: Threats and vaccines

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: A teacher in Maine attracted scrutiny for a social media post suggesting President Trump and members of his administration should be killed.

What the Right isn’t reading: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. encouraged parents to do their own research on vaccines.

Jen Psaki has gone from being a behind-the-scenes political staffer, to running the White House briefing room under Biden, to now hosting a primetime show on MSNBC. This week, Ben and Max bring on the former Press Secretary to talk about what it means to be a cable news host in 2025, how podcasts are changing how TV works, and why she went from being a spokesperson to a primetime anchor. They also ask her what she thinks of the current administration’s press tactics, how she reflects on the 2024 race, and what she makes of the idea that there was a cover-up of Joe Biden’s condition.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott said that the White House won’t put forward any Democratic nominees for minority positions at financial agencies like the SEC.

Playbook: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says he isn’t a candidate for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, even as he heads to South Carolina later this month for the influential Blue Palmetto Dinner. “I am clear — I’m not running,” he said.

WaPo: The DNC is launching a new program designed to put pressure on four moderate House Republicans — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler, Don Bacon, and Tom Barrett — to vote against GOP cuts to Medicaid.

White House

• President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget will call for cutting nondefense discretionary spending by $163 billion, including gutting various environmental, renewable energy, and foreign aid programs. — WSJ

Congress

• The House voted to prevent California from enforcing a rule barring sales of new gasoline-powered cars in the state in a decade, despite warnings that Congress does not have the authority to do so.
• Senate Democrats are bellyaching about the failed tariff vote: “It was a mistake ... Politics 101 is you don’t count on your adversaries,” one told Burgess.