Principals

1. Miran to Fed
2. Trump-Putin meeting?
3. Crypto’s double-barreled win
4. Trump’s census push
5. Cortez Masto’s moment
6. Crowded Iowa primary

PDB: Israel’s security cabinet approves plan to occupy Gaza City

FAA to “supercharge” air traffic controller hiring … Swiss firms fear tariff “annihilation” … India and Brazil join forces against US duties

Trump taps Miran to join Fed short-term

President Donald Trump has nominated one of his top economic advisers, Stephen Miran, to serve as a short-term replacement for retiring Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler until her term officially expires in January. Miran is a stalwart defender of Trump’s tariff regime, likening the chances that it would raise prices to a meteor strike or pandemic. “In the meantime, we will continue to search for a permanent replacement,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He told reporters Wednesday he’s already begun interviewing potential successors to Fed Chair Jerome Powell and has narrowed it “down to three.” Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott said Thursday he hopes to “quickly” take up Miran’s nomination — but it’s already facing headwinds from Democrats like ranking member Elizabeth Warren, who called Miran a “Trump loyalist.”

— Eleanor Mueller and Shelby Talcott

Trump, Putin dance around a meeting

Trump’s stated “10 to 12”-day deadline for Russia to make progress toward a ceasefire with Ukraine technically ends today, but it doesn’t look definitive as the US and Russian leaders eye a meeting. When asked by Semafor on Wednesday, Trump said the two sides are holding “serious talks.” Pressed again on Thursday, Trump said the deadline would “be up to” Putin. The two leaders have danced around a potential meeting for months; Putin has proposed a summit in the United Arab Emirates as soon as next week, and Trump clarified that a potential meeting will not depend on the Russian president sitting down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first (the Kremlin has noted that no three-way meeting has been agreed to). “It is Russia that must agree to a ceasefire and engage in real diplomacy that can guarantee peace,” Zelenskyy posted on X.

— Shelby Talcott

Crypto logs win with 401(k) executive order

Crypto firms have notched another big Trump-era win, thanks to a new executive order making it easier for US retirement plans to include digital assets as well as “alternative assets” like private equity and real estate. Some in private equity had lobbied for crypto to be left out. Crypto-linked stocks jumped ahead of the signing, and advocates applauded afterward. “For too long, individuals have been denied the investment opportunities that institutional and high-net-worth investors regularly enjoy,” Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone said. The order follows another, also signed Thursday, that targets banks that turn away customers for political and religious reasons — a longstanding goal of crypto firms, which have bonded with Trump over perceived snubs. House Financial Services Chair French Hill said his committee, which has already approved related legislation, will still “continue its work to investigate and prevent debanking.”

— Eleanor Mueller

Census makeover may not help GOP

Trump is reviving his 2020 push to exclude undocumented people from the census as his administration simultaneously prods red states to redraw their congressional maps — but the move isn’t guaranteed to help his party. The decennial census, which determines how congressional seats are allotted, has historically counted all US residents regardless of their immigration status. Excluding the undocumented would involve steep legal and logistical hurdles, with an unclear Republican benefit when it comes to the balance of power in Congress. That’s because “there are significant numbers of unauthorized immigrants in red states and blue states,” Pew Research Center’s Jeffrey Passel told Semafor. As a result, he said, blue California and New York, as well as red Florida and Texas, are among the states most likely to lose House seats from Trump’s proposed change.

— Eleanor Mueller

The new face of Dems’ moderate wing

Catherine Cortez Masto didn’t necessarily look like a future centrist player when she came into the Senate in 2017; Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp held that mantle in the Democratic caucus, followed by Kyrsten Sinema. But they’re all gone, and now “CCM” is carrying the banner for the party’s moderates, both in the Senate and outside it as leader of the Mod Squad group, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. And yes, that spat with Cory Booker is part of it, although the Nevada Democrat said she’s “shocked” it became news. “I am someone who is not shying from a fight. But I also think that you have to be strategic and you have to get things done,” Cortez Masto said of her approach. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said the ideological push-pull is healthy for the party: “We should have more arguments. I think it’s fun.”

Fourth Dem enters Iowa Senate race

Iowa’s already congested Senate Democratic primary is about to get even more crowded. State Rep. Josh Turek is planning to run, according to a voicemail reviewed by Semafor (he’s launched a fundraising page, too). Turek told a potential supporter “I just wanted to let you know that I am running for the US Senate.” Turek, state Sen. Zach Wahls, state Rep. J.D. Scholten, and veteran Nathan Sage are all running for the seat currently held by two-term incumbent Sen. Joni Ernst, who GOP leaders hope will announce a reelection bid soon. Turek narrowly won his Western Iowa seat in 2022 and has represented the US on its Paralympic wheelchair basketball team. Iowa’s pretty red these days, though this seat was held before 2014 by Tom Harkin, one of the most progressive Senate Democrats.

— Burgess Everett

Pablo Torre was one of ESPN’s rising stars — a fixture on shows like PTI and Around the Horn. But now he’s building something outside the machine. This week, Ben and Max bring on the host of Pablo Torre Finds Out to talk about leaving ESPN, launching his own show with Dan Le Batard’s Meadowlark Media, and how it recently became part of The Athletic under The New York Times. They also discuss how Torre has broken major stories on his show — including scoops involving Bill Belichick, LeBron James, and the NFL — and how he hopes to reshape the media landscape by bringing investigative reporting to sports podcasting.

Listen to the latest episode of Mixed Signals now.

Blindspot: Venezuela and Ohio

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: Attorney General Pam Bondi raised the US’ bounty on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million.

What the Right isn’t reading: The Secret Service asked the US Army Corps of Engineers to artificially raise the level of an Ohio river to accommodate a canoe trip by Vice President JD Vance, The Guardian reports.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Republicans are now aiming to pick up a dozen or more House seats under a President Trump-backed redistricting drive.

Playbook: The DOJ filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court asking it to lift a judge’s order “that limits immigration raids in the Los Angeles area based on broad criteria such as speaking Spanish.”

WaPo: House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain is “on a mission to retake control” over how voters see the administration’s tax-and-spending bill.

Axios: MAGA is becoming bolder in its quest to exact revenge on longtime Trump foes, with a grand jury investigation into Obama-era officials marking a “watershed moment.”

Congress

• Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., are pitching a $1.5 trillion investment fund to beef up Social Security. — The Hill
• Sen. John Cornyn said the FBI will help locate Texas lawmakers who fled the state to prevent a quorum.

Outside the Beltway

• Arizona’s Republican state Senate president asked federal law enforcement to investigate a Democratic state senator who has been posting about pending ICE raids on social media.
• Florida state lawmakers are setting up a redistricting committee, following Texas’ lead.

Inside the Beltway

• DC residents may see an increase in federal law enforcement as soon as today. — NY Post
• The FBI forced out more top officials, including the head of the DC field office. — AP

Economy