Principals

1. Fed firing’s GOP fallout
2. Mystery $2 billion
3. Indiana redistricting
4. After Intel
5. Nvidia earnings
6. India faces new tariffs
7. DNC scraps Gaza votes

PDB: Exclusive poll shows slim majority of Republicans want Trump third term

SpaceX pulls off successful Starship launch after delay … Dollar rebounds after weakening post-Fed move … Bloomberg: EU looks to remove tariffs on US this week

GOP independence from Trump tested

The Federal Reserve’s independence is the last remaining front where congressional Republicans are willing to check President Donald Trump. His attempt to fire Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud will put that to the ultimate test, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller, Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott report. Most GOP lawmakers thus far have stayed silent on the attempted ouster, which comes as Trump pressures the central bank to slash interest rates. But they’ll get plenty of opportunity to push back, whether by critiquing the move or by challenging his nominee to replace departing Governor Adriana Kugler — and his nominee to replace Cook, should her firing pass legal muster. “I think they get that messing around with the Fed is a bad idea,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Strain said, adding that “their advice-and-consent role is just stronger when it comes to the Fed.”

$2 billion DC request confounds Congress

Trump’s pitch to spend $2 billion beautifying DC is turning into one of the biggest mysteries in the capital. Multiple Republicans confirmed there is no concrete proposal working its way around Capitol Hill, beyond Trump’s initial comments floating billions of dollars in spending on close-in areas from the White House and the Capitol. Even Trump himself, hours after announcing his own beautification fund, suggested he “wouldn’t even know where to spend” that amount of money, which he claimed wouldn’t be “a lot.” The money could theoretically get attached to next month’s government funding bill, although that legislation has its own challenges apart from DC issues. Typically, the White House sends Congress a supplemental spending request sketching out its funding asks; that hasn’t happened yet. The White House declined to comment.

— Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott

Vance meets with Indiana lawmakers

Vice President JD Vance met privately with Indiana state lawmakers at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, the latest step in the White House’s push to add more safe red seats in states governed by Republicans. The meeting mostly centered around policy as part of a White House State Leadership Conference, but during the last 30 minutes Vance made the case for redistricting, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Vance told the Republicans that the White House and its political network would have the backs of legislators who support redistricting. The vice president also went to Indiana to make his pitch earlier this month. Republicans currently control seven of the state’s nine House seats; they think drawing out Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan is relatively easy, but doing the same to Democratic Rep. André Carson will prove more difficult.

— Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott

Trump looks beyond Intel deal

The Trump administration might not stop at Intel when it comes to acquiring stakes in US companies. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CNBC that the Pentagon is eyeing similar arrangements with defense contractors, saying that Lockheed Martin is “basically an arm of the US government.” A day earlier, Trump said he would make similar deals “all day long.” The government’s 10% stake in Intel has attracted scrutiny from some Republicans. “There are clear concerns about precedent here,” Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., told reporters Tuesday, adding that this wasn’t the intended purpose of the semiconductor legislation the company wanted federal funding from. And these kinds of deals could be bad for shareholders, Semafor’s Rohan Goswami writes: “A board might suddenly find itself emboldened to make decisions that shareholders disagree with thanks to the protective halo of a government stake.”

— Morgan Chalfant and Burgess Everett

Nvidia earnings in spotlight

Investors and policymakers are watching Nvidia’s earnings closely for clues about the US economy and the artificial intelligence race. The tech giant recently became the first company globally to hit a $4 trillion market capitalization. Earlier this month, Nvidia made an unusual arrangement to give the US government a cut of H20 chip sales in China, amid reports about those sales potentially dropping off; today will show whether either development affected the chipmaker’s bottom line. The report could have a bigger impact on the S&P 500 than Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech last week. “It could either swamp or turbocharge the usual post-Fed-chair move higher,” one analyst said. It could also send a powerful signal about the health of the broader AI market, after OpenAI’s Sam Altman said it might be a “bubble.”

US-India trade tensions worsen

India faces even higher stakes to secure a trade detente with the US after a 50% tariff went into effect today. The Trump administration penalized New Delhi for continuing to import Russian oil, even as it held off on taking action against other buyers, like China. India’s embassy in Washington has hired Trump-connected lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs as it looks to ease tensions, Bloomberg reported. Trump also recently announced that his personnel policy chief, Sergio Gor, would serve as US ambassador to India, placing a key ally in the middle of India-US talks (assuming he gets confirmed). Reducing India’s Russian energy purchases doesn’t seem to be on the table, though: India will keep buying oil from wherever it “gets the best deal,” the country’s ambassador to Russia said. There’s a silver lining for New Delhi: Domestically, the levies have spurred an economic reform drive.

DNC discards dueling Gaza resolutions

The Democratic National Committee scrapped two competing resolutions on Israel’s war in Gaza in Minneapolis, including one that Chairman Ken Martin had hoped could lessen the party’s infighting over the issue. “This is a moment that calls for shared dialogue and calls for shared advocacy,” Martin said at the party’s resolutions committee meeting Tuesday, announcing that he would create a “task force” to “keep working through this.” He did so after members voted down a resolution from Florida DNC member Allison Minnerly which endorsed an arms embargo. James Zogby, a former DNC member who supported Minnerly’s resolution, praised Martin for creating the task force and retracting a compromise resolution passed earlier in the meeting: “That was the first time since 1988 that we’ve had an open debate about this.”

— David Weigel

Blindspot: Vanity Fair and Pulse

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: Staffers at Vanity Fair are threatening to quit over Semafor’s reporting on Sunday that new editor Mark Guiducci would be open to putting first lady Melania Trump on the cover. 

What the Right isn’t reading: Florida state officials again painted over a rainbow crosswalk in front of the Pulse nightclub, the site of a 2016 mass shooting.

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September 24, 2025 | New York City | Delegate Application

Beltway Newsletters

Playbook: Former Bill Clinton adviser Doug Sosnik writes in a new memo that while President Trump’s disapproval rating is high, Democrats are unlikely to “have anywhere near the level of success that the out-of-power party has had in previous midterm elections with such an unpopular incumbent president.”

Axios: Some Democratic officials want to take the unusual step of holding a national convention before next year’s midterms “to showcase candidates and the party’s emerging leaders.”

White House

• President Trump is expected to select longtime aide Dan Scavino to run the Presidential Personnel Office when Sergio Gor moves on. — Politico

Congress