Washington, DC

1. FBI’s Swalwell scrutiny
2. Trump’s budget
3. China bests US
4. PAC battles
5. Iran eyes Hormuz control
6. Trump’s Africa vacancy

PDB: Vance heads to Hungary

US releases March jobs report … US markets closed for Good Friday … Artemis II leaves Earth’s orbit

How FBI’s Swalwell scrutiny could backfire

The Trump administration’s interest in reviving a long-closed investigation into Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell could backfire — by elevating his profile and boosting his on-the-bubble California gubernatorial campaign, Semafor’s Nicholas Wu reports. Swalwell has gone on the offensive following reports that FBI Director Kash Patel was pursuing the release of files from a decade-old investigation into the lawmaker’s connections to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, Christine Fang. As Swalwell tries to break away from a crowded pack in the June 2 gubernatorial primary, some fellow Democrats believe the FBI’s move will end up boosting Swalwell, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. “I do think it was a stupid move for Patel to threaten to release files of a long-closed investigation involving Swalwell,” said Garry South, a California Democratic strategist not working for any of the gubernatorial hopefuls.

Trump to propose 2027 budget

Trump is expected to again ask Congress to slash funding for domestic agencies and give far more money to the military when he delivers his 2027 budget request to lawmakers today. The president earlier this year suggested he could seek a defense budget of $1.5 trillion, which is about 50% more than lawmakers greenlit for this fiscal year. His administration has meanwhile begun probing federal programs for fraud — work that could lay the groundwork for deeper cuts. But as the saying goes, “the president proposes, Congress disposes.” Last year proved no exception, despite Trump’s unique sway over his party and its control of both chambers. This year could be an even tougher sell: Many Republicans will be more loath to redirect cash to the Pentagon as the war in Iran makes life more expensive for Americans ahead of November’s elections.

— Eleanor Mueller

World views China better than US

China has a better approval rating across the world than the US does, representing a shift since Trump took office. According to new Gallup polling, a median of 36% of those polled across more than 130 countries approve of China’s leadership, while 31% approve of US leadership — the largest edge Beijing has had over Washington in almost two decades. US approval across the globe slid from 39% to 31% between 2024 and 2025, during which time Trump began his second term. The poll was conducted in 2025, and does not account for recent foreign policy moves by the new administration — like the raid that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro or the Iran war. America’s approval has declined across many US allied nations, and sunk the most in Germany (by 39 percentage points). Israelis’ view of the US did improve from the prior year.

Dem PAC goes after party’s donor waste

Welcome PAC, a Democratic group that funds candidates in Trump-won House seats, is launching a candidate fundraising drive with a jeremiad against the party’s common fundraising tactics. At InvestingToWin.org, two direct links to candidates — Jasmeet Bains in California and Paige Cognetti in Pennsylvania — are accompanied by criticism of consulting firms that bombard Democratic donors and pile up money for safe seats: “That’s great for the consulting firms collecting their cut. It’s catastrophic for the party trying to win a majority.” Liam Kerr, the PAC’s co-founder, explained that progressives have built strong fundraising infrastructure over years of competition. The new campaign is about building that for centrists, away from third-party groups and consultants. “It’s not only energy and ideology that moves small-dollar donors away from moderates and swing races,” he said. “It’s that you’ve got to spend money to make money.”

— David Weigel

Iran seeks long-term control of Hormuz

Iran is working to establish lasting control over the Strait of Hormuz. The regime advanced legislation to bar unfriendly countries from the waterway and require all vessels to pay a toll. Asian countries’ energy and commodities imports have been strangled, and several are negotiating with Tehran for safe passage — a situation that could quickly become permanent, an academic noted. Control over the strait is now the regime’s greatest source of leverage, and the war’s outcome will depend chiefly on whether Iran still holds sway over it, and thus global energy markets. An analyst told The Wall Street Journal that the strait “now matters more than the nuclear program” to Iranian leaders.

Trump’s Africa vacancy

Trump is about to get his top Africa official installed at the State Department, with Senate aides telling Semafor that the body is expected to vote on Frank Garcia’s confirmation to be assistant secretary of state for African affairs soon after the two-week April recess. The development is significant because of how few US ambassadorships are filled across Africa. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-6 last month to advance Garcia’s nomination, with four Democrats voting in favor of Trump’s pick. The Navy veteran and longtime Republican congressional aide will replace a succession of interim officials, most recently Nick Checker, a former CIA analyst who has served as senior bureau official. Garcia said during his March 5 hearing that US Africa policy had “emphasized aid and dependency” for too long, pledging to instead prioritize trade, investment, and protecting “core US national interests.”

— Adrian Elimian

Debatable: Paying TSA workers

Trump’s move last week to pay TSA workers amid an impasse over DHS funding was met with skepticism in legal circles. The White House said that their paychecks would come from the party-line Republican tax bill Trump signed into law last year. And as the shutdown drags on, Trump announced he’ll go further — by signing an order to pay all DHS employees. But despite that skepticism, the move is unlikely to face a legal challenge. “There is no workforce in this country that can be told they have to work without pay except for federal employees. And it’s wrong. But this is not the right solution for it,” said Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service. Still, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., insisted the move was “legal” and that lawmakers “worked through this very diligently with” the White House budget office.

After more than a decade at The Wall Street Journal, tech journalist Joanna Stern is leaving to launch her own venture, The New Things, using AI as her “co-founder.” On this week’s episode of Mixed Signals, she joins Ben and Max to talk about what it really takes to bet on yourself in today’s media landscape, and what she learned from spending a year immersed in artificial intelligence for her new book, I Am Not a Robot.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: White House officials James Braid and James Blair have been meeting with Republican senators to determine who supports getting rid of the filibuster.

Axios: The NATO alliance “was built on the premise that an attack on one member is an attack on all” but President Trump “has made that conditional: If you won’t help me in my war, I might not show up for yours.”

Playbook: “I do not have any idea whether she’s going to try to go again, but I think she’s due all the respect for what she did, and the fact that she got more votes than any presidential candidate in American history, other than Trump,” Rev. Al Sharpton said of Kamala Harris ahead of his group’s convention next week in New York. “I think she has been ignored, and we’re going to raise that at our convention.”

White House

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick or Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer could be next, as President Trump mulls “additional changes to his Cabinet.” — Politico
• Vice President JD Vance will visit Hungary next week and meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, days before the country’s April 12 elections.

Congress

• House Oversight Committee members intend to still enforce their subpoena of Pam Bondi over the Jeffrey Epstein case.
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., now opposes all US military aid for Israel, a notable shift.

• Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote to the head of the SEC and the Defense Department’s inspector general to press them on potential insider trading related to the Iran war.

Campaigns

• The liberal group Demand Justice is announcing a $3 million campaign today to oppose a Trump Supreme Court nominee, even though a vacancy doesn’t yet exist; the group is betting on President Trump attempting to force conservative Justices Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito to retire before the midterms.

Business

• A company backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. is trying to sell drones to Gulf countries.