Washington, DC

1. New potential Iran deal
2. Blanche scraps fund
3. Rogers goes local
4. Messy Senate getaway week
5. New crypto polling
6. Socialist eyes CBC
7. The AI work divide
8. Newsom’s slop wars

PDB: Funding stopgap bill text out

Dollar sinks against Yen after US intervention … RFK Jr makes U-turn on measles vaccine … Brent crude ▼ 4%

The deal, and call, behind Trump’s climbdown

President Donald Trump’s climbdown from threats to escalate the war with Iran happened because “the perimeters of a deal” have been agreed to, he said, with reports of a potential joint Iran-Oman accord to govern shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said this deal would include the “immediate, complete, and total” reopening of the strait, though Iran said the waterway would not “return to the status it was before” the war began. Talks are set to resume Monday, Trump said. The president also said Iran and other Middle East countries asked him to hold off on more attacks, with Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issuing a statement about a call along those lines between Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the ongoing conflict — and more skeptical that a deal can be reached with Iran — as his advisers split.

— Shelby Talcott

Blanche scraps ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche formally rescinded Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund late Sunday, an apparent concession to holdout Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas that smooths Blanche’s path to a Tuesday confirmation vote. Alongside the order, which Blanche said “establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund,” the acting AG released an unsigned statement limiting the sweeping IRS liability shield Trump had negotiated and specifying that it applies only retroactively. (Trump’s immunity from IRS scrutiny had been another sticking point for the senators.) A spokesperson for Cornyn confirmed to The New York Times that the Justice Department had struck a deal with the senator to dismantle the “anti-weaponization” fund in writing. Trump had continued to defend the fund as recently as Saturday, threatening to simply keep Blanche on in an acting capacity if Tillis and Cornyn continued to oppose him.

Rogers tries for tricky ‘change’ election

Mike Rogers didn’t want to talk much about national politics in an interview with Semafor’s Nicholas Wu on the campaign trail in Grand Haven, Mich. How would he vote on the multiple Senate-approved measures to condemn President Donald Trump’s tariffs? “I don’t know.” Where does he stand on Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund? “I’m not talking about any of that stuff. I don’t care. I mean, I care.” As for the Iran war, the presumptive Republican nominee in Michigan’s Senate race said he’d heard “hardly anything” from constituents on the trail about it. Rogers is running a campaign that’s focusing as much as possible on local issues. He’s hoping to cast the midterms as a “change election” — a tricky strategy when Democrats hold state government and two Senate seats but Republicans run the federal government.

Senate piles up a lengthy to-do

There are no signs that the Senate will cancel the five-week August recess set to start at the end of the week, according to senators and aides. But it’ll still be a difficult few days of late nights and bipartisan negotiations before they can get out of town. Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants to finish confirming a package of nominees, send a Russia sanctions bill to the House, and vote on a deal funding the government into December — all of which will take agreement from all 100 senators to finish this week. But there’s more: Leadership aides are bullish on holding at least an initial vote on cryptocurrency legislation. And over the weekend, the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference signed off on a bipartisan college sports bill, possibly unlocking Senate passage; it’s just not clear when.

— Burgess Everett

Crypto industry poll touts top Hill priority

More than half of Americans say they would feel more protected if Congress passes the cryptocurrency industry’s top legislative priority, according to a new poll conducted by Focaldata on behalf of crypto company Coinbase. The poll, shared first with Semafor, also found that 36% of Americans — 38% of likely Democratic voters and 41% of likely Republican voters — would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports the bill overhauling regulation of the industry. In line with other recent polling, half of voters were neutral or unsure. The findings come as congressional Democrats circulate other polling on primary voters’ negative perceptions of crypto. “No one’s going to win a Democratic primary by being [against the bill], but they can lose in the general election by being [against it],” pollster John Anzalone, who’s conducted previous polling for Coinbase, said of both polls.

— Eleanor Mueller

Avila Chevalier plans to join CBC

Darializa Avila Chevalier, the democratic socialist who ousted New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat in a June primary upset, plans to seek membership in both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus once sworn in, her campaign told Semafor. That would make her only the second Afro-Latino lawmaker to sit in both caucuses simultaneously; Espaillat was blocked from Black Caucus membership. Avila Chevalier’s campaign said she has already spoken with several Black Caucus members, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — their first conversation since her primary win — and is “excited about joining the caucus and their fight.” Black Caucus Chair Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., said in a statement that “established processes” would determine future membership after the new Congress starts. A staffer for the Hispanic Caucus, which Espaillat chaired, said: “All incoming Latino members are eligible to join once sworn in.”

— Adrian Elimian

AI exacerbates ‘class divide,’ poll shows

Only one-third of American workers expect AI to improve their jobs, according to new polling from Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal group, and Ipsos. There’s a clear divide across income brackets: Four in 10 of those making $100,000 or more expect AI to make their jobs better, compared with 19% of those making under $50,000. White-collar workers are also more likely than blue-collar workers to use AI in their work, while Black workers are more likely than white workers to predict AI will replace their job. “This is really just yet another class divide for the American public,” Groundwork’s Alex Jacquez said of the poll results. Jacquez dismissed suggestions that the US enact universal basic income to address AI’s economic impacts, but said “part of a solution” could be an idea from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.: a public stake in AI firms.

— Morgan Chalfant

AI ‘news’ slop hypes blue-state dystopia

YouTube accounts pumping out AI-generated fake newscasts have collectively racked up millions of views by portraying blue states like California as wracked by economic disaster. One of them, warning of an exodus of Walmart stores from the Golden State, even grabbed Trump’s attention — and staffers for Gov. Gavin Newsom, a probable 2028 contender, fear this is just the beginning, Semafor’s Max Tani reports. Newsom’s team has worked with YouTube to identify more than 700 accounts spreading AI-narrated falsehoods since January. But the increasing sophistication of AI images, and their ability to proliferate quickly and easily across social platforms, is becoming a much bigger concern for today’s political hopefuls, and YouTube’s spam filters can’t catch all of them. “Unless there is a significant systemic change from all platforms, this issue will continue and is likely going to get worse,” a Newsom spokesperson told Max.

Blindspot: Biden and Martin

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: Hunter Biden thinks his father’s cancer may have been to blame for his disastrous presidential debate performance in 2024 (medical experts are skeptical).

What the Right isn’t reading: Pressure is mounting on Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin to resign.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: “This is the Blackest and poorest major city in all of America, and it’s time to number one, get our representation back, but number two, take our seat back,” Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney, a Democrat who is running for Congress in Michigan’s 13th district, said of Detroit.

Playbook: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has come under attack from influential MAGA voices who say he is too soft on immigration, with some pushing for Bill Pulte to replace him.

Axios: The Department of Energy is mostly to blame for the lack of petroleum deals between American firms and Venezuela, eight months after President Trump pledged to rebuild the country’s oil industry, US officials and Venezuela insiders said.

Congress

• Senate negotiators released the text of a stopgap government funding proposal that would run until Dec. 11. It blocks a new administration rule that allows cancellation of grants for political reasons.
• Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said that his former son-in-law, Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, “should not serve in the House of Representatives” — as Miller continues to publicly ai