Good morning. Sunny and hot today with a high around 95. Clear with a low around 72 overnight. The Nationals open a four-game homestand against the Mets this evening. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available a s a morning email newsletter. Sign up here. I can’t stop listening to: Between the Buried and Me, “The Blue Nowhere.” This Raleigh, North Carolina, band is typically categorized as metal, a label that barely describes their rangy, beautiful work. They play 9:30 tonight on a verbose bill with Imperial Triumphant and the World Is a Beautiful Place I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too. Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out: The war: President Trump‘s “little excursion” in Iran is now in its 80th day, and negotiations to end the conflict he started still reside in Nowheresville. The stalemate is “fueling fears that the current standoff – and its unprecedented shock to world energy supplies – could drag on indefinitely with periodic bouts of brinkmanship.” (Reuters) To wit: A drone strike caused a fire near the UAE’s only nuclear-power plant yesterday. (AP) Trump threatened Iran with more strikes if it didn’t make more concessions in negotiations. (Axios) Stocks fell in global markets and oil prices rose after Trump’s threat. (AP) The war “has already cost companies around the world at least $25 billion.” (Reuters) Trump met with national security advisers at his golf club in Virginia yesterday to explore options. (CNN) Mall church: Many administration officials addressed a rally on the Mall yesterday that framed the US “as a country founded to be explicitly Christian.” (Washington Post) The President addressed the crowd, many of whom were Protestant evangelicals, via a video that “appeared to be the same one that Mr. Trump recorded in the Oval Office last month for a marathon reading of the full Bible organized by an activist in Texas.” (NYT) He was golfing. (Daily Beast) The ballroom: Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough doinked spending on Trump’s planned ballroom at the White House from a GOP spending bill. Republicans said they’d tweak the bill’s language to pass muster. (Washington Post) “If the language somehow manages to survive the Senate, there’s still intense opposition in the House.” (Punchbowl News) Legislators are scrambling to pass bills before the Memorial Day recess as campaign season looms. (Politico) Administration perambulation: US Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana lost his primary Saturday, the latest Trump foe—he voted to impeach Trump after his fans rioted at the US Capitol in 2021 to try to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden—to lose his job. (NYT) US Representative Thomas Massie, a frequent burr in the President’s saddle, faces a primary in Kentucky tomorrow. (NBC News) The Virginia redistricting map is dead after the Supreme Court refused to wade into the whole mess. (NPR) Democrats still like their chances. (Washington Post) “Luck alone cannot explain those numbers”: Nine connected accounts on prediction markets—potentially connected to members of the military—”have raked in more than $2.4 million betting almost exclusively on U.S. military actions.” (CBS News) Trump wants to build a helipad on the White House’s South Lawn. (WSJ) Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • The hormonal imbalance known as PCOS is not new, but OB-GYNs say increased talk online about the condition has led to more women seeking diagnoses. • “I want the pioneers to be remembered”: American University professor Bob Connelly remembers when gay-rights pioneer Frank Kameny spoke to his college class. • Max Davis was looking for a way to honor his brother Beck, who died by suicide in 2023. More than 20 people, many of them strangers, joined him to run a marathon made up of hundreds of laps around the Washington Monument after he posted about it online. • Here are some ideas for places where you can get brunch outside. • Jayne O’Donnell remembers Talal Munasifi, a Washington-area doctor who advocated for patients’ safety during cosmetic surgery procedures. • This “microwedding” in DC featured a wedding cake from Pineapple Pearls—and late-night cheeseburgers. Local news links: • US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro announced a plan to prosecute the parents of teens who take part in mayhem-arousing “takeovers” in town. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said the District’s police don’t have the resources to pursue such an initiative. (Washington Post) A brawl broke out at a Navy Yard Chipotle Saturday. (ABC 7) • The feds will seek the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez, who’s accused of killing Israeli embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside the Capital Jewish Museum last year. (Politico) • Trump made it official, saying his statue garden was headed for West Potomac Park. The White House didn’t say whether it would seek approval from Congress for the project. (Washington Post) • Gun-rights groups promised to sue after Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a ban on so-called “assault weapons.” (AP) • The trial of Ebony Parker, a former Virginia assistant principal who prosecutors say ignored warnings that a six-year-old brought a gun to school that they later used to shoot a teacher, begins today in Newport News. (AP) • Police in Fredericksburg are looking for a person they say terrorized schoolchildren while wearing a bunny costume. (Fox 5) • Authorities pulled a man they believe fell out of a boat from the Anacostia River Saturday. He later died. (WTOP) • Amigos Mexican Grill in Laurel reopened after being shuttered following a Cinco de Mayo shooting and stabbing. (WUSA9) • Someone threw a beer keg through Georgetown Cupcake’s window. (Georgetown Cupcake/Instagram) • The fountains at Meridian Hill Park are flowing again after Trump made them a priority. (WTOP) • Only one entity applied to run Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory, prompting questions from city lawmakers. (ALXnow) • Tom Brady said he thought he would have been more likely to work at Ben’s Chili Bowl than to play in the NFL in a commencement speech at Georgetown University Saturday. (WUSA9) • Alexandria’s Amy Decker, a former CIA officer, will compete in the Food Network’s “100 Cooks” competition, which airs next month. (Alexandria Living) • Washington City Paper Managing Editor Mitch Ryals bids adios to old his paper. He’ll cover Prince George’s County for the Banner. (WCP) • Firefighters in Arlington rescued a dog named Rocky from a storm drain on Saturday. (DC News Now)The post Sure, Let’s Build a Helipad at the White House While We’re at It; Feds Pledge to Prosecute DC Parents for Teen Takeovers; Someone Threw a Beer Keg Through Georgetown Cupcake’s Window first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less