Good morning. Mostly sunny with a high around 88 today. A low near 67 overnight. I hope you had a good rest over the holiday weekend. Thanks to Ike Allen for writing this newsletter while I was on vacation last week. 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 as a morning email newsletter. Sign up here. How well do you know the District? Play our new geography game and test your local knowledge. I can’t stop listening to: Hungry Bug, “Tannins.” Some local heavy psych to ease you out of summer. Hungry Bug play Pearl Street Warehouse tonight with Shiner. 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 on Friday called the war he started with Iran more than six months ago and has struggled to end “small potatoes for us.” (AP) Those comments followed Vice President JD Vance‘s argument last week that the stalemated war was not in fact a war. (CNN) Despite those rhetorical innovations, the apparently non-war caused a Labor Day record for high fuel prices. (AP) Whoa, Canada: Canada’s retaliatory tariffs took effect this morning as Trump’s trade war with the US’s closest trading partner grew hotter. (NYT) Trump spent part of his weekend posting a photo of all of North America festooned with the US flag and threatened to block the Canadian company Bombardier from selling goods in the US unless it moves manufacturing here. (It already does make stuff in the US.) (CBC) The President also floated the idea of renaming New Mexico. (Washington Post) Antitrust staffers at the US Department of Justice staff were instructed last week to “pause all work with the Canadian government,” a directive that lifted after the Wall Street Journal reported on it. (WSJ) DH-mess: As a special government employee at the Department of Homeland Security, Corey Lewandowski sought money-making opportunities, jetted around the globe, and meddled with government contracts, according to a new investigation. (WSJ) DOJ filed charges against an ICE officer last week, an intervention so unusual that it underlines how the department has largely stepped “back from the role it has traditionally played in high-profile shootings involving federal agents.” (Washington Post) Administration perambulation: Republican lawmakers are worried that Trump may make a planned midterm convention this week “all about him.” (Politico) The Pentagon ordered polygraph tests for dozens of employees of the Joint Staff in an attempt to find the source of media reports about the US’s weapons shortage amid the Iran war. (NYT) DOD is also “searching protected medical records to find transgender troops who have tried to continue serving amid the Trump administration’s ban on trans Americans in uniform.” (Federal News Network) A federal judge in DC allowed the Pentagon’s firings of Stars and Stripes staffers to stand, saying they didn’t violate the employees’ First Amendment rights. (Politico) Former US Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer had a relationship with an employee, drank on federal property, and took gifts without reporting them, according to an inspector general’s report. (NBC News) The Department of Health and Human Services abruptly canceled grants that focused on infant mortality, “saying they didn’t focus on the Trump administration’s new priorities of addressing infertility and encouraging exercise.” (NOTUS) Trump has reconciled with Michael Cohen. (NYT) What is up with the new ‘do? (New York Post) Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • This year’s list of local Tech Titans has arrived: 250 VCs, government officials, innovators, founders, and others who are shaping the local technology scene. Local news links: Just Ken(Cen): David Rubenstein bought Joel Shapiro‘s sculpture “Blue” after the center’s Trump-aligned management removed it last week. (NYT) A piece of the center’s ceiling fell during storms on Friday, prompting its management to claim that proved it needs to close for renovations. (NOTUS) Bad things come in trees: The arboreal fallout from last week’s storms continues. Trees are down on the National Mall. A Maryland boy was injured when a tree fell on his house. Two cars got flattened in Capitol Hill. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said the District received more than 1,000 reports of downed trees. People in Dupont Circle left notes on a large tree cut cruelly in half by nature’s fury. Asks one local observer: “Could this be the next Stumpy?” • Federal prosecutors appear to have focused a special grand jury probe on the question of “whether city officials are adequately supervising children in and out of classrooms, echoing complaints from Trump administration officials.” (Washington Post) • Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando suffered a heart attack while playing basketball this past weekend. Jawando’s office say he expects to make a full recovery. (NBC4 Washington) • Administration officials stripped language critical of the Confederacy from a historical marker at Arlington National Cemetery. (Washington Post) • A federal judge ordered the administration to give 48 hours’ notice before it begins any construction on Trump’s planned Triumphal Arch near Arlington National Cemetery. (NOTUS) A new video from VoteVets, Home of the Brave, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation advocates for stopping the arch. (YouTube) • The town of Quantico, Virginia, said it had no running water last night “because of a problem on the Marine Corps Base Quantico water system.” (Potomac Local News)The post A New Stumpy for DC? Plus: Trade War With Canada Heats Up, and David Rubenstein Buys KenCen’s Former “Blue” Sculpture first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less