Washington, DC

1. Trump meets MBS
2. Saudi image outdated
3. Senators talk ACA
4. Fears over health care
5. Econ data void ends
6. Epstein files vote today

PDB: Larry Summers to step back from public commitments

Trump, Mamdani plan to meet ... Trump mulls widening Latam strikes … Global markets retreat

Trump welcomes Saudi crown prince

The White House expects President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to ink a slate of deals as they meet in Washington today — including on defense and artificial intelligence. Also expected, per a senior administration official, is enhanced US-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation. Though details of that nuclear portion still aren’t final, Congress is preparing for the possibility that it may have to take up a formal agreement. Trump on Monday confirmed that the US plans to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, making it the first Middle Eastern country aside from Israel to reach such an agreement. The visit is being closely watched at home and in the Gulf. It will also include a Capitol visit on Wednesday: Republican leaders, plus top Democrats on some House committees, have been invited to a meeting with the crown prince.

— Shelby Talcott, Burgess Everett, and Eleanor Mueller

Saudi no longer land of bottomless wealth

MBS’ visit to Washington may be accompanied by the appearance of largesse — but behind the big spending commitments, the image of an oil-rich nation with bottomless wealth no longer holds, Semafor’s Gulf Editor Mohammed Sergie writes in a forthcoming column. Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is pitching for advanced fighter jets, cutting-edge semiconductors, and nuclear technology. Yet at home, he’s reining in spending and redirecting investment toward job-producing projects, while abroad, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is increasingly recycling cash to fund big bets. Though a stereotype persists of Gulf monarchs with endless oil wealth, Saudi is no longer a net exporter of capital and now courts foreign investments. Wall Street knows this: Banks are building up Riyadh operations and asset managers are pouring money into infrastructure and startups, drawn by a young, relatively affluent population and decades of expected oil revenue.

Trump key to possible health care deal

Senate Republicans see a potential deal with Democrats on lowering health care premiums for 2026 — if Trump gets involved. The Senate will vote by mid-December on reviving enhanced premium Obamacare tax credits set to expire by year’s end, a vote that Democrats get to choose. First, though, senators in both parties and the president need to figure out whether there will be a real bipartisan negotiation over health insurance premiums — or merely a political vote that is litigated in the midterms. “I think there’s really some honest, sincere negotiations going on,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told Semafor. She said a clean extension of the tax credits “would get voted down” by Republicans but added that “there could be a negotiated product. I think there’s a real possibility for that, especially if the president weighs in on this.”

— Burgess Everett

More Americans fear health care costs

As Congress grapples with the expiring subsidies, nearly half of Americans are worried about not being able to afford the health care they need in the upcoming year, according to a survey from Gallup and West Health. Forty-seven percent of US adults expressed this concern, the highest share this poll has recorded — a stat that lands as Medicare Part B premiums are set to jump by 10%, CMS announced Monday. Meanwhile, one in five Americans said they or someone in their household couldn’t afford a prescription in the last three months, while nearly one-third said costs caused a member of their household to skip treatment. The study also looked at states individually, and found that Iowa, Massachusetts, and DC ranked highest for overall health care experience, while New Mexico, Nevada, and Alaska ranked last.

State of economy comes into focus

The US government will release September’s jobs report on Thursday, ending a nearly seven-week data void that confounded policymakers already struggling to diagnose the economy’s health. Some figures will likely never be released and others will come with an asterisk, leaving investors and executives searching for clues in shadow metrics. The shutdown changed at least one Fed official’s mind about whether stubborn inflation or a weakening jobs market is a bigger threat to the US economy — a tough call as Trump’s new affordability messaging competes for headline space with mounting corporate layoffs. Traders’ expectations for a December interest-rate cut have dropped; wary investors sent US markets sharply lower Monday, with tech stocks particularly hard hit on fears over whether the AI boom that has powered firms to record valuations can be sustained. Earnings from big retailers — beginning with Home Depot today — will offer some clues about consumer spending.

— Liz Hoffman

House to send Epstein bill to Senate

The House is expected to pass a bill today requiring the Justice Department to release its files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with enough bipartisan support to override a veto. It may be a moot point: Trump said Monday he would sign the legislation if the Senate passes it, since he’d “hate to see that deflect from the great job we’ve done.” House Speaker Mike Johnson said he expects the upper chamber to make changes that “correct some of [the] concerns” over “the protection of victims and whistleblowers.” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., dismissed those comments as Johnson “just trying to save face.” “If the Senate wants to improve this bill without limiting disclosure, that would be fine by me,” Massie told Semafor. “But if they try to monkey it up, I think those senators are going to get in front of a freight train.”

— Eleanor Mueller

Blindspot: Kirk and NIH

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: Majorities in both political parties blamed “extreme political rhetoric” in part for the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to an NBC News poll.

What the Right isn’t reading: NIH funding cuts affected some 74,000 patients enrolled in clinical trials, a JAMA study found.

In Washington, economic power no longer follows party lines. The old frameworks — left vs. right, House vs. Senate, Republican vs. Democrat — no longer fully explain how economic power moves in the Capitol. Today’s influence moves through a wide network, from traditional power brokers to ideological outliers, dealmakers, and policy entrepreneurs. Join us Dec. 10 for exclusive one-on-one conversations with leaders including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), as we map the people moving capital, shaping policy, and redrawing the blueprint of economic power.

Dec. 10 | Washington, DC | Request Invitation

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Democrats are proposing legislation to repeal a contentious provision in the government funding bill that allows senators to file for $500,000 in damages if their phone records were seized in the Jan. 6 probe.

Axios: Washington and Moscow have talked about carrying out another prisoner exchange, although a US official said that no such swap was imminent.

Playbook: The House could vote today to rebuke Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., for trying to have his chief of staff installed as his successor.

WaPo: “Conspiracy theories never go away, and each revelation feeds that. That’s pretty much it,” one longtime Republican operative said of the ongoing Epstein fallout.

White House

• President Trump promised the government would begin dispensing $2,000 tariff checks by 2026, though such a policy would require legislation.
• Trump also announced a “FIFA Pass,” a visa specifically for the World Cup.

Congress

• The Senate Commerce Committee will probe game manipulation, it wrote in a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
• A bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote on the Protect America’s Workforce Act, a bill to restore collective bargaining rights for thousands of federal workers, passed the