Washington, DC

1. DC embraces Saudi
2. Saudi’s AI deals
3. GOP’s redistricting loss
4. Stocks wobble
5. Fast-track for Epstein files
6. GOP split on DOJ measure
7. No hope for ACA deal

PDB: Trump moves forward with dismantling Education Department

Melania Trump, Usha Vance meet military families in NC … Comey set to appear in court today … Israel strikes refugee camp in Lebanon

Congress embraces Saudi crown prince

As President Donald Trump rolls out the red carpet for Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, he’s meeting little resistance from Capitol Hill, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller, Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott report. Few lawmakers pushed back over the crown prince’s first White House visit in seven years; instead, most described a stronger relationship with his country as key to stabilizing the region. Multiple Democrats highlighted concerns over the Trump administration’s possible conflicts of interest rather than the crown prince’s human rights record. House Speaker Mike Johnson has invited House leaders, including the top Republicans and Democrats on key House committees, to a reception with bin Salman today, several people familiar with the plans said. House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers, R-Ala., House Foreign Affairs ranking member Greg Meeks, D-N.Y., and House Intelligence ranking member Jim Himes, D-Conn., told Semafor they plan to attend.

Saudi poised for AI deals with US firms

Humain, the AI startup backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, is set to announce a slew of data center buildout deals with US companies including Amazon, AMD, and xAI, Semafor’s Matthew Martin and Liz Hoffman scoop. Those partnerships will follow on from an agreement by the US — which could be announced as soon as today — to sell a large number of American AI chips to Riyadh, people familiar with the situation said, though it’s unclear how much is new. Saudi Arabia is pitching itself as a low-cost hub for US tech giants’ computing needs, with ample land and cheap energy; Humain’s CEO said recently he hopes to make his country the third-biggest AI infrastructure provider in the world. The deals will offer Trump a concrete accomplishment to tout following his meetings with the crown prince, which today culminate in a US-Saudi business forum.

Republicans suffer redistricting setback

Trump’s foreign policy focus was interrupted by some unwelcome domestic political news, as a panel of federal judges struck down Texas’ GOP-drawn congressional map. The panel ruled 2-1 that the map is likely an unconstitutional race-based gerrymander; the majority opinion was written by a Trump appointee. Texas vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court, meaning a longer legal battle lies ahead. In the meantime, Trump is likely to apply more pressure to Indiana Republicans who have resisted his pleas to approve a new map in the Hoosier State. “Republicans are confident that the decision… will be reversed on appeal, and hopeful that Florida will pass a new gerrymander to expand their advantage,” Semafor’s David Weigel writes in. “But the decision cast some uncertainty on the Trump-led strategy.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the face of his state’s redistricting measure, cheered the news as “a win for Texas.”

Stocks wobble ahead of Nvidia earnings

A busy Trump will still be keeping one eye on the stock market, which suffered another day of losses Tuesday ahead of the release of a few big economic data points. Nvidia, the company at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, will report its earnings today — numbers that could fuel or extinguish jitters about an AI bubble. Meanwhile, data from Target and Lowe’s will offer more clues about consumer spending, after Home Depot announced that it missed earnings targets last quarter and pulled back on its full-year projections amid tariffs and economic uncertainty. Wall Street is also eyeing Thursday’s delayed jobs report and waiting to see whether it will sway the Federal Reserve. “Nvidia’s results could be a defining moment for the AI rally, while the delayed [jobs] report may reset expectations around the Fed’s next move,” one analyst told CNBC.

Epstein files effort heads to Trump’s desk

The bipartisan effort to compel release of the Jeffrey Epstein files stagnated in Congress for months. Then in an afternoon, Congress took the issue right off its own plate, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Eleanor Mueller report. After Trump’s 180-degree turn, the House cleared the bill by such a large margin that the Senate passed it unanimously barely two hours later, ignoring House Speaker Mike Johnson’s request to change the bill. (Technically, the Senate deems the bill passed once the House transmits it.) The rapid-fire sequence extinguishes the internal Republican fight over the files, although now attention turns to their substance. They’re due 30 days after Trump signs the bill. “We have to make sure that all of the documents are released, that there are no games,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senate GOP divided over DOJ provision

Senate Republicans are divided over whether to repeal language inserted in last week’s spending deal allowing senators to sue the Justice Department over metadata collection. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., doubts a repeal would pass the Senate, calling the original “Arctic Frost” provision “appropriate.” But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., thinks the upper chamber might have to deal with the issue after the House rolls it back as soon as today: “It certainly looks like it’s pretty unpopular.” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said she had nothing to do with it and that “what they came up with was a result of negotiations between [Senate Majority] Leader [John] Thune and Leader Schumer.” Schumer said Thune wanted it and now wants to repeal it — but Democrats “wanted to make sure that at least Democratic senators were protected from [Attorney Gen. Pam] Bondi and others who might go after them.”

— Burgess Everett

Health deal by December ‘madness’

The idea that lawmakers could strike a bipartisan health care deal in time for a Senate vote next month is “madness,” Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., said at a Semafor event on Tuesday. Congressional Republicans “have never put forward a viable plan” for sweeping changes to expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, like flexible savings accounts for ACA enrollees, she said. “To think that we are going to come together on a plan before the end of December is madness — and we all know it.” Senate GOP leaders promised Democrats a vote on the subsidies in December as part of a deal to reopen the government. That vote is set to fail, absent a bipartisan deal. Complicating matters further, Trump — who would be key to any deal — on Tuesday dismissed the vote as a “waste” of time.

The global financial system is entering a new era. The innovations that once reshaped markets, from index funds to ETFs, have become commoditized. In their place, a new wave of financial engineering is emerging. Semafor’s Liz Hoffman will convene leading figures in global finance at Semafor Business: The Ledger. Onstage, they’ll explore which innovations will shape the future of the financial system — and which are poised to collapse under their own weight. On-the-record conversations with Michael Patterson, Senior Managing Director in the Private Financing Solutions Executive Office of BlackRock and Gregg Lemkau, Co-CEO of BDT & MSD Partners will dive into the new risks and new power brokers behind untested innovations.

Dec. 2 | New York City | Request Invitation

Blindspot: Taxes and Epstein

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: British finance minister Rachel Reeves reportedly plans to announce a “milkshake tax.”

What the Right isn’t reading: Three in five US voters think President Trump knew of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, a Morning Consult poll found.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: “We are moving full steam ahead,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said of Democrats’ redistricting efforts. “Republican extremists started this gerrymandering fight. We’re going to end it.”

Playbook: The Trump administration is set to unveil a peace agreement with Moscow that could bring about an end to the war in Ukraine, with a senior White House official saying a framework could potentially be agreed “as soon as this week.”

Axios: The AI Infrastructure Coalition, a new group whose members include Google, Meta, and Microsoft, launches today with the aim of pushing for pro-AI policies and curbing scrutiny of the industry.

WaPo: Defend The Vote, a progressive PAC, is urging Democrats to prioritize a message linking affordability to corruption. “We want them to be focused on the corruption piece because we know it’s a winning issue when you marry it with high costs,” the group’s founder said.

White House

• A Trump official, Paul Ingrassia, chided DHS agents on behalf of the White House for seizing accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate’s phone. — ProPublica