Washington, DC

1. Trump’s SOTU asks
2. Dems counter Trump
3. New citizenship play
4. Shutdown’s impact
5. Gonzales digs in
6. Crockett’s press war
7. Nvidia earnings eyed

PDB: Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to comply on military AI

Trump meets with Duffy … Rubio meets with Caribbean leaders … Paramount reports earnings

Trump’s SOTU agenda meets reality

President Donald Trump gave the GOP Congress plenty to do during his historically long State of the Union address: ban institutional investors from buying single family homes, pass his health care agenda, prohibit stock trades on insider information, and end the DHS shutdown. Most of that will require Democratic votes, and Trump’s attacks on Democrats probably don’t help the cause, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Nicholas Wu report. “The way you get an agreement is to negotiate a compromise. And clearly he’s not interested in that,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said of work to end the shutdown. Equally notable is what Trump doesn’t want congressional action on: his tariffs. Republicans breathed a sigh of relief after Trump made clear they don’t need to lift a finger, taking some pressure off them. “It didn’t suck,” deadpanned Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. 

Dems counter Trump’s ‘bullsh*t’ address

Trump’s State of the Union speech divided Democrats — physically — with dozens boycotting the event and joining events outside the US Capitol building instead. “It’s just a bullsh*t, irrelevant speech,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Semafor after addressing a “People’s State of the Union” rally on the Mall, organized by progressive groups MoveOn and MeidasTouch. A small crowd gathered to watch the counterprogramming in the 33-degree Washington weather, while another crowd joined the Democrat-only “State of the Swamp” party at the National Press Club. Ignoring the president’s speech, Democrats denounced ICE raids and the 2025 tax cuts, and said their constituents had encouraged them to ditch Trump’s address. “The only thing I’ve heard is how happy they are that I’m not going,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif.

— David Weigel

Banks could demand citizenship proof

The Trump administration is considering requiring banks to collect proof of citizenship, like passports, from current and future customers, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller reports. Already, the industry is pushing back out of concern that the potential move — via presidential order, not legislation — would be costly and complicated to implement. One financial services lobbyist called the idea a logistical “nightmare” and warned of potential pushback from GOP voters: “The admin might think this is a good idea until Joe MAGA in Alabama is asked to present his papers.” Another person familiar with the talks called it “unworkable.” Firms raised similar concerns last year when Republicans floated taxing cash non-citizens send to family in their home countries. White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Semafor “any reporting about potential policymaking that has not been officially announced by the White House is baseless speculation.”

DHS shutdown spares immigration officials

Roughly 120,000 Department of Homeland Security employees are working without pay as Democrats and the White House remain at odds over the department’s funding — and the bulk of those missing checks do not work in immigration enforcement, according to internal numbers compiled by the Trump administration and seen by Semafor. Some 140,000 DHS employees are still getting paid, with many immigration and law enforcement officials unaffected by the shutdown thanks to funding from last year’s GOP tax cut law: Employees still receiving paychecks include around 57,000 CBP officers, 25,000 ICE officials, and 51,000 Coast Guard members, according to the internal numbers. Democrats are continuing to demand significant changes to immigration enforcement before they’ll agree to funding DHS. Trump called on Democrats to restore funding for the department during his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

— Shelby Talcott

We are ramping up our global coverage: We’ve just launched Semafor China, an ambitious briefing for leaders on how the world’s second-biggest economy is changing the world around it. Helmed by Andy Browne — a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who has covered the country for decades — and featuring a new CEO interview series by Clay Chandler, a decorated Asia-focused journalist who has covered the region for The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Fortune, our weekly briefing will tackle the vast financial, economic, and technological impact China is having across the globe, from Africa to the Americas.

Our inaugural edition had scoops on a Chinese industrial giant’s expansion into Europe, AstraZeneca’s strategy in China, and the extent of US allies’ courting of Beijing over the first year of Trump’s second term.

Subscribe to Semafor China for your weekly look at the biggest stories and best analysis on the country, and its huge impact on the world.

Texas Republicans dodge Gonzales furor

Texas Republicans are largely sidestepping questions about embattled Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, who allegedly had an affair with a former staffer who later died after setting herself on fire. They’re not leaping to his defense, either. Rep. Beth Van Duyne said Gonzales’ electoral fate is “up to his constituents,” while Sen. John Cornyn said, “I’ve got my own race to run. I’ll let the speaker deal with that.” Retiring Rep. Mike McCaul added: “I don’t know what the facts really are in this case right now, but I hope they’re not true.” Several Republican lawmakers have called on Gonzales to step aside since the allegations have surfaced about a week from his primary election, but the GOP is loath to lose another vote with a razor-thin House margin. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he’d talk to Gonzales, who’s dismissed calls for him to resign from office.

— Nicholas Wu and Burgess Everett

Crockett escalates war on the press

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is taking a harder line on the political journalists covering her Senate campaign, ejecting an Atlantic reporter from an event and calling the police on a CNN journalist attempting to visit one of her offices, Semafor’s Max Tani scoops. At a campaign rally in Texas on Monday, security escorted Atlantic reporter Elaine Godfrey from the premises. Godfrey has covered Crockett at length, though the coverage has appeared to frustrate the Texas congresswoman. “In a democracy, elected officials answer questions from the press rather than hide from them,” Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg said in a statement. That followed an incident in which Crockett’s campaign earlier this month called the Capitol Police, the agency that provides security to lawmakers nationwide, on CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, asserting that he may have trespassed when he attempted to visit a campaign office location.

Nvidia earnings to offer clues on AI

Nvidia’s earnings out later today will offer new clues on the status of the artificial intelligence boom, days after a viral report about the technology’s disruptions drove a tech selloff. The earnings, which are likely to beat expectations, will either “calm or exacerbate” concerns about the impact of AI on the broader economy, one analyst told Bloomberg. Meanwhile, investors will also be watching the forthcoming earnings report from Salesforce, a company whose stock has been badly affected by those same AI fears. Tech stocks rebounded on Tuesday on news of Meta’s massive chips deal with AMD and an Anthropic announcement that buoyed hopes of AI complementing, not displacing, software companies. Earlier in the week, Citrini Research spooked markets with a report that imagined a doomsday scenario for AI-fueled economic disruptions in 2028 (the White House dismissed it as “science fiction”).

Blindspot: Coast Guard and National Park Service

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: The Coast Guard reinstated dozens of members who had been discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

What the Right isn’t reading: A National Park Service worker who was fired after hanging a transgender pride flag at Yosemite National Park sued the government, The Wall Street Journal reported.

This April, Vimal Kapur, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell, will join global leaders at Semafor World Economy — the premier convening for the world’s top executives — to sit down with Semafor editors for conversations on the forces shaping global markets, emerging technologies, and geopolitics. See the first lineup of speakers here.

Applications for Semafor World Economy Principals are now open — apply now.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: “[President] Trump wants a show, and he knows how to put one on, like he did Tuesday night. Whether it helped the GOP is very much unclear.”

Playbook: “It’s all