Washington, DC

1. Vance might be ‘tagged in’
2. Big Oil wary of ‘drill, baby’
3. DHS talks wobble
4. Green New Deal fades
5. AI’s cost crunch

JetBlue ▲ 13% after Semafor reported the airline is exploring potential merger partners.

Vance may be ‘tagged in more directly’ on Iran

As US peace talks with Iran ramp up, Vice President JD Vance may take on a more direct role. Those close to the situation describe Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as assisting in the conversations from back home at this point, while President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner assume a more hands-on role. And one source familiar with the dynamic told Semafor that Vance “is very engaged with diplomacy, and may be tagged in more directly if there’s sufficient progress made by Witkoff and Jared.” There’s been plenty of focus on the role Vance — a longtime noninterventionist who has publicly defended Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran — plays in contributing to talks and advising Trump on the conflict. Reports suggested Wednesday that Vance could head to Pakistan to participate in negotiations should they progress.

— Shelby Talcott

Oil executives pushed to produce

On stage at CERAWeek, Energy Secretary Chris Wright called Iran “a short-term disruption,” but in closed-door meetings with energy executives, administration officials focused on ways to increase production, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. There’s an inherent conflict between the messages: Oil companies learned hard lessons during the 2010s about the risks of chasing short-term price signals. “‘Drill, baby, drill’ is a big part of energy dominance,” Jarrod Agen, White House Energy Dominance Council executive director, said during a side event. “We haven’t heard any pushback on wanting to produce more.” Yet that pushback could come soon. “We’ll have to see how this situation resolves itself, and when, and what are the leftover ramifications from that,” Clay Gaspar, CEO of Devon Energy, told the conference. “The one thing I know for sure is adding and subtracting rigs is absolutely value-destructive.”

— Tim McDonnell

DHS talks wobble as TSA crisis grows

Talks on reopening the Department of Homeland Security look shaky, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune dismissing Democrats’ offer of nine immigration enforcement changes as not “serious.” He’s planning for a vote on Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins’ proposal to exempt Enforcement and Removal Operations while funding the rest of DHS, though he didn’t rule out the shorter list of immigration changes the White House has floated. But the crisis at the Transportation Security Administration is only growing; its acting chief, Ha Nguyen McNeill, testified today that some TSA workers are selling their blood and plasma to get by until they are paid again. McNeill warned the House Homeland Security Committee that the agency will be ill-equipped to handle the influx of travelers expected to attend the World Cup this summer, even if funding is restored quickly. “This is a dire situation,” McNeill said.

— Burgess Everett and Laura McGann

View: What happened to the Green New Deal?

The Sunrise Movement, a nine-year-old climate nonprofit, is politically inseparable from the Green New Deal that it organized hundreds of town hall meetings and rallies to promote. Except that it barely talks about the idea anymore, reports Semafor’s David Weigel. Instead, from Colorado to Illinois, Sunrise members are focusing their direct actions on letting Democratic candidates know how toxic AIPAC is with their party’s base. It’s not just Sunrise — even as Trump’s second term sees a remarkable reversal of the environmental movement’s hard-fought wins, the visibility of Green New Deal-style climate activism is on the decline. The looming environmental catastrophe that motivated activists of the 2010s does not move the voters of the 2020s.

AI threatens a new cost crunch in consumer electronics

AI companies are rushing to avoid being seen as driving up the cost of electricity — perhaps the biggest immediate political threat to their business, for all the more apocalyptic warnings. The affordability backlash is on the brink of exploding in another sector of the economy, where the AI boom is already raising the price of consumer electronics, writes Semafor’s tech editor Reed Albergotti. The sense of an affordability crisis has become central to US politics in an age of inflation. The focus so far has been on eggs, rent, and electric bills, which Trump promised in the State of the Union will be kept safe from AI pressures. But politicians and technologists alike might want to start worrying about AI’s impact on the price of a smartphone, PlayStation, and car.

This April, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., will join global leaders at Semafor World Economy — the largest convening of top global CEOs and government officials in the United States — to sit down with Semafor editors for conversations on the forces shaping global markets, emerging technologies, and geopolitics. See the full lineup of speakers, including Global Advisory Board members, Fortune 500 CEOs, and top elected officials from the US and across the G20.

Iran War

• US military officials have been compiling a daily video highlight reel for President Trump of the most significant strikes on Iranian targets. — NBC News
• Iran is firing fewer missiles since the war began, but it is using them more efficiently. — Bloomberg
• Authorities in Europe are investigating whether a series of recent terror attacks on Jewish sites is linked to Iran. — WSJ

Politics

• President Trump is scheduled to address House Republicans at tonight’s NRCC dinner.
• Democrats are conducting a “listening session” ahead of the midterms.
• TSA agents tipped off ICE to a woman shown in a viral video detained while traveling with her daughter at San Francisco International Airport. — NYT

Courts

• The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Cox Communications in a digital piracy case, a decision expected to protect Internet service providers from being sued if they don’t disconnect users accused of illegally downloading music.

Business

• Trump named Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to a technology council to advise on AI. — WSJ

World

• The White House announced that the summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will take place in Beijing on May 14 and 15.
• An operation the US and Ecuador cited as a successful attack on a drug camp may have targeted a dairy farm instead. — NYT

Energy

• Experts predict the Iran war’s consequences for the liquified natural gas market could be worse than its effects on oil, even if the conflict ends soon.
• Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the CERAWeek conference in Houston that he had brought back $100 million in gold from Venezuela for US refiners.
• The US Postal Service will add an 8% surcharge to some packages due to rising fuel prices.

— A robot after escorting Melania Trump into the East Wing for a global event the first lady hosted on artificial intelligence and education.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Graph Massara and Lauren Morganbesser, copy editors

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu, David Weigel