Washington, DC

1. Trump’s birthright defeat
2. SCOTUS boosts GOP
3. GOP House gridlock
4. Dreaming of $2.50 gas
5. Congress’ global health pushback

The S&P 500 ▲ 15% through today to end the second quarter with its best performance since 2020.

Trump turns to Congress after birthright citizenship loss

President Donald Trump has another tall order for Congress: End birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court struck down his executive order today that sought to deny citizenship to children born in the US to undocumented or temporary migrants, calling it unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Trump responded by urging Congress to “start TODAY” on legislation, as “no long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he was disappointed in the outcome and that “we’ll have to deal with it as Congress.” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., concurred: “The Supreme Court has made its decision, now Congress needs to respond.” Not only is Congress already at a standstill over Trump’s voter ID bill, but the court ruled on constitutional grounds — meaning even if Congress managed to pass a law on birthright citizenship, it would likely face a serious legal challenge.

— Lauren Morganbesser

GOP thrills at SCOTUS spending decision

Republicans celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in NRSC v. FEC, confident that scrapping limits on how parties can coordinate with candidates would boost them in the midterms. In a memo, the GOP’s Senate campaign committee echoed the court, saying it had “leveled the playing field” for both parties’ hard money spending. Democrats, according to the NRSC “preferred a system that advantaged their outside group network.” Super PACs and other independent groups, which can’t coordinate directly with candidates, were unaffected by the ruling, whereas it helped party committees — at a moment when the GOP has out-raised Democrats. Every official GOP committee has more cash on hand than its Democratic counterpart, with the Republican National Committee more than $100 million ahead of the Democratic National Committee. But Democrats have their own advantages, as voters sour on Trump’s handling of the economy.

— David Weigel

Conservatives gridlock the House

The House is in a stalemate and is heading home early for July 4 recess today, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. Conservatives voted down a key procedural hurdle this afternoon, effectively blocking the House from taking up the rest of its legislative schedule this week. GOP leaders are staring down a laundry list of grievances from their right flank. There’s a group that wants to push harder to pass the Trump-backed SAVE Act voter ID legislation, and others who want the House to pass a border bill. “The House needs to be on offense, demonstrating we want to codify what the president is doing to secure the border,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. The gridlock has a silver lining for Democrats, who might be spared from having to vote on a measure attached to a spending bill that would cut aid to Israel. The measure stoked internal divisions in the caucus.

— Nicholas Wu

Trump pressures retailers to drop gas to $2.50 a gallon

Trump again warned gas station owners to drop their prices, urging them in a Truth Social post to target “around the $2.50 a Gallon number” — a price lower than at any time in the last five years. Average gas prices have fallen precipitously to around $3.85 a gallon from a wartime high of $4.56 a gallon. But they are still about a dollar higher than in late February, even as crude oil prices fall to prewar levels. Prices could take months to recover because refiners are still processing crude purchased at wartime prices. Crude itself ticked higher temporarily this weekend while Iran and the US exchanged fire over the management of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are advancing a plan to charge fees to use the waterway, despite US objections, injecting added uncertainty to the market as it rebounds.

Lawmakers sound alarm over US health policy in Africa

Congressional scrutiny of the Trump administration’s approach to global health policy in Africa is intensifying, with lawmakers raising alarms over the Ebola outbreak, HIV/AIDS program cuts, and what they describe as fractured US public health infrastructure. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., fresh off his Trump-driven primary loss, signed on to a letter with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., that urged relevant Senate Appropriations subcommittee leaders to protect the CDC as a core implementing partner of PEPFAR and warned that the State Department’s planned restructuring of the program would “weaken” global health capabilities and “cost lives.” Asked about the letter from Cassidy and Warnock, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the top Democrat on the appropriations panel with oversight of health agencies, vowed in a statement to Semafor to “fight to invest in CDC’s global health programs to stop the spread of deadly diseases and save lives.”

— Adrian Elimian

Courts

• The Supreme Court ruled that states can bar transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
• In its next term, the high court will consider whether the constitutional right to bear arms includes assault rifles.
• A federal judge ruled the Trump administration must continue providing federal funds for a $16 billion tunnel project under the Hudson River, calling the payment stoppage “flagrantly” illegal.

Media

• NPR retracted a story that it posted in error announcing the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

Campaigns

• Republicans selected Dallas for Trump’s midterm elections “convention” in September. — Bloomberg
• The Senate race in Texas between James Talarico, a Democratic state legislator, and Ken Paxton, the Republican state attorney general, is a dead heat, according to a new New York Times/Siena poll.

Transportation

• The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to mandate pilots adopt new technology to help them see other aircraft. — WSJ
• The FAA also says employees can’t buy or hold stock in Elon Musk’s SpaceX. — Politico

Agriculture

• The Agriculture Department plans to provide up to $500 million to help small and medium-size meatpackers maintain cattle processing during a livestock shortage, aiming to ease high beef prices. — WSJ

Economy

• US job openings edged up to 7.59 million in May, signaling steady labor demand.
• US consumer confidence rose in June amid falling gas prices.

Health

• The NIH launched the world’s largest integrated health database, with more than 747,000 people across the US contributing data.

— Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., upon returning from his nearly four-month-long absence from Congress, in which he was hospitalized for depression.

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