Washington, DC

1. Platner replacement process
2. Iran’s maximalist approach
3. SCOTUS déjà vu
4. Trump’s Smithsonian campaign
5. AI reconnaissance?

Starbucks shares ▲ 3% after it announced a push to use AI to build its own software.

Democrats settle on how to replace Platner

Maine Democrats are ironing out the details of how delegates will select a replacement for Graham Platner as the party’s Senate nominee, but Platner hasn’t filed paperwork to formally end his bid. Platner told staff today, according to Axios, that he intends to wait until Monday — the legal deadline. Democrats are already anxious, given Platner and members of his team have pushed the party to adopt a replacement process that reflects the views of his supporters. State Democratic officials have settled on holding a “special convention,” with delegates distributed by county population. The approach has set off an intraparty debate about whether the size of Cumberland County, home to Portland — the largest population center in the state — will give candidates least-affiliated with Platner an advantage. Platner performed well across the state, but his supporters see voters in rural and northern counties as his base.

Iran’s Hormuz approach could backfire in long run

Iran is taking a maximalist approach to the Strait of Hormuz — and to a paragraph in the memorandum of understanding with the US that describes its role in keeping trade moving. The ceasefire deal has collapsed over Iran’s assertion that it should manage all traffic in the strait, a claim Iranian officials say is rooted in paragraph five of the memorandum. The US argues the language is generic wording meant to signal the strait must remain open. Since the initial end of the active conflict, officials in Iran have asserted a new, absolute claim over the Strait of Hormuz and used strikes and threats of strikes on commercial tankers as a leverage point in talks with the US. Regional experts believe Iran is at serious risk of overplaying its hand in the long run, but President Donald Trump has short-term concerns, like a midterm election just around the corner.

Trump sets up new clash with SCOTUS

Trump is asking the Supreme Court to reconsider two recent defeats — requests the court grants, at most, “once in a blue moon,” according to one legal expert. Trump announced yesterday that he would seek a rehearing “IMMEDIATELY” of the court’s birthright citizenship decision. Separately, his lawyers have asked the justices to reconsider his appeal of the $5 million judgment awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll after they declined to hear the case last month. The Supreme Court allows losing parties to seek a rehearing, though it rarely grants such petitions. “I’d be pretty shocked if either of these requests succeed, especially the birthright citizenship one,” Stephen Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, told Semafor, noting that the last time the Supreme Court granted a rehearing on an argued case was in 1965.

— Lauren Morganbesser

Trump takes aim at Smithsonian museums

Trump is dialing up his attacks on the Smithsonian, exposing partisan fault lines over how America’s past should be on display. The Trump administration released a 162-page report, Saving America’s Story, over the weekend, taking aim at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for adopting an “ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.” Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch pushed back in an email to staffers this week, calling the report “not a fair characterization” of the museum’s work. The clash marks the latest battle in Trump’s efforts of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” a campaign that has included dismantling anti-slavery museum exhibits, taking down signs about climate change, and restoring Confederate statues.

Fox in the henhouse

A few weeks ago, an Anthropic executive was asked a question on every CEO’s mind: Why should we trust that you won’t steal our business? “It’s a fair question,” Syed Mohiuddin said at an event I attended. “Because we are both a frontier lab that’s building models and a product company that has applications.” The edgy mistrust between companies and the frontier labs they are deeply in bed with is bubbling over into a fury channeled by Palantir’s Alex Karp in a chaotic appearance on CNBC last week. Engineers, dispatched by AI labs to help customers implement their models, will come back to the mother ship with a deep understanding of how the client companies operate. That customer support, to a suspicious eye, looks a lot like reconnaissance. The question is whether labs will make more money augmenting work — or doing it themselves.

On Wednesday, July 22, Claire MacIntyre, Chief People Officer at Sam’s Club, will join Semafor’s The World of Work in Washington, DC to unpack how institutions are adapting and thriving in an increasingly fragmented economy.

As companies face rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, and shifting workforce expectations, leaders are rethinking performance, trust, and long-term success. To explore how AI adoption, workforce transformation, and evolving leadership demands are reshaping the future of work, Semafor editors will sit down with policymakers, business executives, and workplace innovators including Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP); Katy George, Corporate Vice President of Workforce Transformation, Microsoft; Mary Moreland, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Abbott; Allison Peek Bebo, Chief Human Resources Officer, Pearson; and more.

July 22 | Washington, DC | Request Invite

White House

• Work is beginning on renovations to the columns in front of the White House, President Trump’s latest construction project.

Congress

• Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is pressing FBI Director Kash Patel on his purchase of BMWs and use of government-owned aircraft for personal travel. — MS NOW

Foreign Policy

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is trying to enlist US allies in his fight against antifa. — WaPo
• The US is cracking down on Cuba’s most valuable remaining export: the doctors and nurses it employs abroad. — WSJ

Business

• Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh appointed five expert task forces to review and recommend changes to the Fed’s policies, including naming Marc Andreessen, Greg Mankiw, and Doug McMillon.
• Lenders and developers say they are reconsidering complex commercial conversions after the partial collapse of the former Pfizer headquarters in Manhattan. — WSJ

Courts

• A man accused of shooting two members of the National Guard was hospitalized after refusing food and water while awaiting trial.
• A former Olympic canoeist pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
• Charlie Kirk’s widow and parents asked the judge overseeing the trial of Kirk’s alleged assassin to make all evidence in the case public.

Immigration

• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the Mexican government will pursue legal action after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents killed a Mexican national.

Media

• The New York Times and 16 other news outlets accused OpenAI in a federal court filing of withholding evidence relevant to lawsuits they filed against the AI company.

Technology

• Large technology companies are targeting Native American land to build AI data centers. — NYT
• Meta plans to start manufacturing an AI chip in September. — Reuters

World

• Health workers on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo went on strike, citing lack of pay and poor working conditions.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Ukraine, with sources describing a “high probability” of escalation in the coming months. — Reuters

— Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, on the engraved revolver that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave as a parting gift to NATO leaders following this week’s summit in Ankara.