Washington, DC

1. Army sec frontrunner
2. Iran war hits markets
3. Venezuela deal scrutiny
4. Tariff frustrations
5. Dems mull party punishments
6. SC battleground?
7. Progressives’ anti-graft push

PDB: Chip tariffs coming

Trump attends policy meetings … Vance briefs reporters … Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks on economic outlook

Pentagon spox top pick for Army post

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, is emerging as a top contender for the Army secretary role, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Nicholas Wu report. Parnell doesn’t have the spot locked down yet, and it’s unclear when President Donald Trump will announce a pick. But many inside the administration, including Secretary Pete Hegseth, are pushing for Parnell, who might face a tough confirmation process. “Sean has been in the building since the beginning and understands the ins and outs of the Army,” one administration official said. Florida GOP Rep. Brian Mast’s name has also been floated for the role; he recently met with Hegseth, and sources said the Army secretary job was discussed. Mast, however, suggested it was a standard, unrelated meeting. The Florida Republican could face his own problems if nominated because a faction of Trump’s base is skeptical of his support for the Israeli government.

Trump says Iran war won’t last ‘too long’

US leaders gave diverging indications of how long the Iran conflict would endure, though the impact on global security and energy markets looks set to persist. Trump told reporters the war would not last “too long,” but The Wall Street Journal said his defense secretary was nevertheless extending troop deployments in the Middle East into 2027, potentially creating a yearslong maintenance backlog. US diesel retail prices hit their highest level since 2022, adding to ongoing inflation fears. The civilian impact of the Middle East conflict is also mounting: The recent return to military exchanges has likely increased a death toll that already topped 3,600 in Iran alone, with Tehran accusing Washington of hitting a wedding party.

Congress rejects Pentagon office’s equity power

Congress has already conveyed to the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital that it lacks the legal authority to seek equity stakes in private companies, a person familiar with the process told Semafor. It did so by declining to pass legislative proposals that would have granted the office the legal authority to seek equity stakes that were submitted by the Pentagon in recent years, the person said. The office, created in 2022 to issue and guarantee loans so private companies can develop critical technologies, came under scrutiny this week after the Trump administration used it to take an equity stake in Venezuela’s second-largest oil firm. Lawmakers have asked the Trump administration to brief Congress on the deal, Semafor first reported, amid bipartisan skepticism. The Pentagon and White House did not respond to requests for comment.

— Eleanor Mueller

House Republicans vent tariff frustrations

Nine weeks before the midterms, House Republicans aren’t holding back their criticism of the president’s latest tariff moves. In a closed-door meeting yesterday with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Republican Study Committee members were “freewheeling in their expressions,” one GOP lawmaker said. The US-Canada trade war was “darn close” to the “unanimous subject” of the meeting, the lawmaker added. “People are just looking for a path forward.” Others brought up the administration’s decision to scrap beef tariffs unpopular with corners of the party. “I applaud [Trump] coming up with ideas, but I also got … to take care of folks back home,” Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, said. Nunn and Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., both described Greer as “receptive” to their critiques. But Nunn also said he planned to bring them up at the White House last night, when Trump dined with vulnerable House Republicans.

— Eleanor Mueller and Nicholas Wu

House Dems to punish party defectors?

House Democrats are debating how far to go in punishing lawmakers who break with the caucus after Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Jared Golden, D-Maine, helped Republicans on a key procedural vote this week. Their defections struck a nerve in the party, with lawmakers floating options for punishing them or clarifying what it meant to be a member in good standing with the caucus. “If you want to be a free agent, you can be a free agent, but understand that you know you may not get to use the team locker room,” said Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill. Democrats began discussing rules changes yesterday through an under-the-radar subpanel led by Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., who told reporters they planned to “come up with some ideas that are reflective of the will of my colleagues.” That panel will propose rules changes to the rest of the Democratic caucus.

— Nicholas Wu

Progressives: Tie costs to corruption

Progressives are pushing Democrats to pair their cost-of-living message with anti-corruption rhetoric, and they’re rolling out new polling of battleground states and voters of color in the South to back up their argument. Eighty-eight percent of 2026 battleground voters surveyed said candidates must focus on lowering costs and addressing corruption, and 73% were more likely to support a candidate advocating for both, according to the polling, conducted in August by Lake Research and commissioned by the progressive group Indivisible. “Voters see a political and economic system that is rigged against them, and they don’t trust politicians to solve their kitchen-table problems if they’re not ready to take on the broken system,” said Ezra Levin, Indivisible co-founder and co-executive director. But both parties are underwater, the poll showed, with 53% of voters viewing congressional Democrats unfavorably and 70% viewing Republicans negatively.

— Nicholas Wu

Will Dems invest in South Carolina?

It’s crunch time for Democrats to figure out how far they’ll stretch their money into red territory this November, and Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews wants the battle plan to include South Carolina. Andrews tells Semafor’s Burgess Everett that the party can get more bang for its buck by investing in her race against Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., whom Andrews says is eminently more beatable than Rep. Ralph Norman, who was almost the GOP nominee. “There’s more people sniffing around and starting to see that there is a legitimate path to victory here because of the unique set of circumstances, the national environment, who I am as a candidate, how weak Darline is as a candidate,” Andrews told Semafor this week. Democrats’ campaign arm and top super PAC both praised Andrews — but they haven’t committed major resources to the race.

Dems make midterms about one big pitch

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries shared good news with his caucus this week: Democrats’ bid for an affordability-focused midterm campaign is cutting through the noise. In April, voters said that the “cost of living,” “the economy,” and “inflation” were their top three concerns, respectively — but that Democrats’ top issue was healthcare, with cost of living at No. 3 and the other topics barely registering. Voters now think that Democrats, like them, are most worried about the cost of living, then healthcare, then the economy, according to polling Jeffries circulated. But his plan was still panned by online pundits, a sign Democrats aren’t crafting the kind of bold-faced messaging that excites take-writers this year. Instead, they’re promising voters who are paying higher prices for groceries and fuel that they can get relief by switching from red to blue.

White House

• President Trump pitched the idea of renaming the Strait of Hormuz the “Trump Strait.”
• The Trump administration is threatening to cut off support to the Smithsonian Institution “under current leadership.”
• A plane carrying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made an emergency landing after one engine gave out.

Congress

• Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is on TikTok. His first post is about Beth, his late vacuum.

Outside the Beltway

• It is now too late to prevent some of the worst effects of climate change, according to a United Nations report, so policymakers must focus on “coping and containment.”
• Federal air marshals surveilled former Rep. Eric Swalwell before the FBI seized his devices last month. — The Atlantic

Business

• The White House is lobbying US space companies not to go to French President Emmanuel Macron’s space summit in Paris. — Politico
• Uber cut 10% of its corporate workforce.