David Weigel

5 days ago | semafor.com | David Weigel

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Over the weekend, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore quoted Martin Luther King Jr., ate fried fish with hot sauce, and thanked the Democratic voters – most of them black – whose primacy in Democratic politics is part of Joe Biden’s ambiguous legacy to his party. But while Biden’s Democratic National Committee put South Carolina first in part to shut down any possible challenge to the aging president, the state may not fight to keep the privilege.

1 week ago | semafor.com | David Weigel

You don’t hear much about the “big, beautiful door” anymore. During Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, when some Republicans were queasy about building a 1954-mile border wall, he liked to add a caveat. There would be a wall, but it would have a door — big, beautiful, and sometimes even “fat” — for the people “coming in legally.”That never happened in Trump’s first term.

1 week ago | semafor.com | David Weigel

GOP tax bill targets trans healthcareA last-minute change to the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act would ban Medicaid funding for “gender transition procedures,” after an amendment expanded language affecting minors to include adults. That was a coup for social conservative groups like the American Principles Project, which urged House Republicans to make the change, sharing a poll that found 66% support for it.

1 week ago | semafor.com | David Weigel

A last-minute change to the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act would ban Medicaid funding for “gender transition procedures,” after an amendment expanded language affecting minors to include adults. That was a coup for social conservative groups like the American Principles Project, which urged House Republicans to make the change, sharing a poll that found 66% support for it.

1 week ago | semafor.com | David Weigel |Kadia Goba

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, kept herself busy on Tuesday. She confronted Elon Musk in a closed-door meeting, got Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Clarence Thomas arrested, ended the career of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and humiliated Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert. Crockett’s busy — and fictional — day unfolded on “Mr. Noah’s Stories,” a YouTube channel that inserts the names of public figures into lengthy fanfiction videos.