May 27, 2026
Hi friends. It is Wednesday but we’re keeping the graphic, here’s what to keep your eye on for the rest of the week and into next:
Trump convened his Cabinet at the White House this afternoon, originally planned for Camp David and moved because of “possible bad weather,” at what the Washington Post called a “precarious moment” for talks aimed at ending the war with Iran. Negotiators are still working through the wording of a memorandum of understanding under which Iran would clear its mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. would lift its naval blockade and ease oil sanctions, with the nuclear concessions punted to a later phase, and a senior official told Fox News Monday the framework is “95% there.” Meanwhile, the war keeps happening without Congressional authorization. U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called “defensive” strikes on Iranian missile launch sites and mine-laying boats Monday, Iran called the strikes “bad faith and unreliability.” House Republicans pulled a war powers resolution from the floor last Thursday after realizing it would pass with three Republicans joining every Democrat, which Hakeem Jeffries called “cowardly.” Out of this afternoon’s Cabinet meeting, Trump said Iran is “negotiating on fumes,” that he will not rush a deal because “I don’t care about the midterms,” and that “we’re not satisfied with it, but we will be,” which sounds less like a man closing a deal than a man preparing to walk. Iranian state media released what it called an “initial, unofficial” 14-point framework while the meeting was happening; the White House called it a “complete fabrication.” Marco Rubio said the next “few hours and days” will decide it.
On Monday afternoon, ICE agents pepper-sprayed Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, where he had been visiting in support of detainees on a hunger strike protesting conditions inside (no air conditioning, no fresh food, no due process). Kim told NJ.com that when he exited the facility he found federal officers had brought out an armored vehicle and were creating a barricade, and that he stepped between ICE agents and protesters to try to de-escalate before he was struck in the hand and inhaled the chemical irritant, leaving him struggling to breathe. Governor Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey called the incident a shocking escalation.
Alabama filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court this morning seeking permission to use the congressional map a federal panel blocked this week, asking the justices to rule by Monday, June 1. The three-judge panel had unanimously found in a 102-page order that the Republican-backed map “intentionally discriminated based on race” by squeezing Black voters into a single majority-Black district, and ordered the state to keep using the court-drawn “special master” map under which voters elected their delegation in 2024. Alabama’s argument to the justices is that the recent Callais decision weakening Section 2 vindicates the legislature; the panel disagreed.
While Alabama was losing in federal court, the South Carolina state Senate quietly killed a Trump-backed mid-decade redistricting bill on Tuesday that would have eliminated the state’s only majority-Black congressional district, currently held by Jim Clyburn. Fourteen Republican state senators ultimately voted to kill the bill, ending the redistricting effort for now. Majority Leader Shane Massey, who fielded multiple calls from Trump in the run-up to the vote, was among the Republicans who tanked it, and said South Carolina’s districts simply do not fall under Callais the way Alabama’s do.
Trump arrived at Walter Reed yesterday morning just before 9 a.m. and left around 12:30 p.m., his third visit in 13 months and what the White House had pre-billed as routine annual dental and medical assessments. Trump then posted on Truth Social that he had “finished my 6 month physical” and that everything had “checked out PERFECTLY.” Seems weird for a guy regularly sporting hand bruises with poorly covered makeup. A White House official told reporters the formal physician’s read-out will come “in the next day or so,” which is the standard way of saying it will come when it is least likely to make news. Trump’s last visit produced a diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency in his lower legs, makeup over bruising on the back of his hands that the White House attributed to “irritation from frequent handshaking and aspirin use,” and the president himself saying he regretted last year’s heart and abdomen imaging because it raised “too many questions.”
We are heading into the final stretch of the Supreme Court term, and the cases still pending are not minor. The justices are expected to rule by the end of June on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, state laws banning transgender girls from competing in women’s sports, the president’s power to fire commissioners at the FTC and the Federal Reserve, the administration’s attempt to strip temporary protected status from Syrian and Haitian nationals, and a Second Amendment challenge to federal restrictions on drug users owning firearms. June 26 is historically the final opinion day, and the Court will be releasing in rapid succession until then.
Gabbard wrote in a letter posted to X on May 22 that she is stepping down to care for her husband, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, with a formal effective date of June 30, but the operational handover to acting DNI Aaron Lukas is happening this week ahead of her departure. Trump named Lukas, the principal deputy director, as acting DNI within hours. Gabbard is the fourth woman to leave the Trump cabinet this term, and the transition lands at an extraordinarily tense moment for the intelligence community: an Iran negotiation that is mid-sentence, U.S. defensive strikes Monday breaking the ceasefire framing, and the public Iran war oversight hearings that House Armed Services Democrats have been demanding still unscheduled.
The national average price of a gallon of gas reached $4.56 over the holiday weekend per AAA, the highest holiday-weekend price in four years and $1.38 above the same time last year. Crude oil prices have spiked more than 40% above prewar levels because Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil flows, has triggered what CNBC called the largest disruption to oil supplies in history. GasBuddy expects a summer national average of $4.80 a gallon, surpassing the 2022 record, and prices could test the all-time high of $5.02 if the strait does not reopen soon.
Senate Republicans punted the reconciliation package before recess after Trump announced his $1.776 billion fund that would pay out claims and “formal apologies” to people who say the government wrongfully targeted them. The settlement was created so that Trump could pay loyalists what amount to near-bribes for breaking or skirting the law on his behalf, and Republican Senators are openly worried that January 6 defendants could line up for payouts and a few conservatives have said they are contemplating action. Legal experts told The Hill the fund is rife with constitutional and ethical issues. Thune wants the entire package passed by June 1, which is the day senators return.
NOAA released its 2026 outlook last Thursday predicting a slightly-below-normal Atlantic hurricane season, with 8 to 14 named storms, 3 to 6 hurricanes, and 1 to 3 major hurricanes. The good news is the forecast is mild. The bad news is FEMA is operating with roughly 23,000 employees after starting the year at 29,000, and the agency has been scrambling for the last three weeks to bring back disaster response staff it fired earlier this spring. The agency itself insists it is “fully prepared.”
Here’s an updated list of recent elections, from my perspective, the headline is TX Republican Senate primary, where the Trump-backed Paxton took out Conservative stalwart John Cornyn – a titan of the Senate who has raised hundreds of millions over the years, but whose star went into decline when he helped broker bipartisan gun reform after the Uvalde shooting.
Kentucky
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Ed Gallrein (R-KY-4) — defeated Rep. Thomas Massie in GOP House primary by 10 points; Trump-endorsed
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Andy Barr (R-KY) — won GOP Senate nomination to fill Mitch McConnell’s seat; Trump-endorsed
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Charles Booker (D-KY) — won Democratic Senate primary, defeating Amy McGrath
Georgia
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Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA) — won Democratic gubernatorial nomination
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Burt Jones (R-GA) — advanced to GOP gubernatorial runoff (no candidate cleared 50%)
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Rick Jackson (R-GA) — advanced to GOP gubernatorial runoff
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Jasmine Clark (D-GA-13) — won Democratic House primary
Pennsylvania
Texas
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Ken Paxton (R-TX) — won GOP Senate runoff, defeating four-term Sen. John Cornyn; the first Republican senator from Texas to lose a renomination. He’ll face Talarico.
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Christian Menefee (D-TX-18) — won Democratic House runoff, defeating Rep. Al Green in a rare incumbent-vs-incumbent matchup triggered by Republican redistricting that had pushed Green out of his old TX-9
Congress is out through Friday and returns Monday, June 1. With no committee hearings on the calendar, here is what else is happening:
Thursday, May 28, the Supreme Court. SCOTUS OPINION DAY. With the term winding down, Thursday is the likeliest opinion-release day this week. Any of the major pending cases (birthright citizenship, trans athletes, FTC removal power, TPS) could land.
Monday, June 1, Capitol Hill. CONGRESS RETURNS. Senate reconvenes to the $72 billion ICE reconciliation package with Trump’s $1.776 billion DOJ “anti-weaponization” fund still attached. Thune wants it passed Day One. House also returns; expect a fast-moving farm bill markup the same week and renewed Democratic pressure for a public Iran war hearing, plus a likely demand for answers on the ICE pepper-spray of Senator Kim.
By Monday, June 1, the Supreme Court. ALABAMA STAY RULING. Alabama filed its emergency application this morning and asked the justices for a ruling by Monday. This is the post-Callais Section 2 test on an accelerated timetable, before a Court that has already shown its hand. A ruling could land any day.
