1. THE LATEST ON VENEZUELA: Trump said in a post on Truth Social early this morning that he canceled a planned second strike on Venezuela while praising the nascent partnership between the two countries following the capture and arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy reports. It’s an early indication that Trump is pleased with the current Venezuelan leadership’s level of cooperation with his administration. Trump said in the same post that Venezuela is releasing “large numbers” of political prisoners. A different approach: A State Department team traveled to Venezuela on Friday, with aims of reopening the U.S. embassy in Caracas, CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and colleagues report. Acting U.S. Ambassador to Colombia John McNamara and personnel from the State Department’s Venezuelan Affairs Unit made the trip, the first of any U.S. diplomatic personnel since Maduro’s capture. Vessel-mania: The Coast Guard boarded a fifth oil tanker that was seeking to evade the U.S. blockade around Venezuela earlier Friday morning, WSJ’s Shelby Holliday and colleagues report. The ship, which was falsely flying an East Timor flag, had been previously sanctioned for transporting Russian oil, potentially stoking tensions between the U.S. and Russia. The Coast Guard is ramping up its capacity to repair the seized tankers, WaPo’s Tara Copp reports, a signal that the boardings are likely to continue. 2. MINNESOTA LATEST: Minnesota state authorities said yesterday that after an initial agreement to investigate the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis alongside the FBI and U.S. attorneys in Minnesota, federal authorities reversed course and blocked state investigators from participating, CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz and colleagues report. The move was motivated by concerns from the Trump administration that state officials couldn’t be trusted to withhold investigative details, while state officials shared equal mistrust of federal authorities’ ability to oversee the probe fairly. Nevertheless: At a news conference today, Minnesota AG Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty appealed to the public to preserve and share any video or evidence related to Wednesday’s shooting with state authorities, insisting they play a role in the investigation over the incident. Minneapolis schools are offering remote learning as an option for a month amid federal immigration enforcement, AP’s Rebecca Sanatan and colleagues report. Meanwhile: Oregon officials have launched their own investigation into the shooting involving Border Patrol agents yesterday that left a man and a woman injured. Six people were arrested in Portland’s protests yesterday, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. DHS identified the two gunshot victims as Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras in a social media post that outlined their immigration history and criminal records. 3. JACK’S BACK: Former special counsel Jack Smith will be getting an invite to testify in an open House Judiciary Committee hearing as soon as this month, Chair Jim Jordan tells POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs. Smith testified behind closed doors for over eight hours in December, but Jordan — who released a transcript and video of Smith’s testimony — says he wants Smith to publicly defend his investigations findings, which led to charges against Trump relating to reversing the results of the 2020 election, obstruction of justice and mishandling of classified documents. 4. DOUBLE BOOKED: “France delays G7 to avoid clash with White House cage fighting on Trump’s birthday,” by POLITICO’s Judith Chetrit and Giorgio Leali: “Paris had previously announced that this year’s gathering of G7 leaders would take place from June 14 — which is both Flag Day in the U.S. and President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday — to June 16 … But Trump in October announced that the White House would host a ‘big UFC fight’ on June 14. Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White told CBS News Thursday that the logistics of the event have been finalized. White said the event will gather up to 5,000 people on the South Lawn of the White House. The G7 will now run from June 15 to June 17.” 5. SKIRTING A SHUTDOWN?: Democratic leadership is signaling they don’t appear willing to leverage their votes on spending bills in exchange for action on any of the issues drawing headlines in recent weeks — be it Venezuela, health care or the shootings committed by federal agents, NOTUS’ Ursula Perano and Daniella Diaz report. The tactic marks a departure from last September, when Democrats triggered a shutdown over expiring Obamacare subsidies. This time, Democratic leaders in both parties are indicating there won’t be a shutdown. 6. CROSSFIRE: “Blasting Gavin Newsom, Trump weighs California wildfire rebuilding order,” by NBC’s Garrett Haake: “The White House is considering issuing an executive order in the coming days to address what the president views as an unacceptably slow permitting process that is limiting the rebuilding of homes destroyed in last year’s devastating Southern California wildfires. The administration is drafting an order that would allow builders receiving federal funds to self-certify their compliance with California state and local building permits, circumventing local authorities to speed the building process, a source familiar with the White House deliberations told NBC News.” 7. X OUT: Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Ed Markey (Mass.) and Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) sent a letter to executives at Apple and Google asking them to remove X and Grok — two companies owned by Elon Musk — from their app stores after Musk’s artificial intelligence tool had been used to create a deluge of nonconsensual sexualized images of real people on social media, NBC’s Kevin Collier reports. “Hours later, X adjusted how the Grok reply bot operated on the social media site, restricting its image generation to paying premium subscribers, and seemingly restricting what types of images the Grok reply bot can create on X.” 8. HMM: Following the tumultuous breakdown between Trump and his former ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the White House told the Secret Service it suspected Greene of tipping off protesters to his movements ahead of a visit to Joe’s Seafood last fall, Axios’ Alex Isenstadt reports. Trump, VP JD Vance and several members of his Cabinet were confronted by protesters from the liberal group Code Pink inside the restaurant. Greene and Code Pink denied any coordination between them. Greene called the story an “absolute lie, a dangerous lie.” 9. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — It ain’t easy being Greenland: Scott Jennings and Kate Bedingfield are on tonight’s episode of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire” with Playbook’s Dasha Burns, where the two discuss Trump’s focus on acquiring Greenland. Jennings said Trump should purchase Greenland, noting that past presidents have considered it. “It’s good for America, it’s good for national security. It’ll be good for the world.” Bedingfield said the issue is a political minefield. “This is a public relations fight that Trump is picking that has opportunity cost for him,” Bedingfield said, arguing that it’s deeply unpopular among the public. “He could be using this time to talk about prices, to talk about affordability. But he’s choosing to have this sort of bombastic back-and-forth about Greenland.” Watch the clip
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