Planes, Wars and Automobiles

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for May 1, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

THE LATEST

Donald Trump claims the Iran war has been “terminated” because of the ceasefire, with the White House officially notifying congressional leaders he doesn’t need to seek authorization for the conflict or draw down troops since he’s just under the 60-day War Powers Resolution deadline.

That deadline is today, and is set to pass without action, as Congress has left Washington for a weeklong recess.

• A new Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll found the conflict to be as unpopular as the Iraq and Vietnam wars during the years of peak violence.

Trump will increase tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union to 25% next week after claiming the EU was not complying “fully” with the existing trade deal.

THE HILL

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution urging Congress to take a tough stance on China policy ahead of Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

• The nonbinding resolution may even have a chance of passing given the list of influential co-sponsors, including Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker and Trump allies Jim Banks and Bernie Moreno, as well as Democrats Tim Kaine and Jeanne Shaheen.

THE ADMINISTRATION

Spirit Airlines couldn’t close a deal with the Trump administration and is moving to end operations. The administration had previously offered a government bailout in the form of a $500 million loan that could have given the government up to a 90% stake in the airline, CNBC reports.

• “I said I’d like to save the jobs, but we’ll have an announcement sometime today. We gave them a final proposal,” Trump told reporters today.

The Pentagon announced deals with seven AI companies — but not Anthropic, which it continues to fight in court over being branded a safety risk.

• “What we’ve learned since we started this effort at the Department of War is that it’s irresponsible to rely on any one partner,” Pentagon CTO Emil Michael told CNBC. “When we learned that that one partner didn’t really want to work with us in the way we wanted to work with them, we went out and made sure that we had multiple different providers.”

The luxury jet gifted by the Qatari royal family has undergone $400 million worth of renovations before it will become Trump’s this summer, The Wall Street Journal reports. Most modifications have been for top-secret communications gear, but the original plush couches and faux library bookcases are all staying.

I’M NOT MAD, I’M DISAPPOINTED

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