Workers construct a UFC fighting ring on the South Lawn of the White House.

Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg

It’s a great, big MAGA weekend — if you can wiggle your way into the festivities.

MAGA Inc. and administration insiders will be out in force in Washington on President Donald Trump’s birthday weekend, with events ranging from a super PAC dinner to mixed martial arts at the White House.

First up: a candlelight dinner fundraiser Saturday offering big donors opportunities to boost MAGA coffers ahead of the midterm elections. Then Sunday brings the Ultimate Fighting Championship event on the White House lawn that’s a hot ticket some lobbyists say they can’t score.

“I have never, ever seen a ticket this difficult to get for clients,” said Jeffrey Kimbell, president of Jeffrey J. Kimbell & Associates.

Separately, Trump is set to headline a $1 million-a-person dinner at Trump National Golf Club Washington, DC in northern Virginia, according to an invitation viewed by Bloomberg Government.

• “MAGA Inc is committed to retaining and building the GOP majorities in the House and Senate,” Alex Pfeiffer, MAGA Inc. spokesman, said in an email.

Meredith O’Rourke, a longtime Florida and GOP fundraiser who is a point-person for many of Trump’s projects, is a contact for the dinner, the invitation says.

O’Rourke has well-placed connections in some of the top K Street firms in Trump’s second term.

• “She’s the most impressive fundraiser that I’ve worked with in 30 years,” said Brian Ballard, founder of Ballard Partners.

Some high-profile lobbying interests have given at least $1 million to MAGA Inc. this year, FEC reports show.

• Marc Andreessen, Benjamin Horowitz, and their venture capital firm, known as A16Z Capital Management, are listed as sending millions to MAGA Inc. in March, according to FEC disclosures.

GOP lobbyists and political donors said MAGA Inc.'s war chest is an asset to the party, which is facing political headwinds.

• “The President and his political team understand that the midterm elections will be challenging, but they have remained consistently committed to helping Republicans win across the board,” said lobbyist and donor Ozzie Palomo. Read More

Welcome to Power Play, Bloomberg Government’s newsletter on the lobbying, money, and people moving Washington’s agenda.

Reach out with tips, news, complaints, and most importantly all your exclusives: kackley@bloombergindustry.com and coprysko@bloombergindustry.com.

Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general and Republican US Senate candidate, outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, June 3, 2026.

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg

Ken Paxton, the Texas Senate GOP nominee, will return to Washington for another fundraising trip later this month.

The Republican firm CGCN Group is putting on an event June 23 for the state attorney general, who made a swing to Washington after winning his May 26 runoff against Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). That event, held at AxAdvocacy, included Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other lawmakers as special guests, as first reported by Bloomberg Government.

“Texas has spoken, and at CGCN we’re listening,” said Ja’Ron Smith, a partner at CGCN Group, in a statement. “We’re putting real money behind Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, because we’re Republicans who want to keep this seat red.”

Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in November in what’s expected to be one of the most expensive races in the country. Talarico has also raised money from Washington lobbyists.

K&L Gates is adding a former senior aide to Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the latest in a string of new hires that also included the chief of staff to House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Emily Lavery, a former senior policy adviser to Scott and most recently a lobbyist at Fulcrum Public Affairs, is joining K&L Gates this week, the firm shared first with Bloomberg Government. She’ll focus on financial services and tax matters and build out a practice into financial technology and artificial intelligence.

• “We are looking ahead and thinking about the future of policy advocacy, and it’s changing so fast,” said Karishma Shah Page, who leads the public policy and law practice at K&L Gates. Read More

The US arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance boosted its lobbying roster ahead of a crucial Senate vote on crypto legislation, according to disclosures filed this week.

BAM Management US Holdings Inc., which operates the exchange, retained Morpheus Strategies’ Anne Termine on May 12 to work on issues related to “responsible digital asset management and operations,” disclosures show.

• Two days later, lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee advanced the top legislative priority for the crypto industry, the Clarity Act, out of committee.

Plus: Palantir has brought on another prominent Democratic lobbyist as the data analytics giant seeks to improve its reputation on the left.

Former Alaska Sen. Mark Begich registered to lobby for Palantir on “government programs related to artificial intelligence,” according to a disclosure filing. Begich, who began working for Palantir at the beginning of June through his consultancy Northern Compass Group, is working as a subcontractor to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, where he serves as a strategic consulting adviser. Brownstein has represented Palantir since 2023, per lobbying disclosures.

Earlier this year, Palantir retained a pair of Democratic lobbyists at Ferox Strategies to help push back on its association to Trump’s immigration policies. Palantir has added two additional outside lobbying firms so far this year, signing Red + Blue Strategies in March and Anchor & Arrow last month.

More than 200 crypto companies and lobbying groups are calling on senators to bring an industry-backed bill up for a vote “without delay,” in a new letter shared first with Bloomberg Government.

Stand With Crypto, Coinbase, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple Labs Inc., Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation, the Digital Chamber, and others signed a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

They’re urging senators to schedule a vote on cryptocurrency regulatory legislation, dubbed the Clarity Act (H.R. 3633), that would establish a market structure framework for digital assets.

• “The time is now, and time is running out,” said Mason Lynaugh, executive director of the Stand With Crypto advocacy group, in an interview. Read More

Plus: High-profile cryptocurrency industry executives from A16Z Crypto, Block, Coinbase, and others are banding together to call on Senate leaders to keep a provision in the bill making clear that software developers aren’t subject to regulations for money transmitters.

House GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who has spearheaded legislation on that provision for years, said in an interview Tuesday there had been some concerns raised from law enforcement.

• “My understanding is, that’s been resolved in the Senate,” he said, noting that the provision was part of the Clarity Act that Senate Banking approved last month.

Read also: Crypto Tax Draft Allows Staking Delay, Group Transactions

House Research and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.).

Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Tech industry leaders poring over a bipartisan House framework on artificial intelligence expressed reservations last week over federal preemption language, safety testing, and auditing requirements, Oma Seddiq and Caitlin report.

Top tech trade groups in Washington are evaluating the discussion draft, released Thursday by Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), but stressed more work is needed before they can pledge full support.

• Patrick Hedger, director of policy at NetChoice, which represents OpenAI Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.‘s Google and other tech companies, commended the framework in a statement. But “there are some changes we’d like to work with the sponsors on, including the bill’s aggressive auditing regime and data sharing requirements for developers that could risk entrepreneurs’ trade secrets and private records,” he added.

Adam Kovacevich, who heads the left-leaning tech trade group Chamber of Progress, said the framework is a step in the right direction. The debate over AI policy “has been overly focused on process and not enough on substance,” he said, calling it a sign of progress that “there’s now a proposal to argue about.”

Civil society advocates, meanwhile, slammed language that would seek to preempt state regulations targeting AI development for three years, arguing it would strip states of their authority to protect their citizens against AI-driven harms. They also said the framework reads too friendly to the tech industry. Read More

Read also: Bipartisan AI Framework Open to Changes, Key House Democrat Says

FIRST IN POWER PLAY: The Merchants Payments Coalition, which lobbies for legislation to curb credit card swipe fees, is out with a poll showing the majority of Americans want Congress to limit the fees.

The coalition said the survey of 9,264 likely voters in the 41 most-competitive House battleground districts, conducted by the polling firm Co/Efficient, showed that 73.6% of voters say swipe fees are part of the prices they pay. And 75% of voters say Congress should act to reduce swipe fees, the group said.

On the other side, the Electronic Payments Coalition has ramped up its efforts against the legislation, which is sponsored by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). That group released a report this week it says shows that credit cards are “quietly making everyday life more affordable” for Americans by offering fraud protections and rewards.

How does a lawyer become a lobbyist who can decide who needs to know what and why without boring everyone to death? The best piece of advice that Chantel Sheaks of the US Chamber of Commerce got after her own transition from Big Law to policy was to make sure there is a lot of literal blank space on the paper.

“That long memo you just wrote isn’t what you are going to take to the Hill with you, if you still want to keep a job,” Sheaks writes in this week’s Bloomberg Government Business of Lobbying Insight. “You are going to take a one-pager at best.” Read More

The US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest-spending lobbying group, said it scored a $100 million contribution that it would use to expand a multiyear state and federal free-enterprise policy and litigation effort.

The donation was the largest the Chamber has ever received and came from a donor who requested anonymity. None of the funds will be used for election-related activity or general operating expenses, according to the Chamber’s announcement.

• “This contribution stands apart for both its size and its impact,” said Suzanne P. Clark, the Chamber’s president and CEO, in a statement. Read More

Advancing American Freedom Foundation, the group started by former Vice President Mike Pence, has criticized the Trump administration’s tariff policies as giving a boost to K Street at the expense of Main Street.

The group said in a new memo that recent US job growth “directly coincides with the Supreme Court ruling President Trump’s IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional in late February,” referring to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

This week’s BGOV Hill Watch Live covered the latest on budget reconciliation, fiscal 2027 appropriations, the National Defense Authorization Act, and surface transportation, plus an update on efforts to extend key spy powers before they expire Friday.

Click here for more on the conversation featuring Team Lead Sarah Babbage, Senior Legislative Analysts Erin Bacon and Greg Tourial, and Deputy News Director Loren Duggan. Visit the BGOV Hill Watch Live hub for more about the series.