More than 300 of the world’s most powerful executives have trickled into Idaho for Allen & Co’s invite-only, closed-door Sun Valley conference, where media moguls, tech titans and financiers gather every year. 

Dina Powell McCormick, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Joshua Kushner, Karlie Kloss, Robert Kraft, Sam Altman, Alex Karp, Bari Weiss, Sheryl Sandberg, David Zaslav, Bob Iger, Michael Eisner, Barry Diller, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Evan Spiegel, Josh Silverman, Marne Levine, Brian Grazer, Reid Hoffman, Adam Silver, Mitch Rales, Andy Jassy and Bobby Kotick were among those seen in Sun Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Washington figures also in attendance included Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh — who is making his first appearance in Sun Valley since being tapped for his role — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), former CIA Director David Petraeus and former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE). 

Also spotted were Lachlan Murdoch, Nellie Bowles, David Ignatius and Jonathan Haidt.

Karp arrived at the four-day retreat days after unveiling a major partnership between Palantir and Nvidia to deploy advanced AI models for U.S. government agencies, as artificial intelligence dominates discussions among this year’s tech executives.

Weiss is at Sun Valley for the first time since Paramount tapped her to run CBS News last October. 

Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery recently completed a $111 billion sale to Paramount Skydance after clearing a Department of Justice antitrust review in June. After he arrived and settled in, Zaslav changed into a baseball cap bearing the “WB” logo.

Iger arrives at Sun Valley after stepping down for the second time from his post as Walt Disney Company CEO in March. He’s since taken on an advisory role at Thrive Capital, the venture firm founded by Josh Kushner. 

Diller, chairman and senior executive of People, Inc. and Expedia Group, rolled up to the conference on an electric-blue Trek bike. 

Film producer Grazer came fresh off Aspen Ideas Festival, where he insisted that his films remain deliberately apolitical, aiming for “universal themes” instead. 

Below, a visual rundown of notable attendees:

Jane Lauder, Kevin Warsh and Casey Wasserman

Dina Powell McCormick and Sen. Dave McCormick

Joshua Kushner, Karlie Kloss, Diane Von Furstenberg, Garrett Langley and Megan Langley

Alexandre Arnault and Alex Karp

Gayle King, Jonathan Haidt and Nellie Bowles

Sam Altman

Marne Levine, Phil Deutch and Sheryl Sandberg

David Petraeus

On Capitol Hill, it’s usually the senators who publish books, not their staffers. 

The office of Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) has both: Last year, McCormick authored a book on leadership with his wife, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick. Now, McCormick’s chief of staff, Mark Isakowitz, is gearing up to release a book of his own. 

Isakowitz’s book, a memoir, is titled Wisdom in the House of Mourning: Kaddish, My Father, and Me. It tells the story of Isakowitz grappling with the loss of his father, who immigrated to America after surviving Auschwitz, and Isakowitz’s daily practice of reciting the mourner’s prayer at a synagogue in Washington. 

The book is described as a “father’s path from Auschwitz to America,” and “a son’s journey from grief to growth.” It will be published in January.

Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) said on Tuesday that they believe antisemitism is worse on the left than on the right, arguing that the electoral success of far-left candidates with antisemitic records in Democratic primaries distinguished the left from the right, as similarly controversial candidates have struggled in GOP primary contests.

The Pennsylvania senators spoke to Jewish Insider on the sidelines of the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, where they headlined the closing plenary alongside AJC CEO Ted Deutch with a discussion on promoting bipartisanship amid expanding domestic political divisions. 

While both men acknowledged on stage and to JI that antisemitism exists within the conservative movement, they rejected the notion that it had taken hold of the GOP, arguing that the rise of Graham Platner’s Senate campaign in Maine and Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb’s nomination for a Philadelphia-area House seat showed that the Democratic Party had already normalized antisemitism within their party. 

Last month, Republican voters in Kentucky’s 4th District ousted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the few anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, largely because President Donald Trump endorsed his primary opponent, Ed Gallrein. The outcome was cheered by the Republican Jewish Coalition as an example of party leaders showing no tolerance for antisemitism within the party. 

“Look at the people that are winning the primaries in our party right now and look at their views on Israel. We’re old enough to remember that if somebody had a Nazi tattoo, they’re a Nazi sympathizer, but now it’s like, that’s OK. People will defend that, or they’ll just kind of explain that away,” Fetterman said of Platner and Rabb. “In our state, too, Rabb. He won, and he ran on being very, very anti-Israel. So that’s the one thing that’s not just acceptable, it’s actually a virtue.”

“Candidates and Democrats will campaign and proudly stand with Hasan Piker. This is an individual [who said] that Hamas is 1,000% better than Israel and all other kinds of things, [including that] America deserved 9/11. They will campaign with this guy, it’s like their new mascot,” he continued. 

Fetterman told JI there is nothing “more damaging a Democrat can believe in” than the right of Israel to fight its enemies, and that, “For me, it’s probably the biggest concern, these people who are winning in the Democratic Party.”

Fetterman said that there is “no daylight” between the two senators on Israel or opposing antisemitism, while McCormick said they have been “joined at the hip.” Both argued Israel and the Jewish community face greater challenges from the left than the right.

“My party has a more significant problem with Israel and standing up for it, although there are fringe elements in his party as well,” Fetterman said. “I’ve isolated myself more in my party, but if you witness who is winning a lot of these primaries, even Chris Rabb in our state and the tattoo guy [Graham Platner], these are intensely anti-Israel people that are part of the primary crowd.”

McCormick echoed that, pointing out Platner’s standing in primary and general election polls and saying, “It’s certainly, I think, more pervasive on the left right now, but we have to fight back on both sides.”

“But I don’t think we can have equality there,” the Pennsylvania Republican continued. “We don’t have many people in the Republican Party who are running for office with Nazi tattoos on their chests, with mainstream Democrats going to Maine to campaign for Graham Platner, so I do think that this problem has really gained traction and become a very significant part of the Democratic Party.”

“[Neo-Nazi] Nick  Fuentes is a good example. When he’s speaking out, I’m saying, ‘No, no, that’s not part of my party, that’s not part of my values, that’s not someone I want to have to Thanksgiving dinner, and we shouldn’t platform those voices as well,’” he explained. “But I would differentiate between social media, where there’s certainly a lot of that, and what’s happening on the ground.”

McCormick, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, argued that the Jewish people faced two attacks in recent years, the first being Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel and the second being a “second surprise attack” in the form of surging global antisemitism.

“What came after — on the campuses of University of Pennsylvania, on the streets of Philadelphia, in Pittsburgh, where a young campaign worker on my campaign was attacked — was this rise of antisemitism and hatred and hateful rhetoric,” the GOP senator said on stage. “That also strengthened my conviction that we need to stand up.”

Asked by JI about what concerns him regarding right-wing antisemitism, McCormick pointed to the platforming of voices like Fuentes by prominent podcasters in the conservative movement, though he did not mention any podcast hosts by name. 

“I believe in free speech, but anyone who promotes pro-Hitler, pro-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theories should not be platformed,” he said.

McCormick told JI that he’s “skeptical that diplomacy can work” with Iran, and said that if the efforts are unsuccessful, Trump or a future president will need to take military action against Iran again. 

Fetterman warned that Iran would only become more powerful with a nuclear weapon and have more leeway to impede transit in the Strait of Hormuz and drive up global energy prices.

“I am outraged at the lack of condemnation of our allies or everyone collectively demanding Iran has to relinquish its nuclear materials. I mean, every democracy, every one of our allies, we should be demanding that,” he continued.

In spite of recent Saudi hostility toward Israel and the United Arab Emirates, McCormick said he remains “optimistic that Saudi Arabia and other countries will eventually join the Abraham Accords, especially after seeing the threat of the Iranian regime.” 

“If you look at the UAE and Bahrain, which have openly embraced the Abraham Accords and deepened their relationships with Israel in a short period of time, the demonstrated value of those partnerships have been born out through their collaboration during Operation Epic Fury. Only time will tell if they’ll come to the table, but I’m optimistic,” he said.

A group of Jewish parents from across Pennsylvania arrived at a virtual meeting with Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) with a plea: take note of antisemitism happening not just on college campuses but also in K-12 schools, and do something about it. 

The Tuesday evening conversation, organized by the North American Values Institute, brought together four parents who, since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, have devoted their attention to antisemitism in their kids’ public schools. 

“They’re just looking for help,” Steve Rosenberg, NAVI’s Philadelphia regional director, told McCormick in the call, attended by Jewish Insider. “They need life preservers. They’re writing emails, they’re sending texts, they’re doing everything they can, and they are getting very little, if any, response from their local politicians, from their state level people.” 

McCormick discussed his bona fides in combating campus antisemitism, pointing out that he was one of the first political figures to call for University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill to resign after her testimony on Capitol Hill in December 2023. But, he told the parents, he was eager to learn about the challenges that their children faced in Pennsylvania’s K-12 schools.

“When I heard about this issue, that many parents were feeling various indications of antisemitism in the public schools in and around Philadelphia, it certainly caught my attention,” said McCormick. “I wanted to tell you [that] I’d like to be a strong voice in trying to combat this, and I wanted every opportunity to hear from parents about what they’re experiencing.”

The 45-minute meeting over Zoom did not come after any particular antisemitic incident. The parents all had created local branches of the Jewish Families Association, a network of grassroots hyperlocal advocacy groups that formed after Oct. 7. They wanted to express to McCormick what they saw over the last three years — that antisemitic rhetoric, and language targeting Israel and Zionists, had become commonplace at their local schools. They felt teachers and administrators often were not prepared to handle the issues.

“What’s been most concerning to me is not just the incidents themselves, but how increasingly normalized and socially acceptable antisemitic behavior has become, and how often the faculty and admin generally are not equipped to recognize the antisemitism, understand how it manifests today or respond to it effectively,” said Caren Lowrey, who works in drug education and prevention and is running as a Republican for a statehouse seat. 

Ed Kovler, a parent and activist from Upper Dublin, outside of Philadelphia, asked McCormick for advice on codifying antisemitism policies and educational materials so that school board members and superintendents have resources available, even after leadership transitions. Kovler pointed out that he disagrees with the definition of antisemitism used in the state Department of Education’s glossary of equity, inclusion and belonging terms, which says that opposing Zionism is not, “on the face of it, antisemitic.” McCormick promised to look into it.

“I obviously am not a state official, but as a federal official, I’ll make an inquiry to the Department of Education and the governor and say this definition seems inconsistent with what we all would accept is antisemitism, and can you make the necessary judgment,” said McCormick. “That’ll be a takeaway from this call.”

Mark Isakowitz, McCormick’s chief of staff, urged the parents to document every instance of antisemitism that they see. 

“There are things we can do as policymakers, but please double down on cataloging the examples,” Isakowitz said. “I know there’s been a ton about Philadelphia, and I’ve seen it all, but we need more of that, because there are people who are still gaslighting the whole issue.”

McCormick told the parents that he would not stay silent. 

“I think part of the problem we’re seeing is people who aren’t antisemitic in public life are tolerating antisemitism,” said McCormick. “It’s not that they’re antisemitic themselves. It’s just that they haven’t shown the courage and the moral clarity to fight it.” 

The scandal surrounding Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) could send another far-left Israel critic to Congress, after a House Ethics Committee panel found her guilty on Thursday of 25 charges and lawmakers now move toward expelling her from the chamber.

Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted in late 2025 for a range of financial crimes  including allegedly stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, money laundering and illegal campaign contributions.

Cherfilus-McCormick has been a consistently strong supporter of Israel since taking office, when she defeated a Democratic rival by just four votes in a 2021 special election race. She served last year as ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, but stepped aside, as required by Democratic Caucus rules, after her indictment.

Even before the indictment and Ethics Committee inquiry, Cherfilus-McCormick faced primary challenges including from Elijah Manley, a young progressive who has been critical of Israel. Manley, 27, who has leaned into Cherfilus-McCormick’s indictment as fuel for his campaign, sat prominently behind her at her Ethics Committee trial last week. Dale Holness, the candidate who lost by a hair to Cherfilus-McCormick in 2021, is also running again.

A poll of 300 likely primary voters in Pensacola in February found Manley leading the field with 38% of the vote, followed by Cherfilus-McCormick with 35% and Holness with just 10%. In a head-to-head matchup with Holness, Manley held a double digit lead, 45%-33%.

Manley has topped the field in fundraising with $678,000 to Holness’ $185,000, but Manley reported having burned through nearly all of that war chest as of the end of 2025, with just $6,000 left on hand with months to go until the mid-August primary.

Manley has been endorsed by the anti-Israel group TrackAIPAC, which requires its endorsees to support an arms embargo on Israel and describe the war in Gaza as a genocide.

Last summer, he argued that the U.S. should not defend Israel from Iranian counterattacks during the 12-day war, saying, “It’s not America’s responsibility to defend Israel from the consequences of attacking Iran right now, especially while we’re trying to negotiate a nuclear deal. Americans don’t want more forever wars.”

Even before the war in Gaza, he accused supporters of Israel of acting like the country is “above criticism and act cultishly about it.”

But Manley has also condemned Hamas and its Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, called on various occasions during the Gaza war for the return of hostages and celebrated their return. He also criticized those who planned to withhold their votes from Democrats in the 2024 election in protest of the situation in Gaza.

“Elijah condemns Hamas terrorists for the brutal and unacceptable October 7th, 2023, terror attack that claimed the lives of 1,300 Israeli civilians and the kidnapping of hundreds more,” his campaign website reads. “He also condemns the far-right Netanyahu government for its bombardment of Gaza, illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank, and blockade of humanitarian aid.”

“Elijah Manley believes in the right to peace, dignity, and safety for both Israelis and Palestinians, including Israel and Palestinian right to self determination and the right to exist,” the site continues. “In Congress, Elijah will be an advocate for a just and lasting peace rooted in the value of human rights, an end to violence and suffering, and security for both peoples.”

Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) are pushing for additional sanctions on the Houthis in response to the group’s violations of human rights and hostage-taking in a new bill set to be introduced Friday.

The pair are the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Middle East subcommittee.

The Houthi Human Rights Accountability Act would require the administration to assess whether members of the Houthis have committed gross violations of human rights, obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid or have been involved in taking American hostages or supporting hostage-taking, qualifying them for sanctions under U.S. law.

The bill also declares that it is the sense of Congress that “Houthi efforts to indoctrinate Yemenis into a violent, anti-Semitic, and extremist worldview are a threat to a Yemeni-led peace process and to regional stability” and that “it is counter to United States policy to provide support to the Houthis in Yemen.”

The legislation requires the administration to report to Congress on such Houthi indoctrination efforts, the threats the group poses to regional stability, obstacles to humanitarian aid delivery in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and human rights abuses committed by the Iran-backed terror organization.

The bill would sunset five years after its passage.

Companion legislation advanced through the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a unanimous vote last week.

“The Houthis have terrorized the Yemeni people, the region, and Americans for far too long,” Rosen said in a statement. “With Iran’s support, the Houthis have prevented crucial, lifesaving aid from reaching civilians and unlawfully detained humanitarians and diplomats, including current and former local staff of the U.S. Mission in Yemen just this week. I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan bill to hold the Houthis accountable. I’ll continue working across party lines to support efforts to combat Iranian-backed aggression and stabilize the Middle East.”

The Houthis have for several years detained current and former local staff of the U.S. embassy in Yemen. The administration on Wednesday issued a statement condemning those arrests and detentions.

“The Houthis’ campaign of terror and destruction remains a threat to global maritime trade, our regional allies, and the people of Yemen,” McCormick said. “The severity of the Houthi menace is magnified by their human rights abuses, antisemitism, and their continued theft of international humanitarian aid. This bipartisan, bicameral bill will ensure Houthi terror remains on the global agenda and position the United States at the forefront of efforts to steadily increase pressure on the group.”

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) wrote to top trade officials in the Trump administration urging them to take action to respond to the decision by the Norges Bank Investment Fund, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, to divest from U.S. equipment firm Caterpillar because of the Israeli military’s use of its products in the West Bank and Gaza.

“As the Trump Administration continues to take bold action to rebalance global trade, I urge you to also address the disturbing politicization of sovereign wealth fund investment decisions against American companies,” McCormick said in a letter, sent Thursday, to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

He called on the administration to take Norges’ moves against American companies into account in ongoing trade negotiations with Norway, calling the effort a “form of economic warfare directed by a foreign government against the U.S. economy.”

He said that “all options should be on the table to address this issue,” including tariffs, “restrictions on Norges’ access to U.S. financial markets, and visa sanctions” on those involved in moves against American companies.

McCormick served from 2020-2022 as CEO of Bridgewater Associates, which manages portions of Norges’ portfolio. Bridgewater CIO Greg Jensen addressed Norges’ 2024 investment conference.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called publicly for similar retaliatory action last week.

McCormick said he’d confronted Norway’s prime minister about the Caterpillar decision during a visit to the country last month, and said the prime minister had told him the decision “merely followed Norges’ ethical guidelines and was not political.”

“I respectfully disagree. While I recognize the value of Norges’ investments of nearly $1 trillion of U.S. assets, I have significant concerns that these decisions are entirely political and are driven by an agenda that has consistently targeted American companies and is explicitly anti-Israel,” McCormick continued.

McCormick emphasized that Caterpillar is a frequent target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, and noted that Norges has also previously divested from U.S. fossil fuel and defense companies — in some cases including companies that Norway itself purchases weapons systems from.

The Pennsylvania senator called on the administration to “look more broadly at instances of sovereign wealth funds adopting restrictive, unfair trade policies against U.S. companies as a result of political pressure” in other cases as well.

McCormick separately wrote to Norway’s ambassador to the United States, stating that he “remain[s] extremely concerned” by Norges’ moves against American companies, adding that he “brought this issue up directly with Prime Minister [Jonas Gahr] Støre and was unsatisfied with his response.”

The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment on whether it plans to address Norges’ divestment from Caterpillar.

Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former Trump administration official, said that Norges’ decisions have a significant impact on global investment trends.

“Norges is such a large player … It moves capital markets with its decisions,” Goldberg explained. “It causes other sovereign wealth funds, pension funds to follow. It causes institutional investors to follow. It really does set trends in investment and an inversion of capital can have impacts.”

He said that Norges’ investment decisions in relation to Israel are a major political issue in Norway’s upcoming elections, and some of the left-wing parties who could become part of the next governing coalition are demanding divestment from a “laundry list” of other American companies over their relations to Israel.

Goldberg also argued that the “danger of weaponized sovereign wealth funds” both in terms of BDS efforts and other anti-American moves is an ongoing and growing issue, and that the administration should insist that sovereign wealth funds be covered in U.S. trade deals with foreign countries. 

“This is a long standing attack on U.S. interests, attack on American energy companies, an attack on American defense companies and now an attack on any company that does business with the State of Israel — all of this to the detriment of our national economic security, all of it politicized by the Norwegians by a state-run, state-controlled entity” Goldberg said.

If the U.S. fails to respond, he continued, “we’re literally allowing supposed democratic allies for whom we provide a blanket of freedom the ability to conduct economic warfare against America and American interests.”

With the 2025-26 school year kicking off, Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) wrote to the presidents of five Pennsylvania universities urging them to work with their Jewish communities to ensure Jewish students’ safety and ability to participate in campus life.

McCormick and Fetterman wrote the letters to the presidents of Lehigh University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and Temple University, and suggested in part that the schools should cover additional security expenses incurred by campus Jewish organizations.

“We write to you to urge you, as a leader of a Pennsylvania university with a large Jewish student population, to commit to ensuring Jewish institutions on your campus are equipped to protect the students they serve, including by allocating the resources to do so,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is incumbent on all of us — especially our nation’s universities — to ensure vibrant Jewish life is not compromised or driven into the shadows.”

They urged the college presidents to “work with your campus’s Jewish institutions and ensure all students, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or shared ancestry, are safe and able to fully participate in campus life.”

The senators noted that antisemitic harassment and violence has plagued Jewish communities and institutions on campuses in the state, that “many Jewish institutions have been forced to cover the costs of additional security” and that students have been forced to hide their Judaism.

McCormick and Fetterman told the schools that “no students should feel like they must risk their safety” to practice their religion and that institutions such as Hillel and Chabad should not be forced to divert funding from programs toward security expenses.

They praised some Pennsylvania schools for taking steps to enforce their campus policies, break up encampments and suspend student groups involved in antisemitic activity.

Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks “changed the landscape in ways that could be for the good” and lead to the “possibility of a secure region,” Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) told a group of pro-Israel college students on Tuesday. 

McCormick lauded Israel’s “historic” military efforts that led to the degradation of Iran’s terrorist proxies across the Middle East.

“What’s happened with the conduct of military operations since then in the fight against Hezbollah, the fight against Hamas, taking out much of Iran’s [nuclear] capabilities, what has happened with Israel’s incredible military leadership … has reset the possibility of a secure region,” McCormick told about 700 attendees on the final day of Israel on Campus Coalition’s three-day national leadership summit in Washington.

“It has changed the possibilities in the Middle East and I hope it’s brought an awareness and change to our complacency here at home in the need to fight against that pure evil [and] reset the table in the Middle East.” 

“We have to eradicate [and] destroy the evil” that caused the Oct. 7 attacks, McCormick continued, referring to Hamas. 

McCormick also took aim at the rise of antisemitism across the country, including in his home state.

After Oct. 7 “there was a second surprise attack. That’s the evil of antisemitism that we saw across our campuses,” McCormick said. “Most of us didn’t know the degree to which antisemitism would rear its ugly head on campuses across Pennsylvania and across our country.” 

“It has shown us that we have to engage in a constant battle against the kind of hatred and evil that we saw in Israel on Oct. 7, but also that we saw across our campuses.” 

PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania’s top lawmakers put up a united front on Tuesday to emphasize to the hundreds of tech and energy investors at Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) inaugural innovation summit the benefits of working with states that embrace bipartisanship and the national security imperatives of investing domestically.

The Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit brought top tech and energy executives to Carnegie Mellon University’s campus, home to one of the world’s most advanced AI programs. Tuesday’s gathering also included the state’s two leading Democrats, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), and President Donald Trump, all of whom praised the conference as a strategic way to promote U.S. investment to the scores of foreign and American leaders in attendance.

Amazon Web Services’ $20 billion investment last month in three computing and AI campuses in the Keystone State was “an indicator of all that we can be when we harness the new things that we have going for us, and when we have government and the private sector working together, not at odds, and when we pull in our educational institutions … in a way that really helps move Pennsylvania forward,” Shapiro said during a panel discussion with McCormick and AWS CEO Matt Garman. 

While McCormick and Shapiro acknowledged their political differences, they said they agreed that their state should be on the forefront of the technological innovation and investment happening in the United States. They also said they share the view that a unified team of statewide leaders is more appealing to outside investors and businesses than an assortment that’s at odds with each other.  

“I look at this moment as a business guy, and so I say one of two things: If I’m a business guy, what do I want?” McCormick asked. “I want to come to a place that has all those ingredients and has uniform political leadership. … If you’re a CEO and you want to invest a bunch of money and you come in and sit down, you meet the governor and he’s talking bad about me and saying that I’m full of it, and vice versa, that makes you not want to invest, right? So we need to be aligned at all levels.”

“The governor and I are of different parties, we have plenty of differences, but on this, we agree. Sen. Fetterman was at our dinner last night. On this, we agree that we need to be at the crossroads of the energy revolution, the AI revolution. To have a leadership position, we need to show a unified front at the local level, at the state level, at the national level. That’s the only way to win,” McCormick continued. 

The conversation, which took place as hundreds of AI and energy firms courted investors at tables around the Jared L. Cohon University Center on Carnegie Mellon’s campus, followed panel discussions from senior tech and finance executives about winning the race for AI and energy domination domestically and the benefits of investing in the Keystone State.

Shapiro and McCormick separately said that they view Pennsylvania as a purple state that requires bipartisan cooperation to push any legislation across the finish line. 

“As a candidate, I promised I would get things done, and in Pennsylvania, you can’t get things done unless you’re able to work with people who you disagree with on certain things and find areas of common agreement,” McCormick said. “We can agree that we’ve got to have great jobs in Pennsylvania, we’ve got to take advantage of our energy resources, like there is so much to agree on. So I think this is a particularly special moment for Pennsylvania.”

Shapiro noted that his first two years as governor took place under a Republican state Senate, forcing him to reach across the aisle and find common ground on areas such as economic and education policy, before noting that he still takes issue with major GOP policy priorities such as Trump’s budget reconciliation bill.

“The last two years, I was the only governor in the entire country with a divided legislature. Senate led by Republicans, a House led by Democrats. This year, I think there’s one or two other governors with the same. For me to get any bill to my desk requires votes from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. And I think if you enter every discussion focusing on your differences, you’ll never get anything done,” Shapiro said.

“We’re honest about differing on the bill that was just passed, the reconciliation bill that was just passed last week,” he added of his disagreements with McCormick. “But we also understand how critically important it is to grow our economy in Pennsylvania, this unique moment that we are in.”

Fetterman, who returned to Washington on Tuesday for Senate business, told Jewish Insider in a statement that he was fully supportive of the summit and the unity push by McCormick and Shapiro.

“Party aside, we’re all in – on Pennsylvania’s best interests,” Fetterman told JI, adding that he sent his “congratulations to Sen. McCormick for putting this tremendous event together for Pennsylvania’s future.”

McCormick later highlighted in his discussion with Shapiro and Garman the need for Pennsylvania and the U.S. to keep up with the rest of the world in economic development. 

“If you travel around the world, if you go to the Middle East, if you go to other places, the pace of change is extraordinary. And it’s gonna require a level of urgency that I don’t think most people in this room have probably had in the past about this moment, particularly in Pennsylvania. And so that urgency, we need to grab the moment,” the senator said. 

In response, Shapiro pointed out that one of McCormick’s top takeaways from his recent visit to the Middle East was the potential for U.S. investments from new partners.

“The senator, and I think Dina [Powell McCormick] as well, went to the Middle East a month or two ago, and we talked right when he came back. One of the things you were most jazzed up about, I thought, were the investments that folks in the Middle East shared with you that they wanted to make in America and how you were pitching Pennsylvania as part of that,” Shapiro said.

“This is a global race for both energy dominance and AI dominance. We need home-grown Pennsylvanians to be doing this work, and we need investment from all across the country and all across the globe. We do not want China to beat us in this AI race. This is one of the most important national security questions we have, and so if the senator and others can bring investment from around the globe to right here in Pennsylvania,” he continued.

During the president’s roundtable discussion with McCormick, leading executives and several members of his Cabinet, Trump touted the $5.1 trillion in domestic investments he claimed to have secured on his last visit to the Middle East while cheering the $90 billion in committed U.S. projects announced at the summit.

“Today’s commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pittsburgh and I have to say right here in the United States of America,” Trump said. 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum described the president’s “vision of energy dominance” as the “foundation of this golden age for America.” 

“You identified that there were a couple of threats to our country. One was Iran having a nuclear weapon. The other was losing the AI arms race to China. You took care of one of those a few weeks ago. You’re helping to take care of the other one here,” Burgum said of Trump’s agenda, prompting a smile from the president. 

McCormick then noted that Trump’s attendance at the summit helped boost interest from industry leaders and investors alike. “I really believe, Mr. President, based on you being here, we’re going to look back on this day and say that this was a real, seminal moment in the history of our Commonwealth and maybe in the history of our country,” he told the president. 

Trump then remarked that while McCormick had initially only asked him to make a brief appearance at the gathering, he decided to stay for longer once he saw the industry leaders on the high-profile guest list. 

“When I saw the people gathered, I said, ‘I’m not leaving. I want to learn something.’ And I have learned something. This is the smartest group of talent, probably, that you’ve ever had in terms of energy and even finance, [that you’ve] ever had in one room,” Trump remarked to the crowd.

PITTSBURGH — A who’s who of U.S. and Gulf officials and some of the world’s leading tech and energy investors are en route to Pittsburgh ahead of Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) first-ever innovation summit on Tuesday, where he and President Donald Trump will announce $70 billion in investments aimed at turning Pennsylvania into a hub for artificial intelligence and new energy technologies.

More than 60 CEOs and scores of top energy and AI investors are slated to be at the freshman senator’s inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, home to one of the world’s most advanced AI programs. Among the CEOs expected to appear are BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Palantir’s Alex Karp, Bridgewater’s Nir Bar Dea, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Amazon Web Services’ Matt Garman, Bechtel’s Brendan Bechtel, Chevron’s Mike Wirth, GIC’s Lim Chow Kiat, Brookfield’s Bruce Flatt, CPP Investments’ John Graham, EQT’s Toby Rice and ExxonMobil’s Darren Woods. (McCormick’s wife, Dina Powell McCormick, is on the ExxonMobil board of directors.)

Others on the guest list include Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s president and chief investment officer; Raj Agrawal, global head of real assets at KKR; and Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, managing director and group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) will both be in attendance, with Shapiro taking part in a midday panel discussion alongside McCormick titled, “Investing Big in Pennsylvania: A Case Study.” Several state legislators and members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation — including Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) of the House Energy Committee and GOP state Sen. Kim Ward, president pro tempore of the body — are also participating. 

At least seven senior Trump administration officials are expected in Pittsburgh for Tuesday’s gathering, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks.

McCormick told Jewish Insider in March that organizing this summit was a focus of his early work in the Senate, which he said involved “thinking about big opportunities to change the trajectory of Pennsylvania.” He pointed to “the intersection of artificial intelligence and energy” and potential areas of growth in the state for the defense industry.

“We’ve got a huge opportunity in defense. The defense budget is going to increase. Pennsylvania has an enormous opportunity to be key to shipbuilding with our shipyard, robotics with Pittsburgh AI and manufacturing of weapons and ammunition,” he said at the time.

Another reason for the summit was to help make Pittsburgh and the Keystone State more competitive with neighboring states in what McCormick described to The Wall Street Journal this month as a “data-center arms race” that pits parts of Pennsylvania against Northern Virginia and areas of Ohio, including Columbus.

“We haven’t been competing adequately. For God’s sake, Columbus? What’s Ohio got on Pennsylvania?” McCormick asked, referencing Google’s announcement in June of a $2.3 billion in data centers based in Columbus and surrounding Lancaster and New Albany.

With the Middle East in flux from Gaza to Lebanon, Syria and Iran, any week in the last 600 days would have been a busy one in Jerusalem. Still, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) arrived in Israel on Monday at a particularly significant moment, with nuclear talks with Iran reaching a critical juncture and the U.S. and Israel moving forward with a plan to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Israel is one stop in McCormick’s first trip abroad after becoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism earlier this year. 

“There are so many issues that will be coming before the Senate … so it felt like it was appropriate to come and get the truth on the ground,” McCormick said in an interview with Jewish Insider in Jerusalem on Tuesday. “We wanted to come to Israel as a show of solidarity. It’s a very tough time now, in the aftermath of [Israeli Embassy staffers] Yaron [Lischinsky] and Sarah [Milgrim] killed in Washington, and all the polarization and the challenges with Gaza and Iran.”

In between a visit to the Western Wall and minutes before his meeting with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the group implementing the American-Israeli Gaza aid plan, which has come under fire from international aid groups on the ground, McCormick spoke with JI about the significant issues on his agenda. Tech investor Liran Tancman, one of the Israelis involved in arranging the aid distribution program, took part in the meeting with McCormick and GHF as well. 

The GHF began distributing aid on Monday, though it had to pause at one point on Tuesday, reportedly due to overcrowding. Additionally, Hamas members reportedly threatened Gazans who cooperated with the American-led effort.

“I certainly recognize … how complex a problem this is,” McCormick said. “On one hand, you want to give the humanitarian assistance that is needed to make sure innocents are able to have the support they need. But it’s also a tool that’s been hijacked by Hamas as a source of revenue, as a source of leverage and control. So, how do you balance?”

The senator noted positively that hundreds of trucks had already entered Gaza, and expressed hope that the GHF could distribute aid to families in need.

McCormick also pointed out that “this whole thing could end overnight if [Hamas] release[s] the hostages.”

His message for countries such as the U.K., France and others that have threatened action against Israel if it does not allow the U.N. to distribute aid is “to actually look at the complexity of the problem and the good faith efforts that are being taken to address it. I think that will hopefully be confidence-building for them.”

McCormick was also in Israel at a time in which the Trump administration appears increasingly concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not on board with the White House’s efforts to reach a diplomatic deal with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. Israel is reportedly preparing contingency plans to strike Iran. 

Tensions between Washington and Jerusalem led Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to tell Fox News on Monday that she was dispatched to Israel to tell Netanyahu to allow negotiations to run their course.

The day after meeting with Netanyahu, McCormick said, “Nobody shared any battle plans with me. Obviously, the administration is in close contact with the Israeli government … I think, ultimately, the defining point is Iran can’t have a nuclear program and can’t be on the path to having a nuclear program. That’s a defining goal.”

“I think there is an opportunity because I think Iran is at a weak moment due in part to incredible actions that Israel has taken against the terrorist proxies supported by Iran,” he added. “The political pressure on Iran is at an all-time high, and the capability of the Iranians is at an all-time low. So you’ve got a moment of opportunity, and I’m hoping that forces will come together to make the most of it.”

McCormick argued that Trump and Netanyahu’s remarks on Iran’s nuclear program are consistent with one another.

“I go to what President Trump said, which is full dismantlement of the nuclear program and no enrichment, those are his two red lines, and I listen to what Netanyahu said yesterday, which is, ‘I don’t trust them, but we need full dismantlement of the nuclear program and no enrichment,’” he said.

McCormick noted that former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, said the same thing as Netanyahu about Iran in their meeting. 

“If the deal would come together in line with what President Trump has said, that would be something that would be welcome,” McCormick added. “It would be a huge step forward for the region and a huge step forward for the world.” 

Asked if Republicans in the Senate would accept a deal that fell short of those lines, McCormick first said that while he is not privy to the details of the current negotiations with Iran, “I don’t necessarily believe any of what I read [in the media]. I’ll believe it when I hear the president … I’m not going to talk about something that doesn’t exist yet.” 

The senator pointed to a letter signed by nearly all Senate Republicans urging the president to reject any deal that does not include the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program.

“I’ve been with the president when he’s talked about this, and I’ve heard him talk about dismantling [the Iranian nuclear program] … That’s the position that I think he’s taken and that I would take,” he stated.

When one negotiates with Iran, McCormick said, the first consideration must be to “take Iran at its word when it says it wants to destroy Israel and the United States,” and the second is that “there’s a history of untrustworthiness.”

“If you start with those two premises, then you have to get an outcome where the likelihood of a reconstitution of a nuclear Iran program is not something that is in the cards,” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress last week that the current negotiations with Iran are only about its nuclear program and not its terror proxies or ballistic missile program, though related sanctions remain in place.

However, McCormick said, “that doesn’t mean U.S. policy is only going to deal with [the nuclear program], and my basic view is Iran has been a bad actor and any … reducing sanctions should also require the complete termination of any support for terrorist proxies.”

Asked if that doesn’t contradict an offer to lift sanctions in exchange for a nuclear-only deal, McCormick said, “I don’t know what the deal is, but any treaty would ultimately come before the Senate and those are the kinds of questions I’ve asked.”

McCormick expressed confidence that the Trump administration would not try to circumvent the Senate, saying that “for any agreement to last, it needs to come through the Senate.”

The senator rejected the framing that there are two dueling foreign policy camps in the Trump administration, the more traditional Republicans and the “restrainers,” saying that Trump has been “very consistent” and that he has “a realpolitik view of supporting American interests.”

“I’ve seen lots of administrations … There are always conflicting views. That’s how good policies are made. You have a policy process where people get to argue and the president gets to decide,” he said.

Trump, McCormick said, has “made it very clear that the Israelis are our closest ally in the Middle East. There is no one that’s done more to support Israel … He’s been very clear on his stance on antisemitism. So listen, these are complex problems … but I think the administration stance has been a very clear one, and the president keeps coming back to peace through strength, which I think is one of the defining pieces of this foreign policy.”

As for the relationship between the U.S. and Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders in its capital and represents Hamas’ interests in hostage and ceasefire negotiations with Israel, McCormick said: “From a realpolitik perspective, Qatar is an important part of bringing together the possibilities of a peace deal, but I think any funding that’s supporting terrorist organizations or any historical support should be an important consideration in the relationship.”

The senator posited that “our relationship with Qatar is moving in the right direction, but ultimately it depends on changing behavior where it’s not supporting groups that aren’t in line with U.S. objectives or allies of the United States.”

When it comes to concerns that Qatar is spending large sums of money to try to gain favor and influence the U.S., McCormick drew a distinction between the $400 million plane Qatar is planning to gift Trump to be used as Air Force One and then donated to his library, and Qatar’s large contributions to American universities.

McCormick has “concerns about the plane from a security perspective and an intel perspective. Obviously, we want to make sure that … there’s no national security risk associated with it.”

However, he called the donation of the plane “a sort of transaction between the U.S. government in many countries that happens in all sorts of different forms … It’ll go through whatever ethics review.”

McCormick said that funding for universities, however, is a major concern, not only from Qatar but from China, “particularly if there are motivations tied to it.”

“No one has been a stronger voice on antisemitism on campus than me,” he said. “Any foreign money that can be tied to supporting groups that are leading this antisemitism, I’m very opposed to. I think President Trump cracking down on these universities for their antisemitism, looking at the sources of funding, making federal funding contingent on dealing with antisemitism and making sure universities are doing their role is necessary.”

Following Elizabeth Magill’s resignation as the president of the University of Pennsylvania, public attention is now focusing on Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which are facing calls to unseat their own presidents. But Harvard’s Claudine Gay and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth are thus far facing less in-state political pressure for their resignations.

Pressure from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro played a role in Magill’s ouster; other Pennsylvania political figures, such as Senate candidate David McCormick and Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) were also critical of the former Penn president. But such calls have been less prevalent so far from within Massachusetts.

“Strong, moral leadership should be qualification number one for the president of the world’s leading university, but as a tireless advocate for ending the ‘cancel culture’ so pervasive at Harvard over the past decade, I’m not going to rush to cancel the president,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a Harvard alum, said in a statement to Jewish Insider on Monday. “That’s a decision the university’s governing boards should consider carefully.”

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said Friday, “I would say that in the last two months, Dr. Gay has been making a lot of second and third statements when she should have gotten it right the first time. Genocide is unacceptable, period,” but said he’d leave the decision of her resignation to the school’s board.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said last week, “If you can’t lead, if you can’t stand up and say what’s right and wrong — very much in the extreme cases, and these are the extreme cases — then you’ve got a problem,” but didn’t respond to a question from JI on Monday about whether the schools’ boards should ask their presidents to resign.

Neither did Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) or Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat.

Gay came under increased scrutiny over the weekend over accusations she plagiarized portions of her doctoral thesis, which she has denied.

Several prominent Harvard alums in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), also did not respond to requests for comment.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who led the questioning at a House hearing last week that fueled outrage toward the three college leaders, renewed her calls on Monday for Gay and Kornbluth to be fired.

“As clear evidence of the vastness of the moral rot at every level of these schools, this earthquake has revealed that Harvard and MIT are totally unable to grasp this grave question of moral clarity at this historic moment as the world is watching in horror and disgust. It is pathetic and abhorrent,” Stefanik said in a statement. “The leadership at these universities is totally unfit and untenable.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who led a letter with Stefanik and other Republican Harvard alums in October raising concerns about the treatment of Jewish students on campus, said on his podcast on Monday, “I think we could easily see all three of these college presidents lose their jobs because of this testimony.”

“Both those institutions are hoping this just blows over,” Cruz continued. “They’re defending them in essence by not firing them right away after they witnessed this testimony.”