| | | | |  | | By Natalie Allison | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | SIREN FOR THE E RING — “PETE HEGSETH, President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s pick for secretary of defense, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintained that their encounter was consensual, according to a statement from his lawyer Saturday and other documents obtained by The Washington Post,” report Michael Kranish, Josh Dawsey and Jonathan O’Connell. “The statement came after a detailed memo was sent to the Trump transition team this week by a woman who said she is a friend of the accuser. The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Post, alleged he raped the then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at a hotel bar.” ANOTHER SIREN FOR THE E RING — “The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement,” NBC’s Courtney Kube, Carol Lee, Vaughn Hillyard and Mosheh Gains scooped last night. Among the things they’re considering: “whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason.”
|  Kevin Roberts is sounding pretty optimistic again about the role of the Heritage Foundation in Washington. | Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images | HERITAGE IS BACK — It was the Democratic line of attack that permeated more than any other, and sent pangs of dread and misery through Trump’s campaign advisers: Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the next Republican administration. Democrats’ attacks over the issue — first from President JOE BIDEN’s reelection campaign on through VP KAMALA HARRIS’ — were, as CHRIS LaCIVITA told POLITICO in Milwaukee this summer, “a pain in the ass” for the campaign. Trump repeatedly disavowed it, calling some of Project 2025’s proposals “seriously extreme” and written by people on the “severe right.” (Recall that LaCivita, the day after the Republican convention, posted that he wanted to throw a Project 2025-branded duffel out the window of a plane, calling it a “bag full of - - - -.”) So over the summer, as one Heritage official told Playbook in recent days, the organization “kind of went dark.” The Heritage team stopped touting the project on social media, essentially burying what was once meant to be the magnum opus of the think tank’s current era. The publication date of Heritage president KEVIN ROBERTS’ book, “Dawn’s Early Light,” was pushed back from September until just after the election. The director of Project 2025, PAUL DANS, stepped down. Democrats up and down the ballot spent at least $56 million from late summer on blasting the so-called Trump Project 2025 agenda, according to AdImpact. And poll after poll, as a result, showed the conservative playbook to be unpopular with voters. It appeared in television ads. Digital ads. Mailers. On billboards in the swing states. Harris forced Trump on the defensive about it in their September debate. “We did not anticipate that,” the Heritage official said of the Democratic ad blitz, and the organization’s relative hunkering down as a result. “And wish it didn't happen. But you know, we had to do what we had to do.” Quietly, Heritage and its affiliated advocacy group spent $20 million this year on voter education and registration efforts, with Heritage Action registering some 80,000 voters in Georgia and Arizona, the official said. But now, with Trump as president-elect, Heritage is peeking back out from its metaphorical bunker. Two of Heritage’s visiting fellows — TOM HOMAN and JOHN RATCLIFFE, who were contributors to Project 2025 — have already been named to top Trump administration posts. That book from Roberts that was supposed to come out in September? It was released last week. The think tank even marked its reemergence with an event this past week welcoming back the Washington cocktail circuit to the group’s Massachusetts Avenue headquarters on Capitol Hill. It was a D.C. coming back out party, of sorts, for an organization that is easing its way back into influence in what’s soon to be Trump’s Washington once again. “We’re so back,” the Heritage official told Playbook, with a nervous laugh, while a crowd in the packed but modest-sized room milled around during a book party Thursday night for Roberts. As GOP members of Congress — Playbook spotted Reps. RALPH NORMAN (R-S.C.), BRIAN BABIN (R-Texas), ERIC BURLISON (R-Mo.) and JOSH BRECHEEN (R-Okla.) there — sipped wine and grabbed hors d’oeuvres with a smattering of ambassadors, conservative staffers and reporters on Thursday, Roberts noted that he has lost a number of his “liberal friends” this year over “that larger book we’re famous for.” But Heritage’s stint as a social pariah due to Project 2025 is effectively over.
| | | | A message from America’s Credit Unions and the Independent Community Bankers of America: CREDIT UNIONS & COMMUNITY BANKS IN All 50 STATES OPPOSE THE DURBIN-MARSHALL CREDIT CARD BILL: America’s approximately 9,000 credit unions and community banks are united in opposition to the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill because credit card routing mandates harm local financial institutions and the communities they serve. Durbin-Marshall jeopardizes access to credit for 140 million credit union and community bank customers. Congress should make no mistake about our adamant opposition. | | | “The entire political spectrum in the West is represented here,” Roberts said of the crowd he had assembled Thursday. “I won’t call anyone out, but those of you who are not exactly excited about everything that Heritage does — I’m very, very grateful that you’re here, and you’re here out of friendship.” Roberts spoke about the need for conservatives to “have a certain humility” in order to continue growing the historic coalition that’s returning Trump to the White House — while still trying to fully convert new faces in the movement to a robust conservative ideology more closely resembling his own. “What the conservative movement did for a generation — I was guilty of this, sometimes I’m still tempted to be guilty of this — is to say, ‘Oh, I’m not going to talk to you,’” Roberts said. He recalled scoffing the first time someone suggested that influential “populist conservatives” like himself should form a “political alliance with the tech bros.” “I said, ‘What are you talking about? That’s crazy.’ Guess who was wrong? I was.” Roberts, flanked on each side by panels quoting book endorsements from VP-elect JD VANCE and TUCKER CARLSON, noted that there are stark differences between his worldview and of some of the GOP’s newcomers, name-checking ELON MUSK and ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., who had been announced as Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services just hours earlier. “I can be very grateful to Elon Musk for revitalizing free speech for the world, while also saying — very respectfully, civilly, maybe even with a smile on my face — it’s crazy to want to put microchips in the brain,” Roberts said. And he intends to have what he said will also be a “civil” conversation with Kennedy on their differences on abortion rights. “We might agree to disagree,” Roberts said, “but we’re going to work on whatever we can that we agree on, and I will hold out hope that maybe I can change his mind.” Roberts is sounding pretty optimistic again about the role of Heritage in Washington, about his own improving standing in Trump world, and, yes — about the likelihood of Project 2025’s much-maligned proposals getting closer to implementation. His organization, meanwhile, has prepared for the Trump administration a database of nearly 20,000 names of people who could fill jobs in the president-elect’s new federal government, a Heritage official told Playbook. “I happen to know a 922-page book where there’s a perfect plan for doing that,” Roberts said at the end of his remarks Thursday. “And I happen to work with the people who are perfect to implement it.” Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line at nallison@politico.com. SUNDAY BEST … — Speaker MIKE JOHNSON on short-term government funding plans, on “Fox News Sunday”: “We’re running out of clock. Dec. 20 is the deadline. We’re still hopeful that we might be able to get that done, but if not, we’ll have a temporary measure. I think that would go into the first part of next year and allow us the necessary time to get this done.” — Sen.-elect ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-Mich.) on Hegseth’s comments about women in combat and plans to purge “woke” generals, on ABC’s “This Week”: “I was at the Pentagon on Thursday, and there is absolute … constant chatter and conversation and concern from senior women officers. But also I’ve heard from folks who I’ve recommended to service academies, young women who are just starting out their career, saying, ‘Am I going to actually be able to accomplish what I want to accomplish here?’ So I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that there is real stress in the force right now. … We’re really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” — Rep. TONY GONZALES (R-Texas) on Trump’s mass deportation plans, on “This Week”: “If we're going after the guy that’s picking tomatoes or the nurse at the local hospital and we’re not going after the convicted criminal, then our government has failed us. You know, our country was built on those fleeing persecution, and it would be just absolutely terrible if we don’t protect those that are doing it the right way. Legal immigration should never be mixed with these hardened criminals. … If the message is ‘we’re here to deport your abuelita,’ that’s not going to work well.” — Sen. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-Okla.) on MATT GAETZ’s AG nomination, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “Matt Gaetz and I have had our differences, and that’s no secret. Moving forward, I do respect President Trump’s right to appoint these individuals, but underneath Article Two, Section Two, Congress has to advise and consent, and Matt Gaetz is going to go through the same scrutiny as every other individual, and I’m going to give him a fair shot. … I gotta set my personal situation with Matt to the side and look at the facts. If he’s qualified, he’s qualified. I’d be quite frank, I didn’t even know he was an attorney until after he was appointed attorney general … The Senate should have access to [the House Ethics report].” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
- “When Will Democrats Learn to Say No?” by Adam Jentleson in the NYT
- “‘Love Has Never Been A Popular Movement,’” by Gillian Branstetter in The Autonomy
- “How Trump Won the War Over ‘Normal,’” Sohrab Ahmari in Compact
- “The Cost-of-Living Crisis Explains Everything,” by Annie Lowrey in the Atlantic
- “The U.S. could soon face a threat ‘more powerful’ than nuclear weapons,” by Ashish Jha, Matt Pottinger and Matthew McKnight in WaPo
- “Journalism's fight for survival in a postliterate democracy,” by Matt Pearce on Substack
- “America Should Be Ready for Lame-Duck Chaos Abroad,” by Mike Coté in National Review
- “RFK Jr.’s views on fluoride aren’t as crazy as you might think,” by Leana Wen in WaPo
- “There’s a Better Way to Talk About Fluoride, Vaccines and Raw Milk,” by Emily Oster in the NYT
- “Jared Polis Wants to Win Back the Hippies,” by Ezra Klein in the NYT
| | | | A message from America’s Credit Unions and the Independent Community Bankers of America:   CREDIT UNIONS & COMMUNITY BANKS IN All 50 STATES OPPOSE THE DURBIN-MARSHALL CREDIT CARD BILL | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden is en route from Lima, Peru, to Manaus, Brazil, where he’ll take an aerial tour of the Amazon and a tour of Museu da Amazônia. He’ll make a statement at the press at 2 p.m. Eastern. Then he’ll travel to Rio de Janeiro. Harris has nothing on her public schedule.
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Chris Wright's selection for Energy secretary signals a Trump administration pullback on the clean energy transition. | Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. THE WRIGHT STUFF: Trump announced that he’ll nominate fracking executive CHRIS WRIGHT as Energy secretary, signaling a wholesale shift in the department’s approach as a climate change skeptic takes the reins. A GOP fundraiser, the Liberty Energy leader isn’t very well known in political circles, but Trump adviser and fellow oil executive HAROLD HAMM had been advocating for him, Ben Lefebvre, Josh Siegel, Zack Colman and Kelsey Tamborrino report . Wright wrote on X that his “dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast.” Putting a fossil fuel advocate in charge could threaten the federal government’s efforts to fight climate change by accelerating the clean energy transition. “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright claimed in a video last year, contrary to scientific consensus. His selection signals a Trump administration pullback on everything from Inflation Reduction Act subsidies to carbon-capture technologies, and a boost for oil and gas production. Wright would lead the new National Energy Council, along with Interior pick North Dakota Gov. DOUG BURGUM, to ramp up domestic energy production. 2. MORE NOMINEE NEWS: As of now, a majority of Senate Republicans privately can’t see Gaetz getting the votes to be confirmed as AG and/or don’t support him themselves, NBC’s Julie Tsirkin, Laura Jarrett and Lisa Rubin report . But Trump world still thinks Gaetz will get there, and Trump himself is doubling down, seeing Gaetz as his most important Cabinet pick, CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Lauren Fox, Pamela Brown, Jamie Gangel and Steve Contorno report. (The news of his selection came as a surprise even to Gaetz’s father, new Florida state Sen. DON GAETZ, Gary Fineout reports from Tallahassee.) As the wrangling heats up over whom Trump will select as Treasury secretary, Musk may have gone a little too far in explicitly advocating for HOWARD LUTNICK over SCOTT BESSENT and praising Argentina’s tariff reductions on X yesterday. “Several people in Trump’s circle expressed astonishment” or displeasure that Musk was going public with his advocacy, WaPo’s Jacqueline Alemany, Jeff Stein and Maegan Vazquez report. Trump’s other new announcement was WILL SCHARF as White House staff secretary, per Irie Sentner. That will elevate another of his personal lawyers to an important role overseeing what information gets to Trump. For Transportation secretary, former Uber executive EMIL MICHAEL is now a top possibility, along with Reps. SAM GRAVES (R-Mo.) and GARRET GRAVES (R-La.) and former Rep. SEAN DUFFY (R-Wis.), Reuters’ Rachael Levy, David Shepardson and Alexandra Ulmer report. The big picture: Flying off script much more than in 2016, Trump has approached his transition period chaotically, “choosing unvetted candidates and acting outside the transition structure in a way that has immediately created serious political challenges,” WaPo’s Jacqueline Alemany, Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker report from 18 sources involved in the process. His principal focus is finding loyalists and working to “blow up” agencies he dislikes. He’s “embarked on a new campaign to shatter the institutions of Washington as no incoming president has in his lifetime,” in “a generational stress test” for how American democracy operates, NYT’s Peter Baker writes. Despite a frosty reception for some picks in D.C., though, his base is loving the major shakeup, NYT’s Michael Corkery, Isabelle Taft and Shawn Hubler report. 3. HE SAID, XI SAID: Biden met with Chinese President XI JINPING for the final time yesterday in Peru, and they emerged with an agreement that artificial intelligence must not be in charge of nuclear weapons, Lauren Egan and Phelim Kine report from Lima. That was an unexpected breakthrough for the often tense bilateral relationship, with both leaders striking a more positive tone than in the past. Biden and Xi also advanced somewhat toward getting two U.S. citizens detained in China released. Both presidents also seemed to deliver comments aimed at Trump, warning against making the relationship too adversarial, with Xi saying “China is ready to work with” Trump. More from Bloomberg 4. HOW WASHINGTON WORKS, PART I: “Inside Big Tech’s Bid to Sink the Online Kid Safety Bill,” by WSJ’s Georgia Wells, Kristina Peterson and Natalie Andrews: “More than three months [after Senate passage], the bill is stalled in the House, snarled by intensifying conservative concerns and a record-breaking lobbying effort … Meta Platforms and Alphabet are leaning on culture-war issues to try to leverage divisions … For liberal lawmakers, they focus on LGBTQ expression, amplifying worries that officials could censor queer youth. With conservative lawmakers they talk about how they fear antiabortion positions could be censored. … Assigning a duty of care would hold the companies liable for design decisions.” 5. HOW WASHINGTON WORKS, PART II: “Trump Boosters Expect Big Returns on Their Investment: ‘The Shackles Are Off,’” by NYT’s Eric Lipton: “Limit the reach of federal regulations on artificial intelligence. Make room for cryptocurrencies to thrive. Ease the antitrust crackdown on big tech companies. Buy more military drones. And don’t raise taxes on billionaires. The to-do list for President-elect Donald J. Trump from MARC ANDREESSEN, the venture capital billionaire from California, is long, but quite specific.” And there’s plenty more from the likes of JOE LONSDALE, CAMERON and TYLER WINKLEVOSS, BRIAN EVANS, JOHN PAULSON and others.
| | | | A message from America’s Credit Unions and the Independent Community Bankers of America:   CREDIT UNIONS, COMMUNITY BANKS UNITED AGAINST DURBIN-MARSHALL CREDIT CARD BILL | | | 6. RACE TO THE FINISH LINE: The Biden White House is trying to get as much done as possible before Trump takes over, Adam Cancryn reports . The legacy-proofing work ranges from sending $6 billion to Ukraine to possibly sanctioning the Russian energy industry to getting more judges confirmed by the Senate to finalizing major semiconductor chips grants to trying to land an Israel-Lebanon cease-fire. Expect Biden to find more prominent public moments for touting his achievements, too. But plenty of these last-minute moves could be undone by Trump. And the clock is ticking for other big decisions. The Justice Department still hasn’t finalized consent decrees for police reforms with any of the dozen law enforcement agencies it investigated, WaPo’s David Nakamura and Mark Berman report. Human rights organizations are asking Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN to sign off on “condolence payments to families of civilians killed or injured by U.S. military operations overseas,” WaPo’s Meg Kelly and Missy Ryan report. 7. ACCLIMATING TO A NEW REALITY: “Trump’s Push for Ukraine Peace Finds Growing Acceptance in Europe,” by WSJ’s Laurence Norman, Alex Ward and Jane Lytvynenko: “While European leaders have started discussions to see whether they could fill any funding gap for Kyiv if the incoming Trump administration cuts off support, officials in many capitals recognize that an off-ramp to the conflict appears increasingly necessary. … [It’s] a sharp turnaround from even six months ago. … Where concerns remain deep in Europe, however, is over the degree to which the Trump administration will deny Ukraine agency over the shape of a diplomatic settlement.” 8. LAWYERING UP: A number of top officials who work or worked at the Justice Department and FBI are contacting attorneys out of fear the Trump administration could target them, NBC’s David Rohde and Ken Dilanian report . Gaetz’s pick as AG turbocharged concerns that the Trump administration will open criminal probes into staffers it sees as enemies, though they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong. Even if they weren’t convicted, long legal battles could be damaging and expensive — and career staffers are not as deep-pocketed. 9. TALKER: “The End of Denial,” by N.Y. Mag’s Simon van Zuylen-Wood: “Through the resistance years and into the COVID era, liberal institutions from universities to media organizations to nonprofits cathartically swung left, which bred further denial about what voters cared about and were experiencing. … These neighborhoods [that swung toward Trump in NYC], and the reasons they voted as they did, have been out of the field of vision of many of the very people, here in the country’s media capital, who have tasked themselves with reporting on, understanding, and explaining American politics. This myopia reflects a Democratic Party that in losing touch with such places is in danger of forgetting its reason for being.”
| | | | The lame duck session could reshape major policies before year's end. Get Inside Congress delivered daily to follow the final sprint of dealmaking on defense funding, AI regulation and disaster aid. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | | Ann Selzer is retiring from the polling business. Laphonza Butler doesn’t want to be DNC chair. Elon Musk’s secret Iran meeting didn’t happen, Iran claimed. Donald Trump hung out at a UFC event with Musk, Howard Lutnick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Johnson, Kid Rock and Dana White. Laura Helmuth resigned as EIC of Scientific American after calling some Trump supporters “bigoted” and “fascists.” OUT AND ABOUT — The Arthur S. Flemming Awards honored federal civil servants for science and leadership accomplishments at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Wednesday night, with awards going to Aspen Workman, Kenneth Obenberger, Douglas Morton, Shannon Griffin, Charles Rotimi, TenaVel Thomas, Jeffrey Sherman, Blair Pasalic, Alison Fong, Nancy Tian, M. Khair ElZarrad and Lorenzo Leggio. Frank Sesno emceed the event, which was co-hosted by George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and the National Academy of Public Administration. Also SPOTTED: Comptroller General Gene Dodaro and Ellen Granberg. — SPOTTED at “Tech Prom” on Thursday night, held at the Anthem by the Center for Democracy & Technology: Alexandra Reeve Givens, Travis LeBlanc, Stephen Balkam, FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, Chan Park, Cameron Kerry, Karen Kornbluh, Elizabeth Kelly, Alan Davidson, Melanie Fontes Rainer, Sharon Bradford Franklin, Robert Silvers, Cait Conley, Anna Gomez, Ben Buchanan and CISA Director Jen Easterly. ENGAGED — Jane Fillion, who runs the press shop for First Five Years Fund, and William Seabrook, legislative director for Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), got engaged Saturday at the Arboretum. They met in the Longworth House Office Building thanks to Joe Morelle and Louise Slaughter. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: John Boehner … Chris Stirewalt … former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) … Susan Rice … former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf … Terry Branstad … Howard Dean … Linda Moore of TechNet … Diana Aviv … Helena Bottemiller Evich of Food Fix … Mike Ricci … Jarrod Agen of Lockheed Martin … Charmaine Yoest … Arielle Mueller of Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) office … White House’s Sonja Thrasher and Ahmad Ramadan … Camryn Anderson of Dcode … Halie Soifer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America … Intuit’s Paul Lindsay … Suzan G. LeVine … Jeff Watters of the Ocean Conservancy … Isaac Baker … Harry Jaffe … Ralph Posner … Erika Compart … S-3 Group’s Marty Reiser … Alex Gallo … Carly Montoya … TPM’s David Kurtz … Mike DeFilippis of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ (R-N.Y.) office … Mike Maloof … FT’s Felicia Schwartz … Sarah Gibbens … Jonathan Cousimano … National Public Affairs’ Joey Rodriguez … Carlie Tianello of Rep. Colin Allred’s (D-Texas) office … Kellie Boyle … Benji Easter of Sen. Mike Crapo’s (R-Idaho) office … Noah Oppenheim … MSNBC’s Lily Corvo … Tyler Burger of the American Conservation Coalition … Brian Jones of Black Rock Group … Jerome Baldwin Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
| | | | A message from America’s Credit Unions and the Independent Community Bankers of America: CREDIT UNIONS & COMMUNITY BANKS IN All 50 STATES OPPOSE THE DURBIN-MARSHALL CREDIT CARD BILL: The Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill would create harmful new routing mandates on credit cards that would put consumer data and access to credit at risk. The threat of Durbin-Marshall to small financial institutions is so clear that America’s approximately 9,000 credit unions and community banks across America are opposed to the bill. Credit unions and community banks also see through the so-called “carveout” for community financial institutions, an unworkable policy designed to disguise the negative impact of this legislation. Our message to Congress is simple: on behalf of 140 million credit union and community bank customers in all 50 states, commit to opposing the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill. Lawmakers who choose not to support their local financial institutions can expect to hear from our 140 million customers this fall. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
