| | | |  | | By Adam Wren | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine Good Saturday morning. What a week. What are you doing to unwind? Drop me a line: awren@politico.com. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: “DOGE’s ‘wall of receipts’ is riddled with errors and inconsistencies,” by POLITICO’s Jessie Blaeser: As proof of its purported $55 billion in savings for taxpayers, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has offered up a “wall of receipts” representing a subset of canceled contracts. But in a new review of the published data, among the 1,100-plus contracts purportedly canceled, POLITICO found:
- Contracts that had not yet been awarded;
- Instances where a single pot of money is listed multiple times — tripling or quadrupling the amount of savings claimed;
- Purchase agreements that have no record of being canceled, but were instead stripped of language related to diversity, equity and inclusion;
- Contract savings identified by DOGE that do not match with records they refer to in the Federal Procurement Data System; and
- Contracts where the underlying document is for an entirely different contract.
“Everyone in the consulting industry has been well aware of the questionable contracts issued and outright errors in the data, and everyone is very well-aware they’re repeating the wrong numbers,” said a manager at one of the recipient companies listed on the DOGE site. “But we don’t want to speak up because we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: USAID OUT, CBP IN AT REAGAN BUILDING — Customs and Border Protection is taking over the longtime headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development at the Ronald Reagan building in downtown Washington, our Daniel Lippman writes in. “CBP has signed a license agreement to occupy approximately 390,000 usable square feet in the USAID tower,” a CBP spokesperson said in a Friday night statement to Playbook. The spokesperson declined to comment when asked for more specifics about the move. CBP’s current headquarters are in a different wing of the Reagan building already. It’s a real estate move freighted with symbolic significance as President Donald Trump moves rapidly to shrink the federal government and reorient its priorities. CBP officials did a walk-through of the USAID space almost two weeks ago, fueling speculation that the border agency would commandeer the space. Since the Trump administration first moved to shutter USAID three weeks ago, thousands of agency employees have been left in limbo, with the vast majority unable to return to their workspaces to gather personal belongings. Some retrieved items from a different USAID office on Friday, hours before a federal judge lifted a hold on the administration’s move to put the agency’s workforce on leave en masse.
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President Donald Trump ousted General C.Q. Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last night. | Kevin Dietsch/AP Photo | FRIDAY NIGHT MASSACRE — Last night, Trump ousted General C.Q. Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It marked “an unprecedented shakeup of the Pentagon’s top brass that will trigger ripple effects throughout the military," our Jack Detsch and Paul McLeary write in their ledeall. In a Truth Social post, Trump said he would nominate Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine in Brown’s place. (We couldn’t help but notice Trump’s use of Caine’s nickname, as it recalled his obsession with former Defense Secretary James Mattis’ “Mad Dog” nickname in his first term — which Mattis himself famously hated.) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said shortly after that he was “requesting nominations” for replacements for Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief Gen. James Slife. WHAT A WAY TO GO: “Brown’s firing became public while he was in Texas visiting troops on the southern border, and days after he huddled with European allies at a defense leaders summit in Germany,” Detsch and McLeary note. KNOWING CAINE: The NYT’s Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt write that “at a Conservative Political Action Conference meeting last year, Mr. Trump said that General Caine put on a Make America Great Again hat while meeting with him in Iraq. (General Caine has told aides he has never put on a MAGA hat.)” WHAT IT ALL MEANS: Georgetown Law professor Rosa Brooks noted on X that Trump was “also firing the Army, Navy and Air Force JAGs. In some ways that's even more chilling than firing the four stars. It's what you do when you're planning to break the law: you get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down.” Tom Nichols, trying to make sense of it all in The Atlantic, writes: “Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI, the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.” Garrett Graff, who is releasing weekly dispatches from the POV of fictional correspondent “William Boot,” captures the historical sweep of the moment: “With the ouster of Brown and [Franchetti], the remaining top military leaders — known as the Joint Chiefs of Staff — are once again all white and male, a particularly pointed power imbalance given the fact that the country’s racial and ethnic minorities make up nearly 40 percent of national forces and women constitute fully a fifth of the ranks.” WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: How does Trump address the firings in his CPAC remarks at 2:30 p.m.? Here’s what else we’re wondering: Will Trump in any way address the flashing-red warning lights that he could pay a steep political price for his unprecedented and rapid remaking of government? We’re guessing not: This morning he not only lent support to Elon Musk’s move-fast-and-break-things tear through the federal bureaucracy but insisted he “WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.” Yet there are clear signs that the Department of Government Efficiency’s scorched-earth approach could end up putting the brakes on some of Trump’s early political momentum. This week saw congressional Republicans return to their districts and face constituents’ ire over DOGE’s seemingly indiscriminate cuts. In the same week that Musk walked around the CPAC stage with a chainsaw, 58 percent of respondents to a Washington Post/Ipsos polls said they oppose laying off large numbers of federal workers.
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance: More than 34 million Americans choose Medicare Advantage for better care at a lower cost than Fee-For-Service Medicare. But two straight years of Medicare Advantage cuts have left seniors feeling squeezed, with millions experiencing plan closures, higher costs, and reduced benefits. Seniors are already struggling with high prices for everyday necessities; they can't afford to pay more for health coverage and get less.
Protect seniors' affordable health care. Protect Medicare Advantage. Learn more at SupportMedicareAdvantage.com. | | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The White House is beginning to get the message, our White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns writes into Playbook. “We’re still in the early phase and it’s way too early to say it’s going to fall apart. There is a feedback mechanism and we are fielding that feedback,” one White House official told her. “Sometimes you break something valuable and you have to fix it. The question — is there a point when there’s a deep whack that is catastrophic?” Trump, in the opening moves of his second term, has come to view Musk as a heat shield—the bad cop to his good cop. But he may soon be more of a political albatross. Musk’s political naivete also showed itself this week when he referred in his joint Fox News sitdown with Trump to “an unelected, vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president.” ABOUT THAT BASE: Musk isn’t entirely wrong. That federal bureaucracy is vast — so vast that its workers live in red states, too. Deep-red Trump bulwark Ohio is home to 55,487 federal workers. Trump’s Florida? 94,000 workers. Tennessee? More than 32,000 workers. Even Battleground Georgia is home to nearly 80,000. As the cuts get closer to the bone, could they create an unmanageable degree of hostility toward Republicans? “We’re not there yet, though we may be at the edges,” the White House official told Dasha. But if Musk can show huge cost cuts and some good results, the thinking goes, then things will cut in Trump’s favor. CPAC FLASHBACK — As Playbook pored over the CPAC lineup this week, one particular breakout session title caught our attention: “Culture Warriors: Take Your Truce and Shove It.” The panel’s title is a deep-cut reference to a 2010 comment by former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels suggesting it was time for a “social truce” on divisive issues until Americans solved what he saw as a “new red scare” — the nation’s fiscal crisis. A year later, in 2011, Daniels was the big draw at CPAC. We re-read his speech, and it is a remarkable time capsule, pointing to both some of the ideological roots of our current moment — and a road not taken. In some ways, it aged well. Daniels called for something resembling a DOGE dividend check: “an automatic refund of tax dollars beyond a specified level of state reserves,” he said. He also came out in favor of “restoring impoundment power to the presidency, at least on an emergency basis,” one of the few areas where Daniels might agree with Trump today. That is where the resonance ends. Daniels lamented “the sad, crude coarsening of our popular culture.” He derided what he called the “smug and infuriating term — have you heard it? — ‘The Reagan Interruption.’” Fourteen years later, Daniels’ remarks reveal a GOP dominated by a post-Reagan fusionism where the culture wars he warned about have become more ascendant than the fiscal conservatism he promoted. When Speaker Mike Johnson took the stage this week, he more or less rolled his eyes at DOGE refund checks. "Politically, that would be great for us, you know, because everybody gets a check," Johnson said to the crowd. "But … I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?" BEYOND THE BELTWAY INTRIGUE I — Michigan Democrats and Republicans are huddling in dueling Detroit conventions today to select party leaders today ahead of 2026. But weighing a possible Senate run in Michigan, former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg will not speak to Democrats there, Playbook has learned. BEYOND THE BELTWAY INTRIGUE II — A landing page for a 2026 gubernatorial campaign by Ohio Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel made the rounds yesterday — just days before Vivek Ramaswamy is expected to launch his own gubernatorial bid on Monday. But Tressel’s office told NBC’s Henry Gomez that "Neither the Governor nor Lt. Governor were aware of the website prior to your inquiry."
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance:  
Millions of seniors are experiencing higher costs and fewer benefits due to Medicare Advantage cuts. Seniors can't afford to be squeezed more. Protect Medicare Advantage. | | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
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The Supreme Court deferred a ruling last night on President Donald Trump’s effort to oust federal ethics watchdog Hampton Dellinger. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | 1. JUDGMENT DAY: As Trump and his allies continue their push to reform the federal workforce, several of his policies were challenged in a series of legal moves yesterday. Here’s what we know …
- New ruling on DEI: U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson blocked Trump’s sweeping decision to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs last night, arguing it could potentially violate the first amendment, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reports: “In his 63-page ruling, Abelson wrote that Trump’s order was both potentially discriminatory and written so vaguely that groups had reason to fear ‘arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.’”
- From the high court: The Supreme Court also deferred a ruling last night on Trump’s effort to oust federal ethics watchdog Hampton Dellinger from his post, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle report. The temporary delay means Dellinger can remain in his role for now.
- And about that Treasury takeover: U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas extended a block preventing DOGE employees from accessing sensitive payment data via Treasury Department systems “until further notice,” POLITICO’s Michael Stratford reports. In her ruling, Vargas lambasted the agency for its “inexplicable” rush to cede control to Musk's team, arguing it created a “realistic danger that confidential financial information will be disclosed.”
2. THE NEW REPARATIONS DEBATE: Ukrainian officials today are reviewing the latest version of the Trump administration’s proposed deal that calls for the country to “relinquish half of its revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as earnings from ports and other infrastructure,” as repayment for U.S. support in the war, NYT’s Constant Méheut reports from Kyiv. What’s in the new draft: Though the deal mirrors a prior proposal that Kyiv rejected, the new deal “states that the revenues will be directed to a fund in which the United States holds 100 percent financial interest, and that Ukraine should contribute to the fund until it reaches $500 billion.” It’s uncertain whether the new $500 billion sum would apply to future support of Ukraine but the “revised proposal states that the United States could reinvest a portion of the revenue into Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction.” Related read: “U.S. pressures Kyiv to replace U.N. resolution condemning Russia,” by WaPo’s Siobhán O'Grady and Michael Birnbaum 3. CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’: California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter last night to congressional leaders requesting nearly $40 billion in federal aid following last month’s disastrous wildfires, POLITICO’s Christopher Cadelago reports from Sacramento. Newsom’s request comes after weeks of debate over what, if any conditions should be attached to the disaster relief money. Newsom told congressional leaders that the funds will go directly to recovery efforts, writing: “Make no mistake, Los Angeles will use this money wisely.” More on the strings attached: In an interview with Dasha at CPAC yesterday, Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell confirmed that the West Wing plans to tack on conditions to the aid money and is currently weighing what those might be. Grennell “floated the idea of targeting the California Coastal Commission,” calling it a “disaster.” “I don’t have faith that if we went back and just gave California hundreds of millions of dollars, they were gonna go back to their same old ways of not giving us enough water, having dangerous situations on the ground in terms of forestry — it’s going to happen again,” Grenell said. 4. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: “Hamas frees 6 hostages but questions cloud the future of the Gaza ceasefire,” by AP’s Wafaa Shurafa, Mohammed Jahjouh and Melanie Lidman: “Five of the captives were handed over in staged ceremonies that the Red Cross and Israel have condemned as cruel and disrespectful, escorted by masked, armed Hamas fighters in front of hundreds of Palestinians. … Hamas has said it will release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. After that, Hamas will be holding about 60 hostages, about half believed to be alive.”
| | | | As demands on the U.S. energy grid continue to rise, join POLITICO on Tuesday, February 25 at Hotel Washington for a discussion on the future of energy policy with Sen. John Hickenlooper, Rep. Bob Latta, and Rep. Randy Weber. RSVP today to attend in-person or virtually. | | | | | 5. UP IN THE AIR: Trump’s job cuts at the FAA were more widespread than expected, including multiple teams of lawyers across the agency, Rolling Stone’s Asawin Suebsaeng, Tim Dickinson and Andrew Perez report. Remaining personnel are struggling to understand the rationale for the cuts, though “Musk and the Trump White House have tried to argue they skipped over anyone whose role might be considered safety-critical.” They aren’t mincing words, either: “‘It’s a bunch of bullshit,’ one current FAA worker tells Rolling Stone. ‘The definition of ‘critical’ can be fucked around with as much as they’d like. We were already an underfunded and understaffed agency.’” 6. REGULATION STATION: “Republicans eye rollback of Biden rules on banks, WiFi and more,” by Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller and Burgess Everett: “The bank merger rollback, led by Louisiana’s John Kennedy in the Senate, would undo an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rule that placed more guardrails on those corporate consolidations. The WiFi hotspot repeal, led by Texan Ted Cruz in the Senate, would negate a Federal Communications Commission order that allows the subsidy of off-campus WiFi hotspots for students.” 7. MEDIA WATCH: The AP filed a lawsuit yesterday against Trump administration officials for alleged violations of freedom of speech, AP’s David Bauder reports. The suit comes after he after the White House barred the legacy media outlet from accessing presidential events: “The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case not changing its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America,’ as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.” 8. THE EMPIRE STATE STRIKES BACK: Eric Adams may be fighting accusations of cozying up to Trump in exchange for a pardon, but his complicated relationship with the White House hasn’t stopped him from biting back on the city’s missing millions. The New York City mayor filed a suit yesterday against the administration after they took back over $80 million in funding earmarked for immigration services from the city’s bank account without notice, POLITICO Joe Anuta reports: “In its suit, the city is alleging Trump’s team violated federal laws, grant terms and regulations when they reversed the transfer.” Related read: “As Eric Adams melts down, Andrew Cuomo forges ahead,” by POLITICO’s Nick Reisman and Sally Goldenberg 9. THE MAINE THING: “Trump administration launches probe into Maine’s transgender sports participation policy,” by Bianca Quilantan: “The letter sent to Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin notified her that OCR is launching a probe into Maine School Administrative District No. 51 and Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine for allowing a transgender student to compete in girls’ sports categories. … This would be the third [in] a series of investigations launched in states that have laws or policies that are inclusive of gender identity.” Related read: “Dem governor tells Trump she will see him in court,” by Eugene Daniels: “Trump turned to Maine Gov. Janet Mills, asking her if she was going to comply with his executive order. ‘I’m going to comply with state and federal law,’ Mills said to the president.”
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More than 34 million Americans rely on Medicare Advantage for affordable health care. Learn more. | | | CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 19 funnies
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Nick Anderson - Tribune Content Agency | GREAT WEEKEND READS: — “It was the deadliest workplace in America. So why didn’t safety regulators shut it down?” by WaPo’s Todd Frankel: “Inspectors issued more than 100 safety violations and millions in fines. Yet deaths and injuries continued.” — “The One That Got Away: This Small Town Is Left in Limbo After Betting Big on GMO Salmon,” by ProPublica’s Anna Clark: “After decades of backlash, boycotts and persistent financial losses, on top of the regulatory slog, AquaBounty hooked its hopes for the future on a village in Ohio with an enterprising name — Pioneer.” — “Want to Change Your Personality? Have a Baby,” by The Atlantic’s Olga Khazan: “I knew that becoming a parent would change me—but I had no idea how.” — “Who's Afraid of Hasan Piker?” by Slate’s Luke Winkie: “He’s hot. He’s ‘dangerous.’ Young men actually listen to him. Is he what Democrats are looking for?” — “The American soldier,” by WaPo’s Rachel Chason:“At a time when Africa is convulsed by various threats and American interests could be at risk, U.S. influence is in retreat.” — “Greenland’s Big Moment,” by NYT’s Jeffrey Gettleman: “Ignored for most of its existence, the huge ice-bound island has been thrust into a geopolitical maelstrom. It’s trying to make the most of it.” — “The Trump World Order,” by The Atlantic’s George Packer: “In the MAGA vision of the national interest, might will make right.”
| | | | Donald Trump's unprecedented effort to reshape the federal government is consuming Washington. To track this seismic shift, we're relaunching one of our signature newsletters. Sign up to get West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government in your inbox. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Molly Jong-Fast might challenge Jerry Nadler in 2026. Democrats are buzzing about Stephen A. Smith’s potential as a presidential candidate. SPOTTED meeting with Donald Trump and Susie Wiles at the White House Thursday: LA28 Olympics’ Casey Wasserman and Priscilla Cheng; Brian Ballard. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a big party Thursday night at Butterworth’s: Steve Bannon, Nigel Farage, Kari Lake, Caroline Wren, Raheem Kassam, Jack Posobiec, Natalie Winters, Maureen Bannon, Rob Schmitt, Katie Zacharia, Luke Schroeder and Parker Magid. TRANSITIONS — The Senate Environment and Public Works Dems have added Jonathan Misk as chief oversight and investigations counsel, Amy Lao as a research analyst, Aria Kovalovich as a senior investigator, Janay Eyo as an investigator and Kate Salamido as a fellow. Misk, Lao and Kovalovich were previously at the Senate Budget Committee. … … James Coffey, is joining DOJ’s public affairs team under AG Pam Bondi. He previously was director of public affairs at Polaris National Security and is a Fox News alum. … Melissa Cooke will be an officer for planned giving at Boston Children’s Hospital. She currently is comms director at POLITICO and is an NBC News alum. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) … David Axelrod (7-0) … Bob Bauer … Hugh Hewitt … Kristen Soltis Anderson … Rodney Hood … Alex Slater … POLITICO’s Heidi Sommer, Connor Zoesch and Eric Bazail-Eimil … AARP’s Dan Gilgoff … Alyssa Mastromonaco … Caroline Donlon of the House Rules Committee … Peter Siegal of Norton Rose Fulbright … Jennifer Poersch … Protect Democracy’s Chris Crawford … Ed Brookover … Viet Dinh … MSNBC’s Dan Holway … CNN’s Laurie Ure …TikTok’s Elizabeth Oblinger … AP’s Michael Biesecker … Ryan Eaton … Jay Driscoll … Liz Glover … Ellis Brachman … Shawn Martin … Marissa Lang … Lauren Bates … Yvesner Zamar … Dave LesStrang … NBC’s Keir Simmons … former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist … Alan Katz … former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) … John Gibson … Courtney Veatch … former Reps. John Bryant (D-Texas), Harley Staggers Jr. (D-W.Va.) and David Skaggs (D-Colo.) … Jim Friedlich … … Danielle Bella Ellison … Hallie Hartley of Husch Blackwell Strategies … Jennifer Roberts Creager (5-0) … Martha Boudreau … Ellen Fredrick THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … national security adviser Mike Waltz … EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin … Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin … Mollie Hemingway. CBS “Face the Nation”: Special envoy Steve Witkoff … Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) … Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) … New York Gov. Kathy Hochul … Scott Gottlieb. ABC “This Week”: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem … Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Rachael Bade and Nancy Youssef. NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) … Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Panel: Lanhee Chen, Jeh Johnson, Jonathan Martin and Melanie Zanona. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) … Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Panel: Cal Thomas, Michael Allen, Marie Harf and Julia Manchester. CNN “State of the Union”: Special envoy Steve Witkoff … House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Panel: Adam Kinzinger, Shermichael Singleton, Xochitl Hinojosa and Kristin Davison. MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) … Sabrina Singh. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) … Austin Goolsbee … Indiana Gov. Mike Braun. Panel: Meridith McGraw, Domenico Montanaro and David Drucker. MSNBC “The Weekend”: Colorado AG Phil Weiser. … Heath Mayo … Norm Eisen. MSNBC “Inside with Jen Psaki”: Susan Rice … Robert Reich … Cyrus Vance. 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 deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance: Medicare Advantage is now the primary form of Medicare coverage in the United States. Over 55% of Medicare beneficiaries — more than 34 million seniors and people with disabilities — choose Medicare Advantage for comprehensive care that delivers better health outcomes at a lower cost than Fee-For-Service Medicare.
But for two years in a row, Medicare Advantage has been cut even as medical costs and utilization have been going up. Now millions of seniors who rely on Medicare Advantage are feeling squeezed, with widespread plan closures, higher costs, and reduced benefits.
President Trump and his Administration can keep their promise to protect Medicare for seniors by ensuring adequate funding for Medicare Advantage moving forward.
Seniors need affordable health care. That means protecting Medicare Advantage.
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