| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | | Good Wednesday morning, and happy Liberation Day. This is Jack Blanchard, off to panic-buy Yorkshire Tea and Scotch whisky before the tariffs kick in. START YOUR MORNING … With POLITICO’s Health Care Summit, which kicks off at 8 a.m. and coincides with the biggest shakeup at HHS in a generation. Key speakers include Calley Means, special government employee for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.); Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and more. RSVP now … Watch live on YouTube And RIP Iceman: Val Kilmer, Film Star Who Played Batman and Jim Morrison, Dies at 65
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Elon Musk wears a cheesehead hat at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 30, 2025. | Scott Olson/Getty Images | In today’s Playbook … — Dems in gloat-mode after a decent election night — President Donald Trump to unveil his tariff regime in the Rose Garden — Cory Booker has earned some rest after a historic Senate session LAST NIGHT AT THE BALLOT BOX THE END OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: This morning, Democrats are celebrating a convincing victory in the first big swing-state election since Donald Trump’s return to power. Liberal-leaning Judge Susan Crawford walloped her Republican-backed opponent Brad Schimel in the battle for a pivotal Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin, the tightest battleground state in last year’s presidential election. And while Republicans comfortably held both congressional seats up for grabs in Florida yesterday, their victory margins were slashed sufficiently to give Dems real hope that a nationwide political comeback might — just might — be underway. We shall see. By the numbers: In Wisconsin, Judge Crawford beat Judge Schimel, 55% to 45%. … In Florida’s 1st congressional district, Republican Jimmy Patronis beat Dem opponent Gay Valimont, 57% to 42%. (Trump won the district by 37 points in 2024.) … And in Florida’s 6th congressional district, Republican Randy Fine beat Dem opponent Josh Weil, 57% to 43%. (Trump won that one by 30 points.) POLITICO’s Irie Sentner has the story of the night. Dems in gloat-mode: Your Playbook author’s X feed was awash last night with something unheard-of since Nov. 5: Democrats actually enjoying themselves. The result they were cheering loudest was Wisconsin, and their primary target was the owner of the same social media platform they were posting on: Elon Musk. “Wisconsin beat the billionaire,” tweeted Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. … “Wisconsin cannot be bought. Our democracy is not for sale,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren. … “Please send @elonmusk to all the close races!” mocked podcaster Jon Favreau. … And there were many more. The Dems’ official X feed capped things off. All about Elon: In truth, Dems had been desperate to make yesterday’s elections all about Musk, who has several significant drawbacks in his unlikely new role as GOP election figurehead. They include dismal personal poll ratings, unfathomable wealth and a tendency to talk about Social Security as if he’d quite like to give it the chainsaw treatment. But Musk played right into Dems’ hands — plowing not just millions of dollars into the race in Wisconsin, but huge amounts of personal and political capital, making himself the most visible GOP campaigner on the election trail. ICYMI: Musk had said the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin “might decide the future of America and Western civilization.” … He tweeted dozens of times about the race in the final few days. … He did telerallies and a primetime Fox News interview to urge people to get out and vote. … He handed out actual million-dollar checks to voters. … And, iconically, he donned a cheesehead hat as he took to the stage in Green Bay for a big televised rally on Sunday. All of which is great … if you win. But he got crushed. Crawford won by 10 points in a state that has been decided by less than a single percentage point in each of the last three presidential campaigns. She even won Brown County itself, where Musk held his rally on Sunday night. (Trump won it by eight points in November.) The question now: What will the election results mean for Musk’s political capital in the White House, and in GOP circles on Capitol Hill? And it didn’t have to be this way: Liberal-leaning billionaires like George Soros, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Reid Hoffman all funnelled tons of money into Wisconsin politics, as some conservatives were understandably keen to point out last night. But those guys didn’t turn up in silly hats waving massive checks around on stage, making the election all about themselves. INCOMING FROM JMART: “It's clear now that while Republicans may crave his financial support, Musk is a severe liability for the party's candidates,” writes POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin in a late night email to your Playbook author. “The margin in the Wisconsin court contest indicates that by inserting himself into the race so personally, Musk undermined the GOP-aligned candidate. Democrats' internal polling had Crawford leading, but not by the 10-point margin she will win once all of Milwaukee has been counted. “Insisting on showing up to campaign in the final weekend of the campaign was self-defeating enough,” JMart adds. “But it's hard to think of another state, besides neighboring Minnesota, that would be less receptive to handing out money for votes. These are high-turnout, healthy civic culture states. Musk may not have known that — but why didn't any Republicans who did steer him away from the cash gambit?” Clutching at straws: Musk and Trump were both keeping mum about Crawford’s victory last night, choosing to focus instead on the success of a Republican-backed motion to introduce voter ID measures in Wisconsin. “This is a BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS, MAYBE THE BIGGEST WIN OF THE NIGHT,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, caps-lock fully engaged for election night. “IT SHOULD ALLOW US TO WIN WISCONSIN, LIKE I JUST DID IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, FOR MANY YEARS TO COME!” But the GOP fears a liberal state Supreme Court will mean Wisconsin’s Republican-friendly congressional and legislative districts will now be thrown out and heavily redrawn in Democrats’ favor. MEANWHILE, IN FLORIDA: Last night’s GOP wins in two ruby-red congressional districts were comfortable enough in the end, despite all the Democratic hype — but Republicans in competitive House seats will still be looking queasily at the margins of victory. As NBC’s Steve Kornacki noted, the Dems reduced Trump’s margin in FL-1 by 22 points, and in FL-6 by 16 — and those kinds of swings would bring plenty of House seats into play next year. (No wonder the president abandoned plans for a special election in Elise Stefanik’s New York seat, which he won by 20 points in November.) “We've seen this movie before — it was called 2017,” writes JMart. “Suddenly revived Democrats and angry independents who are most closely following a new Trump presidency show up in otherwise red districts while the president's less-engaged supporters stay at home. The only question now is if this Trump White House can find a way in 2026 to do what their predecessors in 2016 couldn't: drive out marginal MAGA types and save their House majority.” Indeed: The big story in these elections is always turnout. It’s clear Democratic voters are currently energized and desperate to register their anger, while the modern-day GOP has a massive problem in getting its vote out at off-cycle elections, as Split Ticket’s Lakshya Jain has repeatedly written. That same story played out again last night … and Dems will be increasingly hopeful it could also be the tale of 2026. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Dems will be cautiously cheered by the numbers of people like JoAnna Mendoza, a Democrat running in Arizona’s 6th congressional district, who has raised more than $800,000 since entering the race on Feb. 3. Mendoza is a Marine veteran running in a frontline district against Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who Democrats have tabbed as a flip target in next year’s midterms. (Trump carried it by less than a point in 2024.) ALSO CHEERING DEMS: The bladder-defying heroics of Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who last night broke the record for the Senate’s longest-ever floor speech. Booker spoke for more than 25 hours in protest at Trump’s policies, surpassing the late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s famous 1957 filibuster against civil rights. Booker told reporters afterward he had starved and dehydrated himself for days in advance to avoid needing toilet breaks.
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Donald Trump hugs and kisses the American flag as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 24, 2024. | Alex Brandon/AP | THE GHOSTS OF SMOOT AND HAWLEY: America will take another huge step toward a new era of protectionism today when Trump unveils his “reciprocal” tariff regime this afternoon. At a 4 p.m. event in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by his entire cabinet and a “Make America Wealthy Again” banner, the president will announce what is expected to be the most severe set of U.S. trade tariffs since 1930. With less than 12 hours to go, Trump has still provided no real detail of what’s coming — meaning the entire world will be hanging on his every word. Which of course, is partly the point. This is a huge moment: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday that Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” will go down as “one of the most important days in modern American history.” She may have a point. If Trump goes big — and if these tariffs are here for the long term — he will permanently reshape both the U.S. and global economies. And in the Rose Garden today, he’s creating a highly visual moment which will forever tie him personally to the consequences. The risks could hardly be greater. Because let’s be clear: An awful lot of — though certainly not all — very smart economists believe that what Trump is doing will be a disaster. Trading partners around the world are already preparing retaliatory tariffs, just as they did after the (now widely-derided) Smoot-Hawley tariffs during the Great Depression. Plenty of experts say the result will be prices going up, trade going down and GDP taking a hammering. They may be right; they may be wrong. But the risk is huge. The White House’s case for calm: “They’re not going to be wrong. It is going to work,” Leavitt said yesterday when asked if the president’s advisers might be wrong about tariffs. “The president has a brilliant team of advisers who have been studying these issues for decades, and we are focused on restoring the golden age of America and making America a manufacturing superpower.” Not convinced: “Wall Street traders, lawmakers, industry leaders, foreign officials and even some members of the president’s team see only dread” ahead of today’s announcement, POLITICO’s Megan Messerly, Daniel Desrochers and Victoria Guida write. Many of Trump’s allies and critics are “united by a fear that the new levies will plunge weary consumers into a new wellspring of economic uncertainty and possibly a recession.” Fears on the Hill: In particular, the numerous free-traders in the GOP’s ranks on the Hill are feeling pretty darn uncomfortable about what’s coming. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said he hopes the president’s plan is ultimately to use the threat of tariffs to force other nations to strip back their own. “In the long run, [it] will probably work,” he said. “The problem is that in the long run, we’re all dead. And so the short run matters.” What’s next? The biggest issue for investors is that nobody is clear on Trump’s endgame, as the WSJ’s Sam Goldfarb writes.”Levies on imports will need to be large and lasting if they are truly meant to raise significant amounts of revenue and push manufacturers to set up production in the U.S. But they could be short-lived if the goal is to extract concessions from other countries.” So which is it? While we’re waiting on Trump … The Senate should today hold its delayed vote on Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canada, following a motion put forward by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). And as POLITICO reported yesterday, three GOP senators opposed to tariffs — Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul and Susan Collins — are likely to back Kaine’s resolution. The measure would likely die in the House, even if it passes. But if a fourth rebel senator can be found — let’s say, oooh, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell — Trump faces an embarrassing, if symbolic, defeat. And who’s this posting at 12:58 a.m.? "Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy,” the president wrote on Truth Social overnight. (And yes, that’s just an excerpt.)
| | | | A message from Instagram: App store parental approval can keep teens safe online.
Today, teens can download any app – even ones parents don't want them to. Federal legislation that puts parents in charge of app downloads could change that, helping keep teens safe.
That's why Instagram supports federal legislation requiring app store parental approval and age verification for teens under 16.
Learn more. | | | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Vice President JD Vance will sit down for a live interview on Fox News tomorrow morning amid the fallout from Trump’s tariff announcement. Vance will be live on “Fox & Friends” in the 8 a.m. hour on Thursday with co-host Lawrence Jones, who will present the show from the White House lawn and interview Vance in the VP’s ceremonial office.
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| | | | MEANWHILE ON THE HILL RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: With the House now adjourned for the week (more on that below), attention turns to the Senate as Republicans try to push forward with a budget blueprint, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney and Katherine Tully-McManus report. President Trump will host a meeting this morning with Senate Budget Committee Republicans and Majority Leader John Thune, which Thune said would “principally” focus on budget reconciliation as well as broader ways to reduce the deficit, Jordain reports. Tick-tock: Thune said he remains “hopeful” the budget framework will get rubber-stamped this week, which would suggest we may see a budget resolution as soon as today. GOP spending hawks remain the key holdouts, given the leaders’ developing plan incorporates only modest deficit-cutting goals into the budget, and Trump and Thune hope today’s talks will seal the deal. Speaker Mike Johnson hopes to take the blueprint through the House next week. SPURNING THE SPEAKER: Johnson, however, has just had perhaps the worst 24 hours of his year. Nine House Republicans joined Democrats to torpedo his bid to block a proxy-voting proposal from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) that would make it easier for lawmakers who are new parents to cast their votes, POLITICO’s Nicholas Wu reports. The failure of Tuesday afternoon’s vote also derailed the House GOP’s legislative plans, with GOP leaders opting to send members home for the remainder of the week. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the leaders of the Senate HELP Committee, want HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to testify before the panel next week about the dramatic agency overhaul taking place under his leadership, POLITICO’s Ben Leonard writes. Roughly 10,000 HHS employees were fired yesterday in sweeping cuts with far-ranging consequences for public health.
| | | | Policy moves fast—stay ahead with POLITICO’s Policy Intelligence Assistant. Effortlessly search POLITICO's archive of 1M+ news articles, analysis documents, and legislative text. Track legislation, showcase your impact, and generate custom reports in seconds. Designed for POLITICO Pro subscribers, this tool helps you make faster, smarter decisions. Start exploring now. | | | | | BEST OF THE REST IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREENLAND: The White House is “preparing an estimate of what it would cost the federal government to control Greenland as a territory,” WaPo’s Lisa Rein and colleagues report. “One option under analysis is to offer a sweeter deal to the government of Greenland than the Danes, who currently subsidize services on the island at a rate of about $600 million every year.” Danish PM Mette Frederiksen is due to visit Greenland today. ANOTHER MIKE DROP: National security adviser Mike Waltz and other NSC staffers “have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts,” WaPo’s John Hudson reports. An aide to Waltz “used the commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.” Waltz himself “had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents.” Good news for Waltz: Gmail announced yesterday it is rolling out end-to-end encrypted emails soon.
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| | | | SCOTUS WATCH: The Supreme Court is taking up a case out of South Carolina which seeks to cut off all Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. Leaders in Republican-led states say no public dollar should be given to organizations that provide abortion services. Read more on the case from AP’s Lindsay Whitehurst FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: Kirill Dmitriev, one of Russia’s top negotiators, is in D.C. this week to meet with special envoy Steve Witkoff, CNN’s Alex Marquardt, Jennifer Hansler and Alayna Treene report. The visit will be the first time a top-level Russian official has come to Washington since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And it comes as the president is reportedly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump believes is “slow-rolling comprehensive ceasefire talks,” per Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich. BIG LAW BENDS THE KNEE: A third major law firm has reached an agreement with Trump’s White House to escape a punishing executive order that would cost it government business, POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy writes. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, which counts former second gentleman Doug Emhoff as a partner, will end diversity programs and provide at least $100 million in legal services to causes favored by the White House. EAGLE-EYED: Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has put an indefinite hold on Trump’s pick to be D.C. U.S. attorney, Ed Martin — a “Stop the Steal” advocate and former defender of Jan. 6 riot participants who calls himself “Ed the Eagle,” CBS’ Scott MacFarlane reports.
| | | | California's tech industry is shaping national politics like never before. We’re launching California Decoded to unpack how the state is defining tech policy and politics within its borders and beyond. Sign up now to get it free for a limited time. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Hunter Biden agreed to give up his D.C. law license after a disbarment recommendation. Lauren Boebert seemed to mix up Oliver Stone and Roger Stone during a hearing on the JFK assassination. Barack Obama found his way into the background of some lovely shots at the Tidal Basin. Oscar Arias, the former president of Costa Rica, said he had his U.S. visa revoked after he criticized Trump. Kid Rock’s flashy outfit to visit Trump in the Oval Office cost more than $20,000, according to the designers who rushed to complete the custom order. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — “Transparency law slashed by D.C. Council as lawmakers want more privacy,” by WaPo’s Meagan Flynn and Jenny Gathright: “The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to shut the public out of many of its meetings, including any meetings with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on any topic.” MEDIA MOVE — Sarah Ploss is now a transportation producer for CBS based in Washington. She previously was at NBC, where she was a producer for “NBC Nightly News” and a researcher with the network’s aviation and space unit. TRANSITIONS — Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel is heading back to investment bank Centerview Partners, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman reports. … Ken Wainstein has joined Mayer Brown as a partner, leading its global investigations and white-collar defense practice. He most recently was undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at DHS, and was homeland security adviser in the Bush White House. … Katherine Sears is now chief of staff for Rep. Vince Fong (R-Calif.). She previously was D.C. chief of staff for Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.). … … Holtzman Vogel has added William Klimon as a partner and Patrick Sternal as of counsel. Klimon previously was senior counsel at Compass Legal. Sternal previously was counsel at Compass Legal. … Marco Fabian Sánchez is now internal comms director at World Central Kitchen. He most recently was a comms specialist at the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, and is a Biden White House alum. … Michael Sansone is now senior adviser for federal government relations for TC Energy. He previously was director of policy research and analysis at America’s Power. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) (7-0) … DLA Piper’s Brian Janovitz … Evan McMullin … Tim Pataki of CGCN Group … Chad Banghart … POLITICO’s Nico Portuondo, Sophia Papan and Michael Warrick … Sander Lurie … Naji Filali of Percipient Strategies … David Shwiff … Julia Roig of the Horizons Project … Lynda Tran … Laura Henry of the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association … Daschle Group’s Joe Hack … Patrick Zimet … CNN’s Liz Brown-Kaiser … Alex Rosenwald … Andreessen Horowitz’s Colin Rom … Robby Zirkelbach … Dan Sallick of Subject Matter and Avōq … Edelman’s Ryan Kuntz … Rachel Pankuch … former acting AG Jeff Rosen … NYT’s Emily Steel … former Reps. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) … Tony Lake … Joe Nicholson of Rep. Mike Ezell’s (R-Miss.) office … Kelsey Carlson 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. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook misstated the timing of Joe Rogan’s remarks about the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. He made them last week.
| | | | A message from Instagram: States are taking action to protect teens online. Congress should, too.
Today, teens can download any app – even ones parents don't want them to. Federal action putting parents in charge of teen app downloads can help keep teens safe online.
Twelve states are considering legislation requiring app store parental approval and age verification. It's time for Congress to do the same with federal legislation.
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