Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: Scenes from MAGA's WHCD afterparties

Scenes from MAGA's WHCD afterparties

Apr 27, 2025

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With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine

Happy Sunday. It’s Adam Wren in Washington for my first White House Correspondents Dinner. I found the shadow MAGA afterparties more interesting. Get in touch.

DRIVING THE DAY

Inside the Washington Hilton, amid an annual custom that felt “a little different this year,” as its host acknowledged to the room, elite journalists celebrated colleagues’ work and circled the wagons at a moment of historic tensions with the White House.

“What we are not is the opposition,” White House Correspondents Association President Eugene Daniels told the room. “What we are not is the enemy of the people. And what we are not is the enemy of the state.”

Across town, organizers and attendees of MAGA counterprogramming, where the night’s buzziest scenes really unfolded, hadn’t gotten that message about the press. Apart from former RNC spokesperson and Trump supporter Elizabeth Pipko, a guest of Daily Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Cole, very few Trump backers attended the correspondents’ dinner.

At Butterworth’s, the Capitol Hill bistro and MAGA-set hotspot, owner Raheem Kassam of MAGA magazine The National Pulse and Steve Bannon’s “The War Room” hosted a shadow event. Kari Lake and Secretary of State Marco Rubio posed for selfies as guests sipped cocktails dubbed the “FAKE NEWS FIZZ” and “LEAKERS AND LIARS.” They held cocktail napkins that read “NOT THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION.”

The event was called “The Uninvited.”

Meanwhile, over at the Willard, Donald Trump Jr., megadonor Omeed Malik and White House crypto czar David Sacks held an afterparty and launched a club for the ultrawealthy called the “Executive Branch” that costs, as POLITICO’s Dasha Burns scooped, more than half-a-million dollars to join. Inside the hotel, Trump administration officials such as press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Medicare and Medicaid chief Mehmet Oz, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard held court. (Scroll on for plenty more spotteds …)

The Willard

Dasha Burns/POLITICO

On full display Saturday evening was one of the defining stories of President Donald Trump’s return to Washington: MAGA’s hostile takeover of This Town, from administration officials hosting the highest-profile parties to the movement’s journalists getting a bevy of questions in the briefing room.

Brian Glenn, the chief White House correspondent from Real America's Voice, the far-right cable TV station, told Playbook that it’s a new era in Washington. Glenn will be traveling on Air Force One with Trump to Macomb County, Michigan, on Tuesday, for his event marking his first 100 days in office.

“It’s very different than before,” Glenn said, adding that he often asks questions to the president following harsh questions from “legacy” reporters that allow Trump to “highlight some of the good things he’s done for the country that other reporters may not ask him.”

Raheem Kassam and Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Adam Wren/POLITICO

Also in full view last night was the occasionally uneasy alliance of two MAGA factions: The tech right and the MAGA right. The tech right wasn’t at Butterworth’s, which was full of MAGA right types, but they were at the Willard, which featured the coalition’s overlapping circles. (Only Rubio, who has been cultivating a relationship with Bannon in recent months, according to Kassam, seemed to thread the needles between both worlds: “I think Marco understood that he should have someone like Steve helping him message to the base.”)

“Our crowd is, like, the deplorables,” Kassam told Playbook. “This is Steve Bannon’s base, his audience, his people. And over there [at the Willard], there’s more leadership in Trump world. We’re the foot soldiers.”

Kassam added: “I think it’s fair to say that there’s definitely a lot of diplomacy to be done between those two sides.”

A message from The National Association of REALTORS^®:

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MORE FROM THE DINNER …

Inside the ballroom: The WHCA presented its traditional awards and scholarships, with Axios’ Alex Thompson receiving one for excellence in White House coverage, AP’s Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller honored for deadline news and NYT’s Doug Mills for presidential photojournalism. Nine college students — hailing from Hampton University, American University, Northwestern University, Ohio University, the University of Illinois, the University of Kansas and the University of Tennessee — received journalism scholarships.

Notable Republicans who attended: NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

Mood music: “In interviews, top journalists at multiple news outlets said that it had been nearly impossible to convince celebrities and lawmakers to attend as guests. One reporter said that the list of people who had rejected invitations to join the publication’s table was in the ‘dozens,’” NYT’s Michael Grynbaum and Katie Robertson report. And WaPo’s Roxanne Roberts details a conversation between a guest and a first-time attendee: “Last year was so different,” the guest told her friend. “What was different?” “There were so many more celebrities.”

A message from The National Association of REALTORS^®:

A new national survey shows overwhelming support for pro-housing policies in TCJA. Learn More.

SUNDAY BEST …

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on why Trump’s tariff policy is successful, on ABC’s “This Week”: “Well, in game theory, it’s called strategic uncertainty, so you’re not going to tell the person on the other side of the negotiation where you’re going to end up. And nobody’s better at creating this leverage than President Trump.”

On Trump’s negotiations with China: “I don't know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi [Jinping]. I know they have a very good relationship and a lot of respect for each other, but again, I think that the Chinese will see that this high tariff level is unsustainable for their business.”

— Secretary of State Marco Rubio on negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in, or if it's time to sort of focus on some other issues that are equally, if not more, important in some cases.”

— Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on ongoing negotiations with the U.S., on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “I read President Trump’s book, ‘The Art to Make a Deal,’ and he does not advise to disclose information before it's time.”

— Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Russian President Vladimir Putin, on “Fox News Sunday”: “I think he thinks we're afraid of him. He has jacked around President Trump at every turn. He has disrespected our president. I don’t think it’s gonna get any better until we make it clear to Mr. Putin that we are willing to turn him and his country into fish food.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-Mich.) suggestion that Democrats stop using the term “oligarchy,” because it doesn’t resonate with Americans, on “Meet the Press”: “I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are.”

TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.

“Pass the D.C. budget fix,” by the WaPo editorial board

“Finding Moral Clarity After an Arsonist’s Attack,” by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for the NYT

“What If China Wins the Trade War?” by The Atlantic’s Rogé Karma

“Will Gen Z's Pivot to the Republican Party Last?” by David Drucker for Bloomberg

“100 Days. That’s All It Took to Sever America From the World,” by Ben Rhodes for the NYT

“The Trump Administration Is Preparing to Send American Allies to Their Deaths,” by The Bulwark’s Will Selber

“Why the Republicans’ Budget Bill Won’t Add Up,” by Bloomberg’s Matthew Yglesias

“The Project 2025 Presidency,” by The Atlantic’s David Graham

“Trump’s ‘Team of Vipers’ Is Back,” by National Review’s Jim Geraghty

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9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR

1. SOUTH POLL: Trump is approaching the 100-day milestone of his term, and despite following through on many of his campaign promises, his performance is not translating to high marks among the public, according to a pair of new polls out today. The toplines: “Trump’s 41% approval rating is the lowest for any newly elected president at 100 days dating back at least to Dwight Eisenhower – including Trump’s own first term,” CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta and Ariel Edwards-Levy write. WaPo-ABC-Ipsos has him even lower: “The poll shows that 39 percent of adult Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job,” WaPo’s Dan Balz, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin write, noting that his “overall approval rating is lower than it was only two months ago.”

More datapoints:

Via CNN: “Since March, Trump has seen notable drops in approval from women and Hispanic Americans (down 7 points in each group to 36% among women and 28% among Hispanics). … [A]mong political independents, the president’s approval rating has dipped to 31%, matching his first-term low point with that group and about the same as his standing with them in January 2021. … His marks for handling the economy are down 5 points to a career low of 39%.”

Via WaPo: “For all the negative findings related to the president’s actions, the poll offers little comfort for Democrats. Americans trust Trump over congressional Democrats by 37 percent to 30 percent when it comes to dealing with the country’s major problems — another 30 percent trust ‘neither’ — and see the Democratic Party as somewhat more out of touch ‘with the concerns of most people’ than either the president or the Republican Party.”

2. OH, CANADA: Canada is set to hold its federal election tomorrow, and JMart has a fresh dispatch on our neighbors to the north. The election once seemed like it would boil down to a vote on who was best able to manage Trump, his tariffs and desire to annex Canada. But, as anything in the era of Trump, it isn’t quite that simple, Jonathan writes from Toronto. “Liberals are poised to hold power, and Prime Minister Mark Carney may even claim a majority of Canada’s 343 House of Commons seats, because [Conservative Party leader Pierre] Poilievre never pivoted to accommodate a changed race and alienated crucial leaders and voters … and because Canada has momentarily imported two-party, tribal politics from America into their multi-party parliamentary democracy.

“It’s this final element that may prove most crucial — and could determine whether Liberals claim a majority or minority government — but is not easily grasped in the U.S. Canada has long had robust minor parties that play a pivotal role in both provincial and federal politics, most notably the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois, which advocates for Québécois nationalism in Canada’s Francophone province. Yet the effect of Trump’s existential threat has been to marginalize these parties, to render purity politics or domestic questions as a bit like the clogged sink disposal when the house is on fire. Particularly with the anticipated NDP collapse, this election may mark the highest percentage of votes for the two major center-right and center-left parties in generations.”

Another smart read: POLITICO’s ace Canada team breaks down the latest polling and the wild campaign.

3. OLD DOGE, NEW TRICKS: As Elon Musk prepares to step back from the D.C. upheaval his DOGE has caused, the Trump administration is “moving to consolidate control over the hiring and firing of federal workers,”, WSJ’s Katherine Long and Scott Patterson report. The Office of Personnel Management will assume that authority. “The office, a hub of Musk’s project, has begun approving positions federal agencies want to add, according to agency bulletins reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. That is a change; agencies have typically decided which positions they filled.”

The latest slashing: The American Federation of Government Employees is “planning to lay off more than half its staff, as the largest federal employees’ union reels from President Donald Trump’s move to end collective bargaining rights for many federal workers,” CNN’s Tami Luhby reports. “AFGE, which has filed an array of lawsuits against the Trump administration, is set to shrink its own workforce to about 150 employees, down from 355 staffers, according to a union spokesperson.”

4. UKRAINE LATEST: Ukrainians are seeing “a small glimmer of hope that Mr. Trump will not try to force Ukraine into a lopsided peace plan” as Trump seems to be offering Ukraine an olive branch after a disastrous White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, NYT’s Kim Barker reports in Kyiv. “It first emerged in the fallout from a massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s capital early Thursday that killed 12 people and injured almost 90,” which prompted Trump to chastise Russian President Vladimir Putin. “And then, the hope grew slightly on Saturday when [Zelenskyy] managed to wrangle about 15 minutes with Mr. Trump in Rome. Photos released by the Ukrainian government showed the two men sitting in chairs and leaning toward each other, talking like equals.”

On the ground: Russia “launched a sweeping drone assault and airstrikes across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, killing at least four people,” per the AP. “The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last August.”

Related read: “Ukraine’s Crimea Lies at the Heart of Russia’s Invasion—and Trump’s Peace Plan,” by WSJ’s Jane Lytvynenko

A message from The National Association of REALTORS^®:

A new national survey shows overwhelming support for pro-housing policies in TCJA. Learn More.

5. TARIFF TALK: “Trump’s Tariffs Prompt Wave of Lawsuits as States and Businesses Fight Back,” by NYT’s Tony Romm: “The lawsuits carry great significance, not just because the tariffs have roiled financial markets and threatened to plunge the United States into a recession. The legal challenges also stand to test Mr. Trump’s claims of expansive presidential power, while illustrating the difficult calculation that his opponents face in deciding whether to fight back and risk retribution.”

Companion reading: WaPo’s David Lynch and Jeff Stein also note that the adverse effects of tariffs could threaten plans for Trump’s extravagant 250th birthday party for the U.S. on July 4, 2026. That’s because Chinese fireworks factories have already begun to shut down as U.S. orders fall.

6. HOW IT HAPPENED: NYT’s Kate Kelly and Mark Walker have an extensive new report out on the fatal air crash near Reagan National Airport. “Up to now attention has focused on the Black Hawk’s altitude, which was too high and placed the helicopter directly in the jet’s landing path at National Airport. But The Times found new details that show that the failures were far more complex than previously known,” they write.

“The helicopter crew appeared to have made more than one mistake. Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course. Radio communications, the tried-and-true means of interaction between controllers and pilots, also broke down. Some of the controller’s instructions were “stepped on” — meaning that they cut out when the helicopter crew pressed a microphone to speak — and important information likely went unheard.”

7. FIGHTING BACK: “Emerging From a Collective Silence, Universities Organize to Fight Trump,” by NYT’s Stephanie Saul and Alan Blinder: “After weeks of witnessing the administration freeze billions in federal funding, demand changes to policies and begin investigations, a broad coalition of university leaders publicly opposing those moves is taking root. The most visible evidence yet was a statement last week signed by more than 400 campus leaders opposing what they saw as the administration’s assault on academia. … Although it contained no concrete action, and what’s next was unclear, the collective stance reflected a group more galvanized than ever to resist.”

Hitting close to home: “As Harvard fights Trump, one campus quietly prepares for the worst,” by WaPo’s Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff: “George Washington University, one of 10 schools the Trump administration plans to visit over allegations of antisemitism, said it will do what is takes to preserve federal funds.”

The history department: “The IRS Has Only Pulled a University’s Tax Exemption Once. Here’s What Happened,” by Joshua Zeitz for POLITICO Magazine

8. FROZEN FAULT LINE: “The NATO Country With No Military Gets Serious About Defense,” by WSJ’s Daniel Michaels and Benoit Faucon in Reykjavík, Iceland: “For decades, Icelanders lived austerely in peaceful remoteness. Their location in the icy waters between Greenland and Norway offered NATO a base during the Cold War from which to monitor Soviet naval traffic, but residents worried little about dangers from warships. Today, the island, which sits just south of the Arctic Circle, faces growing risks from increased military activity in the high north, as climate change opens once-impassable waterways. Iceland is simultaneously being tugged by growing antagonism between the Trump administration and Europe.”

9. FOR YOUR RADAR: “US forces deploy anti-ship missiles in Philippines and stage live-fire drills near China hotspots,” by AP’s Jim Gomez and Joeal Calupitan: “The mock battle scenarios over the weekend in the annual Balikatan exercises between the U.S. and its oldest treaty ally in Asia, the Philippines, not only simulated real-life war. They were also staged near major geopolitical hotspots, which have become delicate frontlines in the regional rivalry between China and the U.S. under former President Joe Biden and now Donald Trump.”

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TALK OF THE TOWN

CLICKER — “Red carpet looks from a low-wattage White House correspondents’ dinner,” by WaPo’s Ashley Fetters Maloy and Lauren Bulbin

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the launch party for the “Executive Branch” at the Willard Hotel yesterday: Omeed Malik, David Sacks, Garrett Ventry, AG Pam Bondi, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Chris Buskirk, Jeff Miller, James Blair, Karoline Leavitt, Taylor Budowich, Dan Bongino, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, Alexa Henning, Stefanie Spear, Jeff Freeland, Tyler Winklevoss, Alexandra Preate, Cora Alvi, Tricia McLaughlin, Adam Foroughi, Shawn O’Neail, Pace Bradshaw, Olivia Rubin, Pam Brown, Garrett Haake, Dasha Burns, Alayna Treene, Kristen Holmes and Melanie Zanona.

— SPOTTED at the POLITICO/CBS pre-dinner reception at the Washington Hilton yesterday: Tom Cibrowski, Margaret Brennan, Nancy Cordes, Weijia Jiang, Robert Costa, Vlad Duthiers, Ed O'Keefe, Major Garrett, Mark Lima, Lorna Jones, Lilia Luciano, Charlie D’Agata, Shawna Thomas, Wolf Blitzer, Abby Phillip, Kaitlan Collins, Eugene Daniels, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Sam Feist, Ali Vitali, Tara Palmeri, Oliver Darcy, Justin Smith, David Chalian, Robert and Elena Allbritton, Kelly O’Donnell, Carrie Budoff Brown, Alex Burns, Anita Kumar, Joe Schatz, Jonathan Greenberger, Goli Sheikholeslami, Elizabeth Ralph, Dasha Burns, Sharon Eliza Nichols and Skye Perryman.

— SPOTTED at the NBC News and Telemundo After Party at the French Ambassador’s Residence, where guests had their choice of six custom bars — including a Peacock-branded espresso martini bar — and enjoyed a DJ on the patio and portraits from a caricature artist: Cesar Conde, Rebecca Blumenstein, Jen Friedman, Emma Carrasco, Ken Strickland, Chloe Arensberg, Carrie Budoff Brown, Craig Melvin, Andrea Mitchell, Peter Alexander, Kelly O’Donnell, Garrett Haake, Gabe Gutierrez, Yamiche Alcindor, Vaughn Hillyard, Ryan Nobles, Eugene Daniels, Symone Sanders Townsend, Jen Psaki, Kaitlan Collins, Abby Phillips, Bobby Flay, Mark and Sally Ein, Kevin O’Leary, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Ken Martin, Julián Castro, Lisa Rubin, Ben and Ashley Chang, Paul Ryan, Michael Chiklis, Dean Norris and Tony Fratto.

— SPOTTED at the Evening with TIME After Party hosted at the Swiss Ambassador’s residence, where guests noshed on raclette and danced the night away to DJ Cash Cash: Swiss Ambassador Ralf Heckner and Ilaria Macconi Heckner, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Ill.), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Jessica Sibley, Massimo Calabresi, Matt Lauer, Daniel Jaeggi, Jonathan Lamy, Belgian Ambassador Frédéric Bernard, Luxembourg Ambassador Nicole Bintner-Bakshian, Liechtenstein Ambassador Georg Sparber, Marcellus Rolle, Robin Bronk, Jason Isaacs, Tim Daly, Alex Borstein, Amelie Tsoungui, Emily Glassman, Michael Chiklis, Richard Schechtman, Michael Mimeles, Laura Vogel, Spencer Garrett, Matt Friend, Lauren Watt, Jim Sciutto, Anna Palmer, Rene Jones, David Hogg, Liz Plank, Jason Rezaian and Yegi Salehi, Vladimir Duthiers, Alexander Marquardt, Scott Jennings, Suzanne Lambert, Nick Hawatmeh, Kimball Stroud, David White, David O'Brien, Caitlin Huey-Burns, Tony P, Annie Wu, Kendra Brown, Teresa Carlson, Maryam Mujica, Hugo Lowell, Lesli Foster, Angie Goff, Shannon Finley, Allie O'Brien, Diane Blagman, Russell Ellis and Elizabeth Thorp, Jim McBride, Jake Silverman and Sharon Eliza Nichols.

— SPOTTED at “Cocktails with The Contrarian” at the Wyoming, where The Contrarian’s publisher Norm Eisen and editor-in-chief Jen Rubin rolled out the red doormat for guests: Brian Tyler Cohen, Ezra Levin, Craig Becker, Lynn Sweet, Austin Tedesco, Jessica Testa, Mike Zamore, Norm Ornstein, Robert Weissman, Rushab Sanghvi, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Kristin Ford, Meredith Blake, Jamie Riley, Michael Franklin, Julie Zebrak, Bill Braniff, Brian O’Neill, Domenica Alioto, Azza Cohen, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Michael Podhorzer, Lily Conway, Julia Payne, Maura McDonough, Ellie Kurlander, Rachel Gertz and Josh Koppel.

— Tammy Haddad, Kevin Sheekey, Mark and Sally Ein, Teresa Carlson, David Urban and Franco Nuschese hosted the 32nd annual White House Correspondents’ Weekend Garden Brunch yesterday at Beall-Washington House in Georgetown. Actor Jason Isaacs joined Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) — co-chair of the Congressional Fire Services (Firefighters) Caucus — to present Garden Brunch awards to four of the first responders of the fatal mid-air crash near Washington National Airport in January. David Urban also received an award for his military service. SPOTTED: Bobby Flay, Kevin O’Leary, Tim Daly, Dean Norris, Matt Friend, Michael Chiklis (who many tabbed as David Urban’s doppelganger), Alex Borstein, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) and April McClain Delaney (D-Md.), D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Gen. Randy George, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz and Lisa Oz, Pat Cipollone, Paul Dabbar, Caroline Pham, Cam Sadler, Richard Walters, Shayne Coplan, Meredith Whittaker, Toni Townes-Whitley, Brett Schulman, Horacio Rozanski, Alexandra Winokur, Anita McBride, Gareth Banner, Joiwind Ronen, Deb O’Connell, Jon Kelly, Joanna Coles, Greta Van Susteren, John Coale, Tina Brown, Pamela Brown, Meredith Kopit Levien, Jim Bankoff, Cesar Conde, Keith Poole, Kaitlan Collins, Kara Swisher, Josh Eastright, Abby Phillip, Phil Mattingly, Wolf Blitzer, Robert Costa, Dana Bash, Juju Chang, Cathy Merrill, Jacqui Heinrich, Charlotte Klein, Eugene Daniels, Symone Sanders Townsend, British Ambassador Peter Mandelson, Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason and Costa Rica Ambassador Catalina Crespo-Sancho.

— SPOTTED at the annual Brown & Bougie Brunch celebrating Latino journalists, featuring the inaugural Jovita Idar Award, hosted by Solidarity Strategies at the Mexican Cultural Institute, where The Bulwark’s Adrian Carrasquillo and WaPo’s Sabrina Rodriguez were honored: Chuck Rocha (who served as emcee while donning a cowboy hat), Luis Alcauter, Daysi Gonzalez, Roberto Nava, Vanessa Saenz, Alicia Menendez, Maria Cardona, Omar Jimenez, Ximena Bustillo, Rebecca Morin, Lori Montenegro, Fin Gómez, Silvia Foster-Frau, Laura Barrón-López, Ed O’Keefe, Mark Lima, Brianna Tucker, Kristian Ramos, Jesús Rodríguez, Christian Paz, Alli Brennan, Brakkton Booker, Astead Herndon, Rafael Bernal, Albert Morales, Farah Melendez and Clarissa Rojas.

— WME hosted an intimate gathering to toast Eugene Daniels in his role as WHCA president on Friday evening. SPOTTED: Rachael Bade, Laura Barrón-López, David Chalian, David Corn, Oliver Darcy, E.J. Dionne, Norm Eisen, Julia Ioffe, Michael Isikoff, Kasie Hunt, Amna Nawaz, Barbara McQuade, Barak Ravid, Symone Sanders Townsend, Sabrina Singh, Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Ayo Tometi, Joyce Vance, Scott Wapner, Jill Wine-Banks, Elliot Williams, KC Sullivan, Tom Cibrowski, Debra OConnell, Jon Kelly, Bill de Blasio, Cori Bush, Audie Cornish and Theo Emery, Simone Swink, Rick Klein, Gail Ross, Howard Yoon, Bradley Singer, Henry Reisch, Sharon Chang, Laura Bonner, Erin Malone and Hasan Hashmi.

— Ukraine House held its “Innovation Days” summit on Thursday, discussing reconstruction for Ukraine via financing from World Bank and the IMF, as well as dual-use military technology. SPOTTED: Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal, Mykhailo Fedorov, Davide La Cecilia, Pierre Heilbronn, Irina Paliashvili, Davis Richardson, Abigail Desjardins, Anastasiia Gevel, Andriy Pyshnyy, Debra Cagan, Sergii Marchenko, Peter Doroshenko and Chad Freeman.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) … Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) … Jamie Citron … Hannah Kim … The Intercept’s James Risen … WaPo’s Dana Milbank … Bruce Mehlman … POLITICO’s Aubree Weaver, David Smydra and Sarah Punjwani … Erica Elliott Richardson … Michael Crittenden of the Levinson Group … Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute … Austin Hacker … Semafor’s Reed Albergotti … Bloomberg’s Mike Shepard … Enterprise Mobility’s Downey Magallanes … Sean Dugan of America’s Health Insurance Plans … Jon Fasman … Global Situation Room’s Brett Bruen … NCTA’s Mansoor Abdul Khadir … Alexandra De Luca … Goldman Sachs’ Lee Brenner … Norberto Salinas … David Hudson of Aluta Strategies … EMILY’s List’s Christina Reynolds and Callie Fines … Dan Lindner … former Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) … Connor Walsh of Build Digital … Lauren Camera … Will Brown … Doug Rediker … Mary-Kate Fisher … Dan Gerstein … BGR Group’s Dan Farmer … Francesca Porreca

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A message from The National Association of REALTORS^®:

A new survey shows Americans overwhelmingly back key real estate provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—policies that expand homeownership and drive our economy. A whopping 91% support preserving homeowner tax incentives like the mortgage interest deduction. 83% back the 20% tax break for small businesses and independent contractors. And 61% want to see SALT deduction limits increased.

Homeownership is the main way Americans build wealth, with a homeowner's net worth 40 times that of a renter. But with a 4.7 million home shortage, millions of middle-class Americans are locked out of the American Dream.

NAR supports bold, pro-housing policies like fixing the home equity penalty, converting empty commercial spaces into homes, attracting private investment, and cutting red tape.

Real estate powers 18% of U.S. GDP, and every home sale creates two jobs. Let's expand supply, fuel growth, and build a new age of prosperity through homeownership. Learn more.