| | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | MUSK READ: Elon Musk will soon retreat from his leading administration role, President Donald Trump has told Cabinet members, POLITICO’s Rachael Bade scooped. Though the president still feels good about Musk, “the decision comes as the tech mogul increasingly looks like a political liability … both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time [in the coming weeks] for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role.” That would be a shift from previous predictions that Musk would try to keep working past his 130-day limit as a “special government employee.” The White House responds: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt disputed the story. “Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete,” she wrote on X.
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President Donald Trump's big tariff announcement will come at 4 p.m. | Luis M. Alvarez/AP Photo | THE PRICE OF FREEDOM: Universal or reciprocal? Exemptions or blanket fees? Prelude to bilateral deals or here to stay? Businesses, consumers and economies around the world remain in suspense about what tariff specifics Trump will unveil at his 4 p.m. “Liberation Day” announcement. But the administration is already planning how to sell it to skeptical Americans. The pitch: Today and tomorrow, U.S. officials and allies plan to “blanket the airwaves” to make the case for a new protectionism that could transform global markets, NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright reports. White House officials feel good about messaging that the U.S. is trading some short-term disruption for long-term gains, despite warnings to the contrary from many mainstream economists. And they expect positive announcements to follow — of corporate manufacturing shifts and other countries lowering their own levies. The pushback: Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) resolution to block Trump’s Canada tariffs is expected to come up for a vote early this evening. And he told reporters that he has the numbers to pass it, if all Democrats stick together: Kaine said GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Ky.) are on board. (This is likely going nowhere in the House, of course.) The global fallout: China is already making plays that could give it leverage in trade talks with the U.S., pausing some approvals for Chinese companies that want to invest stateside, Bloomberg reports. Trump’s next tariffs will amount to a major test for Beijing, which has stood firm against his previous moves, POLITICO’s Daniel Desrochers reports. Will it engage now? Meanwhile, members of Congress sounded baffled by Trump’s recent suggestion that he might link China tariffs to a deal on TikTok, per POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna. … Ontario Premier Doug Ford said again on CNBC today that the U.S. and Canada should strike a new bilateral trade deal without Mexico. THE PICTURE OF HEALTH: HHS adviser Calley Means, a prominent Make America Healthy Again figure, defended this week’s huge job cuts and blasted the department as having “utterly failed,” in an interview with Dasha Burns at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit this morning. Means claimed that the health agencies “have overseen an abject devastation in American health” and that Trump’s election was a mandate for sweeping reform. In a sometimes tense conversation, which included heckling by an audience member, Means decried the medical establishment as beholden to lobbyists for industries “that profit from kids being sick.” Medicaid on the chopping block? House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said at the summit that he opposes cuts to Medicaid, telling Rachael that Republicans could find sufficient savings merely by rooting out waste. But Dems say it would be impossible to find Republicans’ deep cost savings without making cuts that hurt care: “We just simply don’t have that much money,” House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) told Robert King. Meanwhile at HHS: DOGE has also directed HHS to ax 35 percent of its spending on contracts, NOTUS’ Margaret Manto and Mark Alfred report. And a deadline for the FDA to give full approval to Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine has come and gone, WSJ’s Liz Essley Whyte scooped. “The agency was set to give full approval to Novavax’s shot, but senior leaders at the agency are now sitting on the decision and have said Novavax’s application needed more data and was unlikely to be approved soon.” Good Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
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Learn more. | | | | | | 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. THE ADAMS FAMILY: Federal judge Dale Ho officially dismissed the criminal corruption case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, as the Trump Justice Department had requested in an extraordinary about-face that triggered several prosecutors’ resignations, per Bloomberg. Though the administration triumphed in ending the prosecution, Ho refused to dismiss it without prejudice, as DOJ wanted: He said allowing them to refile charges later could make it seem like the administration would use the threat as leverage to extract immigration policy concessions. The judge also said “there is no evidence — zero — that [the original prosecutors] had any improper motives.” 2. 2026 WATCH: It’s a busy day on the nascent midterm campaign trail. In Michigan: State Sen. Mallory McMorrow became the first major Democrat to jump into the open Senate race, per the Detroit Free Press. McMorrow said she wants to run a positive campaign, not just an anti-Trump one, and emphasized a “New American Dream” of reviving Michigan (though her launch video focuses plenty on the administration). In California: Former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra launched a gubernatorial campaign with a video shared first with POLITICO’s Melanie Mason. The Democrat said he’ll play up his experience in the federal and state government — and he’ll keep running regardless of whether Kamala Harris joins the fray. … Jake Rakov announced a primary challenge against 15-term Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, his former boss, POLITICO’s Ally Mutnick scooped. Rakov, 37, is the latest younger Democrat calling for generational change and a more aggressive party posture, and also slammed Sherman’s response to the L.A. fires. In Texas: AG Ken Paxton is all but declaring that he’ll primary GOP Sen. John Cornyn, NYT’s David Goodman reports from Dallas. Paxton had to be reminded by a consultant during their interview that he hadn’t officially jumped in yet. His expected primary could be one of the cycle’s most intense, as he challenges Cornyn with a hard-right, hard-charging MAGA platform. 3. ALL THAT GLITTERS: “E.P.A. Hunt for Shady Deals and ‘Gold Bars’ Comes Up Empty,” by NYT’s Lisa Friedman and Claire Brown: “Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has made explosive accusations against the Biden administration, accusing it of ‘insane’ malfeasance in its handling of $20 billion in climate grants. Now, as a legal battle ensues over those funds, many of Mr. Zeldin’s claims remain unsupported, and some are flat-out false. … [T]he Trump administration has failed to provide evidence of wrongdoing, despite a judge’s request … [L]egal experts said the agency’s arguments increasingly appear thin.” 4. IN THE DOGE HOUSE: The Deferred Resignation Program is back, as the Trump administration offers federal employees another opportunity to leave, POLITICO’s Sophia Cai and Jake Traylor report. At least seven agencies sent the offers this week, and employees have just a week or two to decide. After months of upheaval under Trump — and with additional mass layoffs still looming — more civil servants tell our colleagues that they’re thinking about taking the out. The fallout: The foreign aid freeze and destruction of USAID have left some aid groups still not getting paid for lifesaving work that the Trump administration claims to have unfrozen, CNN’s MJ Lee and Jennifer Hansler report. That includes two companies that make special peanut butter paste to save malnourished babies, whose contracts were reinstated after a public outcry; neither has been paid since 2024. … Head Start centers fear federal layoffs could hurt their efforts to serve kids from low-income families, AP’s Moriah Balingit reports. Knowing DOGE: Department of Government Efficiency staffer Christopher Stanley, who’s been placed in a top role at the deputy AG’s office, “previously bragged about hacking and distributing pirated software,” Reuters’ Raphael Satter and Sarah Lynch scooped. … Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE employee who was elevated to a senior position at USAID, has “ping-ponged from job to job and political belief to political belief in pursuit of greater power and authority,” the Boston Globe’s Emma Platoff and Sam Brodey report in a new profile. 5. KNIVES OUT FOR STEFANIE SPEAR: “White House fed up with RFK Jr.’s sluggish press shop,” by Axios’ Marc Caputo and Brittany Gibson: “The White House is so frustrated by the lack of clear and fast communications by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agency that it has set up a parallel press shop … The problem surfaced in February, after it took two days for the Health and Human Services Department to acknowledge — by tweet — that a West Texas child had become the first person to die in the measles outbreak. White House officials blamed Stefanie Spear, a Kennedy adviser.” The White House said in a statement that it “has a great relationship with Stefanie and HHS.” 6. THE TAXMAN COMETH: “Hunter Biden tax informant set to control IRS criminal division,” by WaPo’s Shannon Najmabadi and Jacob Bogage: “Gary Shapley, was recently elevated to deputy chief of the IRS’s criminal division and to an ‘unprecedented’ senior advisory role at the Treasury Department, he wrote to colleagues in a recent email obtained by The Washington Post — giving political appointees a direct line to tax investigations for the first time since Richard M. Nixon was president.” 7. SCOTUS WATCH: The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the FDA’s decision not to approve some flavored e-cigarettes, per WaPo’s Justin Jouvenal. The ruling overturned a lower court’s finding that the agency’s changes in standards had been unfair to companies. 8. IRAN LATEST: “Trump seriously considering Iran’s offer of indirect nuclear talks,” by Axios’ Barak Ravid: “The White House is still engaged in an internal debate between those who think a deal is achievable and those who see talks as a waste of time and back strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. In the meantime, the Pentagon is engaged in a massive buildup of forces in the Middle East. If Trump decides the time is up, he will have a loaded gun at the ready.” 9. TIKTOK ON THE CLOCK: With a deadline looming this month for TikTok to be sold or banned in the U.S., Amazon is making an eleventh-hour play to buy it, NYT’s Lauren Hirsch, Maggie Haberman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Karen Weise and Sapna Maheshwari report. The company made the pitch in a letter to VP JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. But “parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously.”
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| | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Donald Trump could get $115 million from a casino construction contest in New York. Ron DeSantis called Randy Fine “a squish” who “repels people.” PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION: The bill to restore $1 billion in funding for the D.C. government isn’t a done deal yet, despite passing the Senate and getting Trump’s support. Punchbowl’s Mica Soellner and Samantha Handler report that some House Republicans want to add policy riders on abortion, marijuana or guns, and the House Freedom Caucus wants to delay bringing it up for now. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a party for Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater’s new book, “Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress” ($32), yesterday night at Carl and Kim Hulse’s house: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Elisabeth Bumiller, Dick Stevenson, Maureen Dowd, Julie Davis, Elizabeth Kennedy, Catie Edmondson, Katie Rogers, Jake Sherman, Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, Shawn McCreesh, Katie Benner, Mark Leibovich, Elizabeth Dias, Bill Hamilton, Kara Voght, Garrett Ventry, Dave Weigel, Bryan Metzger, Reese Gorman, Ted Mann, Liz Goodwin, Andrew Desiderio, Scott Sloofman, Samantha Henig, Keith Urbahn, Allison Hoffman and Adam Goldman, Chris Megerian, Michael Gold and Robert Jimison. — UltraViolet hosted a farewell celebration to honor the career of co-founder Shaunna Thomas, as she passes the baton to Arisha Hatch, yesterday evening at the speakeasy at Capo Deli. SPOTTED: Steve Garvey, Matt Butler, Wendy Wolf, Aniello Alioto, Nancy Bagley, Brett Abrams, Heather Booth, David Brock, Angelo Carusone, Adam Green, Erica Payne, Ilyse Hogue, Brian Komar, Amirah Sequeira, Anna Lefer Kuhn, Michael Meehan, John Neffinger, KaeLyn Rich, Michelle Ringuette, Kelley Robinson, Nicole Rodgers, Kimball Stroud, JoDee Winterhof and Karen Finney. MEDIA MOVE — Daniel Payne is now a Washington correspondent at Stat News. He previously was a health care reporter at POLITICO. TRANSITIONS — Julie Margetta Morgan has been named the next president of The Century Foundation, per Morning Money. She previously was associate director of research, monitoring and regulations at the CFPB, and is an Education Department alum. … Mike Frosolone is now a principal at JM2, a Democratic direct mail firm. He previously was Michigan campaign manager for the Harris campaign and is a DLCC and Cory Booker alum. … Molly Wilkinson is joining Onebrief as head of government relations. She most recently was VP and head of regulatory and international government affairs at American Airlines. … … Terry Neal is joining DDC Public Affairs as EVP for earned and strategic media. He most recently has been president of Neal Communication Strategies, and is a WaPo alum. … Rachael Dean Wilson is joining Anduril as director of comms. She previously was a managing director at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and is a John McCain alum. … Kristen Edgreen Kaufman is now SVP for sustainability at the U.S. Council for International Business. She previously was deputy commissioner at the NYC Mayor’s Office of International Affairs. 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.
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