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By Irie Sentner |
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THE CATCH-UP |
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Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-N.J.) today introduced a House resolution affirming the chamber’s commitment to defending the 14th and 15th Amendments. | Francis Chung/POLITICO |
Republicans’ midterm headwinds are intensifying after the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict mail-in voting. But Democrats, far from taking a victory lap, remain concerned about his push to reshape elections and undermine voter trust. Just 49 days out from the election, Democrats hold a nearly 9-point lead over Republicans among likely voters in a generic ballot — and Trump’s approval rating sits at 38 percent, according to an NYT/Siena University poll released today. Voters said they trusted Democrats over the GOP on a range of topics — including 7-point advantages on immigration and the economy, Trump’s strongest issues in 2024, and a whopping 24-point edge on health care. The poll, which coincided with National Voter Registration Day, was a sour chaser for a White House still reeling from the high court’s decision to bar the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing Trump’s executive order aimed at curtailing mail-in voting, which he has repeatedly claimed without evidence leads to rampant voter fraud (despite voting by mail in Florida himself). It was the latest in a string of high-profile repudiations from the court of some of the president’s marquee policies, including tariffs and his attempt to end birthright citizenship. The ruling is a win for Democrats and state elections officials, who worried Trump’s EO would have severely disrupted this year’s midterms, particularly in blue states where most voters cast ballots by mail, such as Oregon, Washington and California. But they say their work is far from over. “This decision was more of a comma than a period on the underlying issue,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told Playbook. “This was an important result for the integrity of the November election. But we should just remind ourselves the president will use every trick in the book to continue to try to rig these elections.” Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-N.J.), a former progressive activist who swept into Congress in a special election this year behind the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.),, today introduced a House resolution affirming the chamber’s commitment to defending the 14th and 15th Amendments and opposing “efforts to intimidate voters, suppress the vote, or interfere with free and fair elections.” “[Trump] is casting doubt on this upcoming election because he knows that the ideas that have been put forward and the steps that the Republican Party have taken are wildly unpopular,” Mejia told Playbook. As Trump has sought to expand the federal government’s control over elections while relentlessly sowing doubt in results he dislikes, state and local elections officials from both parties are preparing for potential political interference, legal threats and even violence on and around Election Day, according to a new Reuters report by Peter Eisler and colleagues. Trump, meanwhile, is raging at the high court. “It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the Radical Left ‘Dumocrats,’ on Mail-In Ballots, a much easier thing to do - And now they have an open field to do so!” Trump said in a post today on Truth Social. “The Supreme Court has really let our Country down!” He added that the three justices he nominated to the bench — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom joined the majority in the mail-in voting decision — “are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court” and called them “merely a shell of their original selves.” Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at isentner@politico.com.
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A message from bp: How bp is helping build America's next wave of energy supply
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6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW |
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1. JUST VANCE: VP JD Vance rallied Republicans in what one member called “a great locker room speech” on Capitol Hill this morning, urging members in safe seats to help their vulnerable colleagues, POLITICO’s Mia McCarthy reports. He also specifically attacked Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico. One member in the room said Vance “projected perhaps a little bit more sunny optimism than is probably generally found within members’ hearts.” But the topic that didn’t come up? AI, and what Congress should do about it. “I was kind of hoping there would be some conversation” on AI, another House Republican told Mia. “That did not come up at all.” 2. BRAVE NEW WORLD: Speaker Mike Johnson says fears of impending doom around AI are overblown, likening the alarm to warnings on the political left over climate change, POLITICO’s Mia McCarthy reports. He invoked AOC while defending Trump’s use of the word “HOAX” to describe the AI alarms. “When the president says ‘a hoax,’ what he’s referring to is, we’ve all seen this movie before,” Johnson said in response to a question about Trump’s remarks at a Tuesday news conference. “A catastrophe is created. The media gets spun up. Social media gets spun up. Everybody says we’re all … going to be dead in 10 years.” He added: “You remember what AOC said — was it climate change? What was her stupid thing? She said, ‘We’re all going to be dead in 10 years’? What the president is saying is you’re not all going to be dead in 10 years,’” Johnson continued. Play for the whistle: Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who’s sponsoring legislation that would ban artificial superintelligence, called on whistleblowers and activists to intensify their outcry against the technology’s risks, saying the time for “tempered” rhetoric has passed, per POLITICO’s Owen Dahlkamp. And OpenAI threw its support behind bipartisan House legislation that would require top AI companies to embed “independent verification organizations” to ensure their models are safe, POLITICO’s Brendan Bordelon reports. Meanwhile: During a trip to North Carolina, first lady Melania Trump announced a partnership with Nvidia to bring more AI to the Ashe County School District. “Dream big and use these AI tools to build something never created before. Maybe one of you will create the next great robot. And if you do, make sure you bring it to the White House to show me,” she said, per NY Post pooler Emily Goodin.
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POLITICO's Decoded Summit The future of AI policy is being defined in power centers from coast to coast. Join POLITICO's Decoded Summit – Washington, D.C. on Sept. 16 for conversations on AI regulation, global competition, enterprise adoption, and more.
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3. 2028 WATCH: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is rolling out a “Rescuing America” plan for how Republicans should tackle the affordability crisis amid rampant voter frustration about the economy, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney scoops. “The question is not whether people are angry — they are. The question is who provides the answers,” Scott, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, says in an announcement video. His pitch includes cutting government spending and the national debt, rolling back regulations, changing social safety net programs and making structural changes in Washington, including term limits. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is: Scott pitched his colleagues on an unpopular “Rescue America” plan back in 2022. 4. BIRTH DEARTH: The Trump administration is working with Congress to draft new legislation that would crack down on “birth tourism,” FBI Director Kash Patel told senators today — Republicans’ latest attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court decision blocking Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, POLITICO’s Myah Ward reports. 5. PRICE TAG: “Iran war has cost taxpayers $38B — and counting,” by POLITICO’s Connor O'Brien: “The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the conflict — which has cost more than half of the Trump administration’s total war spending request — would reach about $2 billion to $3 billion a month. The agency also confirmed that the war has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles, including critical interceptors for air defenses.” 6. BY THE NUMBERS: “Trump Has Made More Trades Than All of Congress Combined,” by Bloomberg’s Gregory Korte and Adrienne Tong: “Trump or his money managers made nearly 28,700 trades in the 17 months between his second inauguration and the end of June, according to a Bloomberg review of his disclosures. … During that same period, Capitol Hill lawmakers collectively reported about 22,200 similar transactions. … The White House declined to comment on Trump’s position on a presidential stock ban. But spokesman Davis Ingle said the president’s portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions using computer-based model portfolios that replicate indexes like the Schwab 1000.”
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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WHAT’S IN A NAME — A federal judge today again blocked the Kennedy Center’s push to inscribe President Donald Trump’s name on its facade and rename the campus where it sits the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” POLITICO’s Elleiana Green reports. “Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing,” wrote U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper. Hours later, the Kennedy Center board, stocked with Trump loyalists, voted to close, per the AP. DIGGING IN ON DON JR. — Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Dem on the House Oversight Committee, is demanding that Donald Trump Jr. preserve all records, documents and communications related to his relationship with Umar Kremlev, the Russian oligarch whom ProPublica reported had paid for parts of his wedding celebrations in the Bahamas, POLITICO’s Cheyanne Daniels reports. A spokesperson for Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NATIONAL TREASURE — “How Much Steve Kornacki Is Too Much Steve Kornacki?” by NYT’s Callie Holtermann: “Kornacki, 47, is a longtime national political correspondent who has a habit, during major election cycles, of crossing over into mainstream fame. During the 2020 presidential election, he earned admirers with his unshowy competence and Clark Kent charm, attracting nicknames like ‘map daddy’ and ‘chart throb.’ … Now, with the midterm season heating up, NBC News executives are making a bet that his particular brand of charisma will translate to the booming world of livestreaming.” DID YOU MAKE THE LIST? — The Hill is out with its 2026 rundown of “25 notable Capitol Hill staffers.” See who made the cut OUT AND ABOUT — Town & Country magazine celebrated its 180th anniversary last night at Library Bar inside Ned’s Club. Guests enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres by the chef Joshua Smith — including steak tartare croutons, lobster rolls and limoncello cheesecake — before toasting the anniversary with flutes of Thienot champagne and classic Ned’s Club cocktails, including the Eastern Standard. The celebration featured a Q&A with Town & Country EIC Stellene Volandes, moderated by John W. McCarthy, along with editors including Adam Rathe and William Lee. SPOTTED: Monaco Ambassador Maguy Maccario, Joiwind Ronen, Emma Mears, Liz Landers, Shawn McCreesh, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Anita McBride, Tracy Bernstein, Kimball Stroud, Susanna Quinn, Michelle Giannini, Toni Verstandig, Grace Nelson and Jayne Sandman. — The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center hosted conversations yesterday evening about the future of AI/governance and the space program, as part of the university’s 150th anniversary. They featured OpenAI’s Dean Ball with Gillian Hadfield, Stuart Russell and Eugene Scott, and NASA’s Reid Wiseman with Bobby Braun. SPOTTED: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Reps. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) and Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), Ron Daniels, William Howell, David Van Wie, Ed Schlesinger, Christy Wyskiel, Mark Dredze, Cybele Bjorklund, Maria Harris Tildon, Elizabeth Smyth, Tammy Haddad and Josh Eastright. — The NFL, Disney/ESPN, NCTA — The Internet & Television Association, the Entertainment Software Association and EA Sports hosted a Monday Night Football kickoff reception at NCTA yesterday for the Denver Broncos-Kansas City Chiefs game. Attendees wore jerseys repping their favorite teams. SPOTTED: Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Reps. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.), Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.), Jeff Crank (R-Colo.) and Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Cory Gardner, Brendon Plack, Ken Edmonds, Jason Mahler, Missy Foxman, John Miceli, Geoffrey Starks, Kirsten Davies, Austin Walton, Lee Friedman, Ali Fulling Watson, Cliff Riccio, Susan Fox, Bill Bailey, Troy Dow and Maria Kirby. TRANSITIONS — Donni Turner is now VP of advocacy at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She most recently worked for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and is a Jon Ossoff and Bernie Sanders alum. … Steve Keen is joining Live Oak Bank as director of government relations. He previously worked at the Independent Community Bankers of America and is a National Federation of Independent Business alum. … Paul Noe will be the next president and CEO of the Corn Refiners Association. He previously has worked at the American Forest & Paper Association. … … Jeffery Proffitt is joining the Georgia GOP as comms director. He previously worked for Rep. Andy Barr’s (R-Ky.) Senate campaign. … 804 Advisory has added Annika Barth as a senior energy analyst and Tatiana “Tania” Puscasu as director of business operations. Barth most recently was a fellow at the Maryland Public Service Commission. Puscasu previously worked at Blumont Inc. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Giuseppe Macri and deputy editor Garrett Ross.
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Spencer Cox on America’s political divide In the latest episode of On the Road, Jonathan Martin sits down with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to discuss his new book, Off Ramp, the future of the Republican Party, immigration reform and what he says it will take to rebuild trust and community in American life.
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