| | | |  | | By Zack Stanton | Presented by the National Retail Federation | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | Happy Friday. This is Zack Stanton. Today, Washington’s cherry blossoms enter peak bloom. See them if you have the chance. Get in touch. In today’s Playbook … — Vice President JD Vance travels to Greenland. — Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) returns to Capitol Hill as the GOP sweats special elections. — Signalgate fallout homes in on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. YOUR MORNING LISTEN: With Trump’s foreign policy driving the whole week, be sure to listen to today’s episode of “Playbook Deep Dive” with John Bolton. The former U.N. ambassador and ex Trump national security adviser sat down with POLITICO senior Washington columnist Rachael Bade to talk about the deep fissures within the Republican Party on foreign policy, President Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin, JD Vance’s antipathy towards Europe, and, of course, Signalgate. A few highlights: On Trump’s reaction to Signalgate: “I think as long as Donald Trump doesn’t feel the heat, nobody will be investigated for anything and they won't lose their jobs, at least in the short term.” On whether Trump will fire someone for it: “The second metric at work is: What has all this done to Trump's view of the people themselves? How much of this does he take before he says it's not worth the risk down the road? Now, that isn't gonna happen this week or next week or the week after. … No action will be taken until a couple months from now at the earliest, when suddenly, they’ll find some very attractive way to spend more time with their family.” Potential warning signs: “One thing that’s typical of Trump is he starts asking people, his friends and associates outside the government, ‘Hey, what, what do you think of this guy?’ … If somebody gets feedback that Trump’s asking the membership of Mar-a-Lago or other well-placed individuals what they think of them, that’s not good.” On Trump and Vladimir Putin: “Trump views international relations through the prism of his personal relations with foreign leaders. So he thinks that if he has good relations with Putin, then the U.S. has good relations with Russia. That's not true, but that's what he thinks. He thinks he and Putin are friends. … Putin doesn't think they're friends; he thinks Trump is an easy mark.” Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
The pretense for VP JD Vance’s visit to Greenland today is that he’s visiting the northernmost base for the U.S. Space Force. | Brandon Bell/Pool via AP | MAGA VS. THE WORLD: A week dominated by stories about foreign policy in the Trump administration — or, more precisely, a single story about top national security officials’ use of a group chat on their phones to communicate about military plans — ends with the topic still at the center of conversation in Washington, even as many of the administration’s top officials fan out around the world. Today: Vice President JD Vance arrives in Greenland, leading a U.S. delegation that includes his wife, Usha, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and embattled national security adviser Mike Waltz. … Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visits the Philippines while his central role in Signalgate draws criticism in Washington. … DHS Secretary Kristi Noem closes her Latin America tour in Mexico, where she’ll meet with President Claudia Sheinbaum. … The U.S. stakes out a new and more aggressive posture in the latest draft of the Ukraine minerals deal. … And, like the cherry blossoms along Washington’s Tidal Basin, America’s global trade war starts hitting peak bloom. VANCE WITH THE ONE WHO BRUNG YA: The pretense for Vance’s voyage to Greenland today is that he’s visiting the northernmost base for the U.S. Space Force. But it’s clear to all observers that the trip’s true purpose is to ratchet up the pressure on Greenland as Trump aims to bring the arctic island nation under U.S. control. Defender of the Faith: Given Vance’s role in the administration so far, there’s a message in his being dispatched to Greenland: We are serious about this. Vance’s time on the global stage has found him repeatedly playing the role of Defender of the Faith, ensuring MAGA doctrine is upheld. It was true at the Munich Security Conference. It was true during Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Oval Office visit, which took a turn after Vance upbraided the Ukrainian president. It was true of his time in the Oval with U.K. PM Keir Starmer, whom he chastised for Britain’s speech policies. It is apparently true even in private, as his contributions to the now-infamous “Houthi PC small group” chat reveal. (See, too, his new appointment by Trump to root out “improper ideology” from Smithsonian museums and national parks, as ABC scooped.) You don’t deploy Vance on a charm offensive; you deploy him when you want to communicate a cold reality about the world as Trump is reshaping it. What to expect: One senior White House official told POLITICO’s Irie Sentner and Eli Stokols that Vance would emphasize how the Danish leaders on whom Greenland relies for financial and military support have “spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second-class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair.” In other words, it’s a lot like MAGA’s campaign message to broad swaths of America — replacing “Washington elites” for “Danish leaders” — with a dollop of empire-building on top. How the Danish see it: It’s the “biggest foreign policy crisis since World War II for Denmark,” Jon Rahbek Clemmensen of the Danish Defense Academy tells the nation’s TV2. Speaking of cold reality: Even as Trump’s play for Greenland amounts to a major escalation of America’s role in the Arctic, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a verbal shrug yesterday, per the AP. “It can look surprising only at first glance and it would be wrong to believe that this is some sort of extravagant talk,” Putin said. Putin’s likely calculus: Denmark is a member of NATO, and in increasing the pressure on the nation — threatening even to take Greenland by force — Trump is fraying the trust that underlies the military alliance. Were Trump to actually occupy Greenland — which is, again, allied territory — could NATO survive that? A MAGA GAP ON THE GLOBAL STAGE: Yesterday, the White House abruptly withdrew Trump’s nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for U.N. ambassador over fears about size and durability of the GOP’s narrow House majority. The geopolitical reality: The ongoing U.S. vacuum at the U.N. is giving China and Russia an advantage, and “threatens to impede Trump’s MAGA foreign policy agenda,” POLITICO’s Megan Messerly, Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Nick Reisman report. THE STEFANIK SHUFFLE: Stefanik, you may recall, has recently been on a “farewell tour” of her upstate New York district, much of her congressional staff has decamped for other offices and she gave up a prized perch in House GOP leadership to accept this nomination. Now, she’ll return to the Hill and rejoin leadership in some yet-undefined role, per Speaker Mike Johnson. The domestic political reality: “The withdrawal underscores just how precarious an electoral environment Republicans believe themselves to be in, and how worried they are about losing even one vote of their razor-thin majority as they work to implement Trump’s legislative agenda,” our colleagues report. “While Stefanik won reelection to her seat by 24 points last year, Republicans feared they could lose it in the current political milieu.” The context for that worry: On Tuesday, Republicans will defend two deep-red House seats in special elections in Florida — one to succeed former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the other to succeed Mike Waltz. Polling in Waltz’s former district — which Trump carried by 30 points — is tight to the point that Republicans are worried about the potential for a Dem upset, as POLITICO’s Andrew Howard, Ally Mutnick, Ben Jacobs and Brakkton Booker report this morning. State of the race: “An internal GOP poll from late March showed Democrat Josh Weil up 3 points over [Republican Randy] Fine, 44 to 41 percent, with 10 percent undecided, according to a person familiar with the poll and granted anonymity to discuss it. Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s pollster, conducted the survey.”
| | | | A message from the National Retail Federation: NRF supports plans by the administration and Congress to expand the American economy through tax reform, deregulation and new sources of affordable energy. But trade policy issues are creating uncertainty and causing consumers to hold back on spending. High tariffs on imported goods will raise the price of products and slow economic growth. We need trade policies that protect American families, workers and small businesses. Tariffs should always be strategic and a tool of last resort. Learn more. | | | | SIGNALGATE AND THE NOISE: Yesterday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to preserve the texts at the center of the controversy in response to a lawsuit aimed at ensuring that the auto-deleting messages are “kept in accordance with the Federal Records Act,” AP’s Michael Kunzelman reports. Trump is unhappy that Boasberg got assigned yet another major case, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report. Knives out for Hegseth? Striking criticism about Hegseth’s behavior in the group chat abounds from military and defense types in a number of articles … On the “classified or not?” question: “[F]our people familiar with the matter told CNN that the information Hegseth disclosed on the Houthi group chat was classified, despite the administration’s claims to the contrary,” report CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Jamie Gangel and Katie Bo Lillis. Fighter pilots are upset: “The intelligence breach was bad enough, current and former fighter pilots said. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s refusal to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information about when American fighter pilots would attack sites in Yemen, they said, was even worse,” NYT’s Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt report. “Worse, they said, is that going forward, they can no longer be certain that the Pentagon is focused on their safety when they strap into cockpits.” OPSEC officials are frustrated: “Now we have to spend hours retraining and reiterating rules to personnel who see these double standards and question why they should be held accountable when leadership is not,” one Defense operations security official tells The Atlantic’s Isaac Stanley-Becker and Jonathan Lemire. But but but: One thing you’ll notice about all of the above is that the criticisms are almost all on background, with reporters granting anonymity to protect sources so that they can speak candidly on sensitive matters or when they fear retribution. There’s a reason for that, as POLITICO’s Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary and Eli Stokols report: “Because Trump clearly likes and has publicly exonerated Hegseth, ‘you’re not going to hear a huge public outcry,’ said a senior GOP official on Capitol Hill who is close to the White House. ‘But, privately, there is a lot of concern about his judgment, more than with Waltz.’” Could Hegseth get the ax? Candidly, we think it’s unlikely. Trump is, after all, a man who chose the Latin phrase “numquam concedere” (“never give up”) for his family’s coat of arms. But we’ll concede that it’s at least possible. “Hegseth has done everything the White House has asked when it comes to culture wars, DEI and Project 2025,” a defense official told Jack, Paul and Eli. “But they’re nearing the end of those projects. Now comes the hard stuff: budgets, workforce, overseas basing and dealing with allies.” MEANWHILE … America First’s tilling of foreign policy plows ahead. Ukraine: The U.S. has taken an even more aggressive posture in the latest draft of the minerals deal, demanding expansive control of Ukraine’s resources without any security guarantees, FT reports. Bloomberg adds that the U.S. wants “right of first offer” on all infrastructure and mineral investments in the nation — a move that Ukraine says would undermine its sovereignty, and which would effectively “squeeze out” Europe while giving Trump “a veto over any role for Kyiv’s other allies and [undermine] its bid for European Union membership.” The North American trade war: Trump reportedly threatened American automakers not to raise their prices in response to his tariffs, leaving them worried about potential governmental retaliation if they do, WSJ’s Josh Dawsey and Ryan Felton report. … Canadian PM Mark Carney said yesterday that “the old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” per CNN. … And Mexican officials are seeking out tariff exemptions, fearing a recession as the nation holds off revealing any retaliatory tariffs just yet, per the L.A. Times’ Patrick McDonnell. The global trade war: The U.S. has paused funding for the World Trade Organization, Reuters’ Emma Farge reports.
| | | | A message from the National Retail Federation:  
Trade policy impacts businesses and consumers. Register to learn more. | | | | THE MAGA REVOLUTION AT HOME THE PURGE: The Trump administration’s campaign to shrink and radically remake the federal government is proceeding full steam ahead — with more cuts coming soon. WaPo’s Emily Davies and Jeff Stein obtained an internal White House document with agencies’ initial plans for mass layoffs. They range from 8 percent at the DOJ to one-third at the IRS to half the workforce at HUD. And after talking with White House officials, Senate Republicans said they expect to be sent rescissions at some point for Congress to ax spending, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reports. Also under consideration: The Justice Department is weighing a potential merger of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, though that would require Congress’ OK, Reuters’ Sarah Lynch reports. Already here: HHS’ “hushed-and-hurried” announcement that it’ll fire 10,000 employees “sent shockwaves” through the nation’s federal health agencies and surprised congressional committee chairs, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn, Chelsea Cirruzzo, Ruth Reader, David Lim, Sophie Gardner and Robert King report. Officials tell our colleagues that they fear the changes will ultimately cost money, and they’re “certain that critical functions would suffer.” Quote of the day: “I wouldn’t trust not one FDA-approved drug after they are done with us,” one FDA employee says. The pushback: In a notable rebuttal from a Republican, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told OMB Director Russ Vought they’re concerned he’s flouting the will of Congress and not spending some of the money in the recent stopgap funding law, POLITICO’s Katherine Tully-McManus reports. Come retribution: Trump’s battery of retaliation against law firms with ties to his opponents expanded yesterday to WilmerHale because of its employment of Robert Mueller, per Bloomberg. Skadden Arps is trying to get out ahead of a similar order by preemptively seeking a deal with the White House, “an extraordinary turn” as Trump publicly revels in major firms bending the knee to him, the NYT scooped. Food for thought: “If Trump Defies the Courts, It Will Backfire Badly,” by POLITICO’s Ankush Khardori: “[T]here is extraordinarily little support for the idea that the president could simply disregard orders from the courts. That is true across the public … I also found similar responses from an informal survey of conservative legal thinkers.”
| | | | 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 IN THE WILDERNESS: POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein has a new POLITICO Magazine feature that should send chills down Democrats’ spines. Talking to dozens of operatives and officials, she finds a party “deeply fractured, rudderless, and struggling to figure out at the most basic level what their message and strategy should be.” Dems haven’t hit bottom yet, haven’t made real changes and haven’t really responded to a base that wants them to put up a fight. “If we don’t get our shit together, then we are going to be in a permanent minority,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) warns. Out of the wilderness: Some Democrats are nonetheless making moves to seek a path forward. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) is leading a $20 million New Politics effort to recruit thousands of candidates focused on public service, including fired feds, NBC’s Bridget Bowman reports. And Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is working to build a specific case against VP Vance as a threat to the constitutional republic, with events across Ohio and at Yale Law School, NYT’s Shane Goldmacher reports. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Reps. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), along with the rest of the House Oversight DOGE Subcommittee Republicans, are calling on Speaker Mike Johnson to defund NPR and PBS immediately. They suggest the reconciliation bill as one potential path. The letter SCHOOL TIES: Secretary of State Marco Rubio continued to strongly defend his targeting of pro-Palestinian foreign students’ visas, saying the U.S. has yanked them for possibly more than 300 people, per Bloomberg. And this could yet explode on a much bigger scale: The administration is considering decertifying certain schools, like Columbia and UCLA, from having any foreign students if it thinks too many of them have been deemed “pro-Hamas,” Axios’ Marc Caputo scooped. The latest case: A Turkish Tufts student was sent to Louisiana despite a court order for that not to happen, per the WSJ. (The administration says the order didn’t come in time.) FOR YOUR RADAR: The House Ethics Committee said it will investigate Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) over allegations that he had weapons contracts with the government while in office, per POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs. His office said they expect him to be cleared. CTRL Z: The Senate voted to overturn a CFPB rule limiting banks’ overdraft fees, per POLITICO’s Katy O’Donnell. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), on an island as a populist Republican, was the only GOP senator to oppose the 52-48 vote. Meanwhile, the House passed resolutions to undo Energy Department energy efficiency standards for businesses’ freezers and refrigerators, per the Washington Examiner.
| | | | A message from the National Retail Federation:  
Trade policy impacts businesses and consumers. Register to learn more. | | | | THE WEEKEND AHEAD TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week,” which will feature moderator Jeffrey Goldberg talking about his Signalgate reporting: Peter Baker, Laura Barrón-López, Susan Glasser and Shane Harris. SUNDAY SO FAR … NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) … Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) … Jeffrey Goldberg. Panel: Jonathan Allen, Michael Dubke, Andrea Mitchell and Symone Sanders Townsend. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … Judge Brad Schimel. Panel: Howard Kurtz, Annie Linskey, Marc Thiessen and Juan Williams. Sunday special: National Cherry Blossom Festival. CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … Shawn Fain. ABC “This Week”: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) … retired Adm. James Stavridis … Chris Christie. Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus and David Sanger. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) … Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. Panel: Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Scott Jennings, Chris Meagher and Shermichael Singleton. MSNBC “The Weekend”: Wisconsin Dem Chair Ben Wikler … Mark Zaid. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.). Panel: Thomas Chatterton Williams, Burgess Everett, Jeff Mason and Kellie Meyer.
| | | | 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 | | Kristi Noem seems to have worn a $60,000 watch during her visit to El Salvador’s “notorious hellhole prison,” the N.Y. Post writes. Elon Musk humbly declared on Fox News last night that DOGE’s work “might be the biggest revolution in the government since the original revolution.” Champ Biden was the third Biden-owned German shepherd that Secret Service records show attacked people, Judicial Watch said. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION: Another Trump executive order created a task force for D.C. to oversee tackling crime, clearing homeless encampments, deporting immigrants and beautifying the city. More from The Hill … The FAA said yesterday that it has permanently suspended some helicopter flights around Reagan National Airport, but senators grilled acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau and said even that had taken too long, POLITICO’s Oriana Pawlyk reports. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a party for Dina Powell McCormick and Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-Pa.) new book, “Who Believed in You?: How Purposeful Mentorship Changes the World” ($26.99), last night at the Ronald Reagan Institute: Elaine Chao, Roy and Abby Blunt, Norah O’Donnell, UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, Adrienne Arsht, Deborah Lehr, Roger Zakheim, Dov Zakheim, Fred and Ginny Ryan, Madeline Ryan, Eric Motley, Barbie Allbritton, Charlie Rivkin, Mark Isakowitz, Josh Rogin, Bill Grayson, Orin Snyder, Lizzie Gregory, Robert Mosbacher Jr., Sarah Perot, Barbara and Craig Barrett, George Salem, Mark Vlasic, and Alex and Jessica Yergin. — SPOTTED at an Independent Women’s Forum luncheon yesterday at the Capitol Hill Club, where White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was the special guest speaker for a “Champion Women” event: Jane Adams, Shannon McGahn, Machalagh Carr, Kaya Singleton, Missy Foxman, Courtney Rosellini, Elise Pickering, Susan Hirschmann, Carrie Lukas, Amber Schwartz, Andi Bottner, Julie Gunlock and Kaylee McGhee White. — SPOTTED at Tiber Creek Group’s happy hour honoring the Congressional Trade and Tax Staff Association yesterday: Kristen Harper, Joe Russo, Jan Beukelman, Jeff Shapiro, Gianluca Nigro, Connor Rabb, Nicholas O’Boyle, Alec Escobar, Dylan Sodaro, Matthew Hart, David McCarthy, Allyson Gale, Andy Fishburn, Monica Didiuk and Jonathan Bydlak. TRANSITIONS — The American Hotel & Lodging Association is adding Ralph Posner as chief comms officer and Khristyn Brimmeier as chief of staff. Posner most recently was a partner at Seven Letter. Brimmeier most recently was an EVP at Lot Sixteen. … The Asia Group is adding former Indian Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Nisha Biswal as senior advisers. Biswal most recently was deputy CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. … Maca Casado is joining Operativo as VP of comms. She most recently was coalitions media director and senior national spokesperson for the Harris campaign. … … Jeffrey Rapp is now an economic policy adviser for Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.). He most recently was senior adviser to the undersecretary for domestic finance at the Treasury Department, and is a Biden and Obama White House alum. … Adin Lenchner has launched Carroll Street Campaigns, a campaign management and grassroots advocacy shop. He previously was head of program and strategy at Swing Left. … Nick Hutchins has launched Nick Hutchins PR, a PR and comms firm. He previously was head of comms and digital at Swing Left. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) (5-0) … Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Sheri Biggs (R-S.C.) … CBS’ Ed O’Keefe and Bob Kovach … Fox News’ Todd Piro … Tevi Troy … Cheryl Oldham ... Ricky Moxley ... Aaron Davis of BuildStrong America … Hank Paulson ... Tim Phelps … Ted Verrill of Rep. Julia Letlow’s (R-La.) office … POLITICO’s Rex Willis and Abbey Sattele … Keith Nahigian … Bill Gertz … Alexander Grieve ... James Singer … former Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) (92) … Lauren Ehrsam Gorey … former Reps. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) … Jake Adelstein … Danielle Banks … Janine Benner … Peter Ambler 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: Wednesday’s Playbook misspelled Robbie Gramer’s name.
| | | | A message from the National Retail Federation: The administration's trade policy announcements are creating high levels of uncertainty and are affecting consumer confidence and the affordability of everyday goods. The White House is expected to announce new reciprocal tariffs on our nation's trading partners that will impact retail business operations, employees and consumers. Retailers source domestically whenever possible, but most rely on a mix of domestic and imported products and manufacturing components so they can offer customers a variety of items at affordable prices. Small businesses buy and sell imported products to meet the demands of their customers, and higher prices on imported goods will unfairly burden American families, workers and Main Street businesses. We need pro-growth trade policies that support businesses and consumers. Learn more. | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
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