| | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | 
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and President Donald Trump celebrated their joint work on deportations. | Pool via AP | FROM THE OVAL OFFICE: The leaders of the U.S. and El Salvador both claimed at the White House today that they lacked the power to bring back a man wrongly deported from one country to the other, despite the Supreme Court upholding an order to facilitate his return, POLITICO’s Myah Ward and Eli Stokols report. The legal black hole: AG Pam Bondi said the decision was up to San Salvador, and that the U.S.’ only obligation is to provide a plane for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Sitting across from her, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele called Abrego Garcia a “terrorist” (without evidence) and said, “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.” The idea, Bukele added as President Donald Trump smiled, was “preposterous.” Doubling down: Bukele and Trump celebrated their joint crackdown on immigration and gangs: “You have a crime problem and a terrorism problem that you need help with,” Bukele said. “And we’re a small country, but we can help.” Trump urged Bukele to build more mega-prisons and take in more people from the U.S., including Americans. Meanwhile, Stephen Miller insisted that Abrego Garcia’s illegal deportation was not a mistake — which POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney notes runs contrary to multiple federal sworn declarations in court that it was. “Trump and Stephen Miller essentially scoffed at the Supreme Court’s ability to direct the administration to take any action on foreign policy,” NYT’s Zolan Kanno-Youngs notes. The pushback: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) demanded a meeting with Bukele and said he’d go to El Salvador himself if the Marylander isn’t returned. Meanwhile, the ACLU brought a new lawsuit seeking to block Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act for rapid deportations, this time in Colorado. The other deportees: Documented’s Paz Radovic reports on the story of Merwil Gutiérrez, a Venezuelan teenager deported from the Bronx to the Salvadoran mega-prison despite having no criminal record or tattoos, and whose family still has no information or answers. More from Trump: The president continued to blame Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not preventing the war in Ukraine, though he also assigned culpability today to Russian President Vladimir Putin for attacking and invading its neighbor. “All I can do is try and stop it,” Trump said. Also notable: Despite a federal court order requiring the White House to add the AP back into the press pool, AP journalists were blocked from joining again today, per POLITICO’s Eli Stokols. The Justice Department asked an appellate court once more today to stay the order. TRADING PLACES: Stock markets were mostly flat by early afternoon, having lost some earlier gains fueled by temporary tariff exceptions for electronics, per Bloomberg. Tech stocks in particular jumped higher on hopes that the industry will get a reprieve at least for a little while. But much will depend on what happens next in the U.S.-China trade war. Deal markets have seized up amid the uncertainty over trade policy and broader economic unease, grinding a crucial part of Wall Street to a halt, POLITICO’s Declan Harty reports. What the White House is touting: After Trump pledged this weekend to roll out semiconductor tariffs fairly soon, Nvidia announced today that it will begin to make artificial intelligence supercomputers wholly in America for the first time. Their chips manufacturing will ramp up in Arizona and Texas. More from the WSJ The art of the deal: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on Fox Business this morning that already, “more than 10” countries have offered “very good, amazing” deals to the U.S. He also said he’s “100 percent” not expecting a U.S. recession this year. Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba, for one, today said Japan wouldn’t impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. — but also said the country wouldn’t rush into a deal or make major concessions, per Reuters. More tariff fallout, at home and abroad: “Can tariffs turn farmers in this critical state away from Trump?” by WaPo’s Cleve Wootson Jr. in Fairview, North Carolina … “Trump’s Tariffs Leave No Safe Harbor for American Importers,” by NYT’s Peter Goodman Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Chances are your insurer and PBM are owned by the same big health care company. They also own big chain pharmacies – and are even buying doctors' offices. When middlemen own it all, you lose. It's time to protect patients and rein in the middlemen. See how. | | | | | | 6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. SCARY STUFF: Cody Balmer, the Pennsylvania man charged with trying to kill Gov. Josh Shapiro, told investigators that he hated the governor and planned to beat him with a hammer if he found him, the Philly Inquirer’s Gillian McGoldrick and Anna Orso report. Balmer, who allegedly set fire to the governor’s mansion, turned himself in, police said in the latest affidavit. 2. TRAIL MIX: Former Rep. Mike Rogers is officially jumping into the Michigan Senate race, seeking again to flip a seat red after falling three-tenths of a percentage point short of doing so last year, Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser scooped. In what will likely be one of the marquee open-seat Senate races this cycle, Rogers is emphasizing his support for Trump and economic issues. He quickly picked up some endorsements from Senate leaders, though other prominent Republicans could still enter the race. … Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is officially running for reelection and raised $1.2 million in the first quarter, KHQ Local News’ Bradley Warren scooped. Race for the House: Democrat Randy Villegas launched a campaign to unseat Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), POLITICO’s Nick Wu reports. A school board trustee and college professor, Villegas is leaning into progressive and economic populist messaging. … Adam Hollier is trying again to primary Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), The Detroit News’ Melissa Nann Burke reports. The former state senator was seen as a strong challenger last year before getting disqualified over signature issues. Cash dash: Speaker Mike Johnson raised $32.2 million in the first quarter, his largest-ever sum, Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan report. … The Republican State Leadership Committee and State Government Leadership Foundation pulled in $13 million, also a record, Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser scooped. 3. IN THE DOGE HOUSE: Today is the deadline for federal agencies to submit their plans for the next round of mass layoffs, as directed by the Department of Government Efficiency, the NYT notes. Meanwhile, the effects of previous cuts and firings are still rippling out:
- Biotech: Smaller biotech firms are particularly worried that FDA cuts will make it harder for them to get products approved and survive financially, Reuters’ Maggie Fick and Bhanvi Satija report. The NIH’s funding freezes could also undercut the sector.
- Financial aid: The dismantling of the Education Department is starting to erode the federal apparatus for higher education financial aid, WaPo’s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports. Glitches and delays are growing, and some calls aren’t being answered.
- 250th anniversary: Funding cuts could jeopardize celebrations around the country for next year’s semiquincentennial, AP’s Claire Rush and Gary Fields report. State humanities councils that planned programming have seen grants axed by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
How DOGE continues beyond Elon Musk: “Some DOGE staffers hold high-powered jobs at multiple federal agencies,” by WaPo’s Faiz Siddiqui and Jacob Bogage
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| | | | | 4. RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: “The $600 Billion Medicaid Maneuver on the Chopping Block,” by WSJ’s Joseph Walker: “An obscure set of state taxes on hospitals and other health providers is in the crosshairs of congressional budget cutters … If Congress were to restrict the [provider] taxes’ use to finance state Medicaid contributions entirely, it could save more than $600 billion over a decade … But the taxes have a strong constituency among state governors and legislators on both sides of the aisle. A big reason: Hospitals often tend to get back more in payments than they shelled out for the original tax, which shores up their ability to care for Medicaid patients.” Mark your calendars: The House Energy and Commerce Committee markup of its portion of the big GOP bill could come the week of May 5, POLITICO’s Ben Leonard and Meredith Lee Hill report. That gives Republicans just a few weeks to figure out where to find $880 billion in spending cuts. 5. COME RETRIBUTION: As major law firms have bowed to the Trump White House and struck deals to do pro bono work to avoid his retaliatory state animus, many of them have negotiated with Trump’s private lawyer Boris Epshteyn, WSJ’s Josh Dawsey and Ryan Barber report. Though he holds no government position, Epshteyn has led many meetings and calls with the firms to extract concessions. The legal frameworks for Trump’s related executive orders, which the Journal reports were motivated by revenge, were conceptualized by Stephen Miller. On the flip side: The Biden administration’s top Supreme Court advocate is joining those urging the legal profession and universities to form a united front to push back against Trump’s attacks on those institutions, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein writes in. “I think this is a moment to stand up … but it’s also a time to stand together,” former Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogartold an audience at Harvard Law School last week. The legal cases brought by the handful of law firms that have chosen to fight Trump’s onslaught are “airtight,” she said. “It has been key in our society and in our democracy to hold the executive to account, and there is a legal system that is designed to deal with an issue like this one,” Prelogar said, as she lamented decisions by some prominent firms to cut deals with the White House. “There can be a lot of pain in standing up, and yet to do it together, with all firms banding together, with all institutions of higher education banding together, I think could make a really critical difference at this moment when the stakes arguably couldn’t be higher.” 6. THE LONG ARM OF THE FOREVER WARS: “U.S. weapons from Afghan war give Pakistani militants a deadly advantage,” by WaPo’s Rick Noack, Alex Horton, Haq Nawaz Khan and Shaiq Hussain in Peshawar: “After a decade of progress against militants, Pakistan is now struggling to contain multiple insurgencies … U.S. assault rifles, machine guns and night-vision goggles, originally meant to help stabilize Afghanistan, are now being used by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and other groups to wreak havoc across this nuclear-armed nation.”
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Insurers own PBMs, pharmacies – even doctors' offices. It's time to protect patients and rein in the middlemen. | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Molly Ritner is joining the Strategy Group direct mail firm as a partner. She most recently was special assistant to the president and senior adviser to the deputy chief of staff in the Biden White House, and is a Biden 2020 and DCCC alum. TRANSITIONS — Jenna Berger is now investigative counsel at the House Education & the Workforce Committee, leading antisemitism investigations. She previously was counsel for the House China select committee. … Quardricos Driskell is now a director at Lobbyit, expanding its health care portfolio. He previously led government relations and federal advocacy for the Health Management Academy. … … Liza Reed is now director of climate policy at the Niskanen Center. She previously was at the Energy Department’s Grid Deployment Office, leading the CITAP rulemaking process. … Sean Satterthwaite is now leading comms and policy outreach for Column N.A. He most recently was at Lyft, and is a Team Scalise and Brad Wenstrup alum. … Max Prowant is joining the Alexander Hamilton Society as director of academic programs. He previously was a research fellow at the Institute on Religion and Democracy and the Philos Project. BONUS BIRTHDAY: Ascent’s Lisa Moore 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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