| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | | Good Wednesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, still feeling haunted by that piece on Elon Musk which the WSJ dropped last night. Holy moly. Just start with the headline: “The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies — and Their Mothers.” And yeah, it doesn’t disappoint. WSJ journo Dana Mattioli has produced 3,500 words of gobsmacking material on the White House’s most famous adviser and his eccentric approach to family life. Be warned — it’s not for the faint-hearted. Musk does not respond in the article, but made light of it on X last night.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump meets with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office of the White House on April 14, 2025, in Washington. | Win McNamee/Getty Images | KILMAR SINS: As a candidate, Donald Trump promised an end to open borders, a clampdown on illegal migration and deportations on a scale unseen in America. But 87 days into his second term, it’s the case of a single, 29-year-old sheet metal worker from Maryland that is obsessing Washington. Quick recap: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is either a wronged Maryland father or an illegal alien and suspected MS-13 gang member, depending entirely on your politics. Either way, he definitely got mistakenly deported back to his native El Salvador last month in breach of a 2019 U.S. court ruling which said it was not safe for him to return. He’s currently locked away in CECOT, a notorious mega-prison known both for its 40,000-person capacity and its reputation for human rights abuses. The Trump administration says it’s now impossible to bring him back; their critics say that’s nonsense and it’s time to act. First, the news: In the next few hours, the first senior U.S. politician will land in El Salvador seeking answers about Abrego Garcia’s welfare and his prospects of getting out of jail. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) flies to the Latin American nation this morning and hopes to visit his constituent in CECOT. But it’s far from clear if Van Hollen will be granted the same access afforded to, say, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when she visited the facility last month. Or indeed, any access at all. Back home in Maryland: It comes as a federal judge today kicks off an intensive two-week investigation into Abrego Garcia’s case. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis vowed she will work around the clock to establish exactly what happened to Abrego Garcia, and — in particular — what efforts have been made by the Trump administration to bring him back to America. “To date, what the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing,” she told a tense court hearing last night. POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein have the latest. What happens next: Xinis plans to drag senior Trump administration officials in for deposition over the next fortnight as she tries to ascertain the facts of the case. She said comments by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday are not admissible evidence — which presumably also applies to anything El Salvador’s Defense Minister René Merino Monroy says during his own trip to the Pentagon this morning. Either way, the Trump administration has vowed that should Abrego Garcia return, he will be arrested immediately and deported elsewhere. Dividing lines: Abrego Garcia’s case has become increasingly important for three big reasons. First: The constitutional angle is plain enough — the obfuscation and foot-dragging we’ve seen from the Trump administration is the closest it’s come so far to defying the Supreme Court. (Equally, it’s worth reading the Supreme Court’s actual judgment in the case last week, which was more nuanced than some liberals would have you believe, while still a far cry from the pro-administration interpretation voiced by White House policy guru Stephen Miller.) Given the government’s entrenched position, it looks all but certain this case will be back in front of SCOTUS in the coming weeks. Second: Abrego Garcia’s case matters from a policy perspective, too, because Trump seemingly has big plans for the gulag in Angulo. The U.S. president wants to deport more migrants there, as he gleefully told Bukele on Monday, including “home-grown” criminals if he’s allowed to do so. Some in the White House fear Abrego Garcia’s return to America would open the floodgates for a wave of litigation involving other contested deportation cases, potentially undermining the whole El Salvador project. Third: Above all, this case is becoming the sharpest of political dividing lines. The White House believes it has public opinion on its side here, and that every time the Democrats — or the judiciary, or the media — complain about the treatment of the deportees, they’re walking deeper into a carefully set trap. Exhibit A: “He is not a ‘Maryland man’. He is not a ‘Maryland’ anything,” Miller said of Abrego Garcia last night, attacking the media’s framing of the story during a Fox News hit. “He is an illegal alien from El Salvador with a deportation order from the United States. … And if the entire Democrat Party wants to work itself into a state of emotional hysteria to demand the return of illegal gang members and terrorists to our shores, then that 21 percent [level of public support] will soon be 15, and then it’ll be 11.” And there’s more: Witness White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt making equally punchy arguments at yesterday’s briefing. Witness Vice President JD Vance taking the time to write a 300-word social media post last night setting out a similar case. Witness Trump’s strong poll ratings on immigration, compared to his standing on the economy. The White House wants to be talking about this issue. And guess what? They’ll get the chance, because the Dems are not going to back off. Liberals are horrified by the lack of due process; sickened by the brutal conditions in the jail in El Salvador; appalled at the thought that Abrego Garcia and the others could be stuck there for the rest of their lives; shocked at the thought of Americans being sent there, too. Plenty on the left genuinely see this as a step down the road toward fascism. There’s no way they’ll stand by for political expediency. A few examples: Witness Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) at her latest tub-thumping rally last night. Witness Van Hollen explaining why he’s now on a plane to central America. Witness Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and other senior Dems planning their own trips to El Salvador in the weeks ahead, per POLITICO’s Jordain Carney and Nicholas Wu. This one is going to run and run. WHAT DEMS ARE READING THIS MORNING: This big five-bylined NYT investigation into the 238 supposed Venezuelan gang members Trump had deported. “At least 32 of the men sent to El Salvador have faced serious criminal accusations or convictions,” the story reveals. But the investigation “found little evidence of any criminal background … for most of the men. In fact, the prosecutors, law enforcement officials, court documents and media reports that The Times uncovered or spoke to in multiple countries suggested that only a few of the detainees might have had any connection to Tren de Aragua.” WHAT RS ARE READING THIS MORNING: “As the Border Wars Recede, a Park on the Rio Grande Reopens to the Public.” The Times’ Edgar Sandoval reports on a shuttered community park in Texas which has finally been able to reopen due to the collapse in border crossings under Trump.
| | | | 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. | | | | TRADING PLACES MARKET WATCH: Fed Chair Jerome Powell makes his first public appearance since the big wobble in U.S. bond markets, with a 1:30 p.m. speech at the Economic Club of Chicago (livestream on YouTube here). Expect to see Powell offer reassurances that the Fed stands ready to step in in any crisis, POLITICO’s economics guru Victoria Guida tells Playbook via Slack message, but to offer little clarity about the long-term direction of travel given the Trump-infused uncertainty around economic policy. The art of the deal: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hopes to use bilateral trade talks with other countries to hem in China, WSJ’s Gavin Bade and Brian Schwartz scooped. The Trump administration wants dozens of countries to help isolate Beijing economically in order to win reprieves from U.S. tariffs. From across the pond: The EU is preparing its response to Trump’s tariffs, but has been left frustrated by a lack of U.S. engagement, POLITICO’s Koen Verhelst reports from Brussels. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni flies into Washington tomorrow to try to make some progress. The cost of tariffs: Pharmaceuticals are next in line for the Trump tariff treatment, but the risks of political blowback if it leads to drug shortages or higher prices are significant, NYT’s Rebecca Robbins notes. … Tariffs could also cost U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturers $1 billion a year, Reuters’ Max Cherney reports. The politics: Following the tariff-fueled market chaos of the past couple of weeks, House Democrats want a ban on members of Congress trading individual stocks, with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsing the position in recent days, POLITICO’s Nick Wu reports this morning. Dems see it as a potent midterm issue on which to attack Republicans as more disclosures become public. At town halls yesterday, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) both faced blowback from constituents over Trump’s tariffs. (Both events were still calmer than the scenes at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) town hall, where one ejected attendee was tased upon trying to reenter.)
| | | | A message from PhRMA:  
Insurers own PBMs, pharmacies – even doctors' offices. It's time to protect patients and rein in the middlemen. | | | | THE MAGA REVOLUTION DEEP FREEZE: The administration has to report progress by 5 p.m. today on unfreezing and distributing grant money from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law, after a federal judge yesterday ordered the funds to resume, POLITICO’s Alex Guillén reports. School ties: Harvard University’s refusal to submit to Trump’s demands is a true “inflection point” in determining the extent of government power, POLITICO’s Jasper Goodman writes. Harvard is “uniquely positioned to become the most prominent U.S. institution yet to actively fight Trump’s efforts to bend elements of American civil society to his will,” he writes. Trump is not backing down — yesterday, he dangled the prospect of revoking the university’s tax-exempt status, The Harvard Crimson’s Dhruv Patel and colleagues report. Suddenly getting more assertive: Columbia University, which previously moved toward accepting major demands from the Trump administration, is now declaring that it won’t “relinquish our independence and autonomy,” per the Columbia Daily Spectator’s Daksha Pillai. A fourth court loss: Yet another Trump executive order seeking to inflict retaliation on a law firm has been blocked in court — this time for Susman Godfrey, per the AP. The federal judge called it “a shocking abuse of power.” The taxman cometh: Trump is expected to tap Gary Shapley, the Hunter Biden whistleblower, as acting IRS commissioner, after the last leader left over the IRS sharing taxpayer information with DHS, CNN’s Evan Perez and colleagues report. The agency is getting significantly hollowed out: Roughly 20,000 staffers took the deferred resignation offer, Bloomberg Law’s Erin Slowey and Erin Schilling scooped, and the IRS expects mass layoffs to reduce its headcount by 40 percent, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman scooped. The New Yorker’s Tammy Kim tells the story of one civil servant trying to survive the chaos. State of play: At the State Department, DOGE’s Jeremy Lewin — who just helped dismantle USAID — has been tapped as acting head of foreign aid, AP’s Ellen Knickmeyer and Matt Lee report. One State Department proposal calls for shuttering 27 embassies and consulates abroad, CNN’s Jennifer Hansler reports. But spokesperson Tammy Bruce insisted reports that Trump would seek to halve State’s budget were premature, per Bloomberg.
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| | | | | BEST OF THE REST LOOK WHO’S BACK: Former President Joe Biden returned to the public stage with a speech last night hammering Trump over Social Security in a likely preview of lots of Democratic messaging this cycle, per the AP. “This new administration has done so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking,” Biden railed. … Also yesterday: Trump signed an executive order preventing undocumented immigrants from getting Social Security, even though they’re already barred from it and there’s no evidence of widespread fraud, per Axios. ABOUT LAST NIGHT: California’s high-profile race for Oakland mayor is too close to call at the moment, with former City Council member Loren Taylor clinging to a narrow lead over former Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) “that underscores the profound voter frustration animating the progressive city’s politics,” writes POLITICO’s Jeremy White. “The tight margin all but guarantees the vote tally will stretch into the coming days as mail ballots are counted and could come down to voters’ backup selections under the city’s ranked choice system.” TRAIL MIX: Several notable new midterm campaigns have launched: Former Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.) is running to get her old seat back, per The Denver Post’s John Aguilar. … Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) said she’ll run in a different district, challenging Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar. Hours later, her team announced that she’d been hospitalized; no further details yet. … Republican lawyer Bobby Charles, an alum of three presidential administrations, jumped into the Maine gubernatorial race, per the Bangor Daily News’ Billy Kobin. … Democrat Nathan Sage is kicking off a longshot, populist challenge to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein and Andrew Howard report. … Former Republican Attorney General Mike Cox officially announced a run for Michigan governor, per the Detroit Free Press’ Clara Hendrickson. Cash dash: The NRCC pulled in a record $36.7 million in the first quarter and has $23.9 million in the bank, Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman, Max Cohen and Andrew Desiderio report. On the flip side, the country’s most prominent progressives raked in huge sums despite not facing competitive reelection races: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) raised $9.6 million, per POLITICO’s Andrew Howard, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took in $11.5 million. Not so energetic: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), whose meager $43,000 haul is raising questions about whether he’ll run for reelection, per POLITICO’s Shia Kapos. With friends like these: DNC Vice Chair David Hogg is leading a separate group, Leaders We Deserve, that aims to spend $20 million to primary congressional Democrats who aren’t young or aggressive enough, NYT’s Shane Goldmacher reports. If that strikes you as an awkward combination of jobs, yes, Hogg says, “This is going to anger a lot of people.” That could open up a rift at the DNC, though Randi Weingarten goes on the record to back Hogg’s effort. (More from Hogg via POLITICO’s Elena Schneider.)
| | | First in Playbook: A new poll from POLITICO and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center shows Californians are much less eager for the state to fight against the White House than their Democratic leaders are, POLITICO’s Jeremy White reports. A plurality of voters, fueled by Republicans and independents, think the state is “too confrontational.” Also tough for Dems: “A plurality of voters is skeptical of legal immigration, and less than half think the state should be able to set its own strict standards on vehicle emissions.” WHAT THE E-RING IS READING: In the wake of a probe into leaks, two top Pentagon officials were escorted out of the building and placed on leave: senior adviser Dan Caldwell, as Reuters’ Phil Stewart scooped, and deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, as POLITICO’s Jack Detsch and Daniel Lippman scooped. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s investigations have focused on news about the Panama Canal, the Red Sea, Musk’s visit and halting intelligence sharing with Ukraine. BILL OF HEALTH: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. to talk about the CDC’s latest autism study, which found the rate of autism slightly rising in 8-year-olds. WaPo’s Fenit Nirappil notes that the report actually contradicts Kennedy’s longtime claims linking autism to vaccines (which has been debunked) or environmental factors, “instead attributing the recent increase to better screening.” On the road in Indianapolis yesterday, Kennedy proffered all kinds of “false statements and dubious claims,” POLITICO’s Adam Wren and Marcia Brown report. FIRST AMENDMENT WATCH: Following a federal judge’s order, the White House allowed an AP reporter back into a White House event, per Axios. But the Trump team has found a work-around to punish the AP for not toeing their etymological line: They’re axing the special spot for wire services (AP, Reuters, Bloomberg) in the pool and folding them into the broader print outlet category, which will now get two slots, the N.Y. Post’s Steven Nelson scooped. Today’s second slot — covering Trump’s Easter prayer service and dinner at 6 p.m. — went to Heritage’s The Daily Signal. The AP called the change “a grave disservice to the American people.”
| | | | Cut through policy complexity and turn intelligence into action with POLITICO’s Policy Intelligence Assistant—a new suite of tools designed to save you time and demonstrate your impact more easily than ever—available only to Pro subscribers. Save hours, uncover critical insights instantly, and stay ahead of the next big shift. Power your strategy today—learn more. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — “House inaction leads D.C. mayor to order spending freezes, prepare furloughs,” by WaPo’s Meagan Flynn: “D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has ordered what she called ‘extraordinary measures,’ including an immediate hiring freeze and a plan to furlough city employees and close government facilities, after House lawmakers failed to take up legislation that would fix a $1.1 billion hole.” PLAYBOOK ARTS SECTION — The Kennedy Center announced that it will now permanently light up red, white and blue every night. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the National Taxpayers Union’s inaugural “No Taxation Without Libation” party yesterday evening at Sazerac House: Nick Wyatt, Kelley Hudak, J.P. Freire, Blake Nolan, Margaret Mire, Mike Robertson, Peter Seifert, Eric Fejer, Scott Drenkard, Justin Adams, Michael Billet, Mayur Patel, Garrett Reilly, Phoebe Keller, Paul Jackson and Christopher Gray. — SPOTTED at a rooftop celebration of Ciel Capitol Hill’s grand opening last night, with a live DJ and cocktails atop the Washington Marriott Capitol Hill: Vinoda Basnayake, Amit Verma, Matt McDonald, Liz Landers, Gerren Keith Gaynor, Brianna Tucker, Tom Rogan, Richard Cerros and Kimberly Hunt. MEDIA MOVES — The Atlantic is adding Jenna Johnson and Dan Zak as senior editors and making Tyler Austin Harper a staff writer. Johnson and Zak both previously were editors at WaPo. TRANSITIONS — Daniel Hernandez’s special-election campaign for Arizona’s 7th Congressional District is adding David Huff as campaign manager, Lindsay Birk as deputy campaign manager, Ashton McGee as finance director and Shea Martinson as deputy finance director. … The House Oversight Committee has added Melvin Soto as digital director and Jenna DiCarlo as deputy press secretary. Soto previously was digital director for Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. DiCarlo previously was press assistant at Heritage Action. … Mike Watson is now a director of federal relations at the American Petroleum Institute. He previously was senior manager at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, and is a Trump DOE alum. … … Ryan Whalen is now an associate partner in DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group’s U.S. practice. He previously was special assistant to the president and senior adviser for states and implementation in the Biden White House. … Andrew Shirley is now speechwriter and digital manager for NASA. He most recently has been a literary and creative consultant, and is an AmeriCorps alum from Trump’s first term. … Matt Jansen will be comms adviser to Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.). He previously was press secretary for Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). ENGAGED — Tyler Remmel, a senior news designer at WaPo, proposed to Jenna Grande, comms director at Patriotic Millionaires and a CREW alum, on March 30 in Stanton Park, where they shared their first kiss. They met in May 2021 on Bumble and had their first date on Capitol Hill, where they wandered into the Congressional Cemetery and ended at Stanton Park. (She journaled that night, “I am going to marry this boy.”) Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Daniel Strauss, a CNN and POLITICO alum, and Claire Tonneson, senior director of integrated campaigns at Sunshine Sachs, welcomed Genevieve Cecile Strauss on March 30. She came in at 6 lbs, 8 oz. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) and Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) … former Secretary of State Antony Blinken … Ann Romney … Doug Heye … Prime Policy Group’s Scott Pastrick … Morgan Jones … NEA’s Ramona Oliver … Matt Duckworth … Sally-Shannon Birkel of the U.S. Chamber … Deborah Zabarenko … Reuters’ Andy Sullivan … Kelly Gibson of Bryson Gillette … Spencer Brown … POLITICO’s Dan Ashwood and Blake Jones … Chris Eddowes of Atlas Crossing … Bradley Beychok … Katie Oppenheim … PhRMA’s Nick McGee ... S&P Global’s Josh Goldstein … Virginia Coyne … CNN’s Mary Grace Lucas … NBC’s Mosheh Gains … Frances Lanzone of Amazon … former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker … Tori O’Neal … former Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and John Delaney (D-Md.) … Spencer Coker … former VA Secretary Anthony Principi … AP’s Ted Anthony … DLCC’s Sam Paisley 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.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Insurers own PBMs, pharmacies – even doctors' offices. As a result, a few big health care companies decide what medicines you can get and what you pay at the pharmacy counter. Middlemen are taking more control of your health care, driving up costs and making it harder to get the care you need. When middlemen own it all, you lose. It's time to protect patients and rein in the middlemen. See how. | | | | | | | | Follow us on X | | | | 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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