| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | | Good Tuesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, wishing a happy Tax Day to all who celebrate. WHAT TRUMP DOES AT 3 A.M.: It seems your Playbook author is not the only nerd in Washington obsessing over political minutiae at three o’clock in the morning. A reader emails in to note that President Donald Trump, once the “audience of one” for pundits and guests on Fox News, appears to have migrated to C-SPAN. And he’ll watch any time of the day or night. Last week, Trump told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer he’d been watching reruns of his testimony to Congress on C-SPAN. “You were on every night, at three o'clock in the morning,” Trump told Greer during a Cabinet meeting. (An employee at C-SPAN said the network did indeed play back Greer’s testimony at 2:13 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9, and 2:17 a.m. on Thursday, April 10.) And during his speech to the NRCC last Tuesday, Trump said he’d been listening to Speaker Mike Johnson “on C-SPAN 1” while putting on his tie. And there’s more: Later in the same speech, Trump said he’d learned of a drop in gas prices on TV “in between my watching my great friends on C-SPAN.” This is what a decade in D.C. politics does to you, I guess. In today’s Playbook … — Trump goes to war with Harvard … and next, the Supreme Court? — Who’s up and who’s down in Trump’s internal tariff war? Our Dasha Burns reveals all. — Joe Biden’s back: The former president makes his first speech since leaving the White House.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump answers a reporters question during a meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on April 7, 2025. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | THE NEW FOREVER WAR: Trump’s war on America’s grandest institutions is ramping up fast as his 100-day landmark looms — and today, he’s got both Harvard University and the Supreme Court in his sights. The White House last night froze a staggering $2.2 billion in multi-year grants to Harvard after its leadership flatly rejected the administration’s attempts to overhaul how the university is run. It comes with the White House facing the wrath of senior judges after rejecting calls to return a man erroneously deported and languishing in a Salvadoran prison, despite multiple court rulings demanding his return to the U.S.. Each battle marks another unprecedented step by a leader determined to shake the fabric of the nation. First, to Harvard … which was last night slapped with a $2.2 billion funding freeze as punishment for rejecting an aggressive government intervention in its operations. Harvard is the latest university to be targeted by Trump’s antisemitism taskforce, and was told last month almost $10 billion in grant funding was being reviewed. An extraordinary government memo last Friday made a series of demands, including that the private university share hiring and administration data with the government, cancel all DEI programs and put key departments under external audit. Thanks, but no: Harvard rejected those demands point-blank yesterday, and it’s worth reading the response in full — partly because it’s punchy as hell, but also because it’s co-written by two legal heavyweights with major credibility with conservatives: William Burck and Robert Hur. Hur, you may recall, was the special counsel who described President Joe Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” (Weirdly, this was deemed controversial at the time.) Burck is less widely known, but is deeply credentialed: A former deputy White House counsel under George W. Bush, Burck is a Fox Corporation board member who represented Steve Bannon in the border wall fraud case and earlier this year was hired by the Trump Organization to be its “outside ethics adviser” to prevent conflicts of interest with the new administration. It’s fascinating to see both now working for Harvard against Trump. Retribution came within hours: Trump’s taskforce published its own response last night, warning that universities could not expect taxpayer funding if they did not combat antisemitism. (Harvard says it has taken huge steps against antisemitism and is a “very different place” to a year ago.) A $2.2 billion multi-year grant freeze was handed down alongside the freezing of $60 million in “multi-year contract value to Harvard University." Zoom out: This is a funding hit almost six times the size as the one which forced Columbia University to fold last month. FAFO, as this White House likes to say.
| | | | 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. | | | | This morning’s must-read … is a well-timed insider account of Trump’s “aggressive, ad hoc” attack on higher education, via the NYT’s Michael Bender, Alan Blinder and Jonathan Swan. It starts with this nugget: “As he finished lunch in the private dining room outside the Oval Office on April 1, President Trump floated an astounding proposal. What if the government simply canceled every dollar of the nearly $9 billion promised to Harvard University? ‘What if we never pay them?’ Mr. Trump casually asked … ‘Wouldn’t that be cool?’” Miller Time: The NYT describes an “opaque,” twin-track process behind the clampdown — one led by the 20-strong antisemitism taskforce — profiled here by the WSJ — and a second involving a group of White House officials, including deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. “These aides have spoken privately of toppling a high-profile university to signal their seriousness,” the NYT reports. Watch out. Because this standoff matters. The Trump 2.0 project has gutted the federal government; humiliated Big 6 law firms; subsumed cultural institutions like the Kennedy Center and slapped down media giants like ABC. POLITICO editor-in-chief John Harris wrote last month about the “Great Grovel,” as law firms and universities fall over themselves to strike deals with the Trump White House. But Harvard is the first major university to make a stand. So is this the Great Fightback? He thinks so: Former President Barack Obama praised Harvard’s stand last night as “an example for other higher-ed institutions,” urging others to “follow suit.” Which can only mean … There’s literally zero chance of Trump backing down. And frankly, it’s hard to believe the administration will stop here. Will more grants be frozen if Harvard refuses to buckle? Are there other aggressive avenues the administration might explore? Expect sharp words from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt when she briefs the media at 1 p.m. Trump’s main scheduled public appearance is at 3:30 p.m. for another sports trophy presentation. … Let’s hope he handles it better than JD Vance. Further reading: Rose Horowitch in The Atlantic notes that Chris Rufo, the conservative activist regularly cited as the intellectual force behind these attacks on higher education, has suggested funding cuts could be just the start. “I could easily imagine 10 times, 20 times, 50 times more dramatic action,” he apparently told the NYT recently. AND AS FOR THE COURTS: Trump administration lawyers will be back in court today as the extraordinary case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia spirals into the most significant stand-off so far between the judiciary and the White House. It’s hard to believe Judge Paula Xinis — who ordered Garcia’s return from El Salvador — is going to be impressed with the Kafka-esque nonsense we’ve heard over the past 24 hours, with the Trump administration insisting only El Salvador President Nayib Bukele can facilitate Garcia’s return, while Bukele insists it’s out of his hands. Where is this headed? Xinis has a court hearing at 4 p.m. today, and will need to decide next steps. She may consider contempt proceedings against the administration, POLITICO’s legal ace Kyle Cheney tells today’s Playbook Daily Briefing podcast. But ultimately, it looks like this one is headed back to the Supreme Court, he reckons. ... And what the justices make of the White House’s, erm, flexible interpretation of their last ruling remains to be seen.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:  
Insurers own PBMs, pharmacies – even doctors' offices. It's time to protect patients and rein in the middlemen. | | | | TRADING PLACES HOW THE TARIFF WAR’S GOING: With the markets now a little calmer and President Xi Jinping touring southeast Asia to firm up China’s trade ties, it’s a good moment to take stock of how the Sino-American Trade War of 2025 is actually going. And the answer is … not great, report POLITICO’s Megan Messerly and colleagues this morning. Trump’s latest tariff carveouts reveal “the conundrum facing the administration,” they write. “The U.S. is imposing new tariffs on Chinese goods in an attempt to move manufacturing back to the U.S., but those tariffs are particularly painful for U.S. manufacturers because they are currently so dependent on Chinese parts.” And guess what? “So far, the U.S. has demonstrated that it is more willing to bend than China is in this burgeoning fight.” No one seems to think Xi will back down. INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE: NYT’s David Sanger takes a step back to survey how Trump arrived at this point — describing “a White House deeply divided on how to handle Beijing. The trade war erupted before the many factions inside the administration even had time to stake out their positions, much less decide which issues mattered most. The result was strategic incoherence.” SO WHO’S ON POLE? In the jockeying among Trump’s top advisers on trade, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remains in pole position this week after reining the president back from the brink of global trade war and taking on the leading role in negotiating with a long list of countries looking to stave off record high tariffs, our Dasha Burns writes in. Street cred: One White House official familiar with the dynamic tells Dasha that Trump likes “how smart [Bessent] is” and that “he’s not desperate.” Trump is also aware that “Wall Street loves him,” whereas Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick does not engender the same level of affection. “Every Wall Streeter has complained about Lutnick,” says the White House official. Idealogue: Meanwhile, if Peter Navarro’s name isn’t thrown around as much in the Bessent-Lutnick conversation, it’s only because he’s a known quantity — a longtime Trump loyalist who’s a true believer in the power of tariffs and the most MAGA voice in the room. Trump will never forget Navarro went to prison for him. That kind of loyalty gets you staying power, even if it doesn’t always get you influence. Why care? The reason we talk about the power struggles of these personalities is not for political gossip, Dasha writes. Trump says he follows his instincts, and that he’s “flexible.” That often means he listens to the last, most convincing person who has had his ear — which, in turn, means that whoever has his ear (and what they believe) can literally impact the global economic order. ALL OF WHICH MEANS … It’s probably worth noting that Bessent did not rule out new taxes on the richest in society in this Bloomberg TV interview last night.
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| | | | | NEWS FROM THE WILDERNESS LOOK WHO’S BACK: Former President Joe Biden will address a conference in Chicago this evening with a speech on defending Social Security, per NBC Chicago. His intervention comes a little over a week after Obama and Kamala Harris popped up for the first time in months to try to boost Democratic efforts to resist the Trump administration. But but but: Democrats aren’t so eager to see Biden stealing the spotlight again, POLITICO’s Elena Schneider reports, laying clear the frustration among the party and the desire for a different voice. “It takes a special level of chutzpah as the man most responsible for reelecting Donald Trump to decide it’s your voice that is missing in this moment,” a person who worked closely with the Biden campaign told Elena. “The country would be better served if he rode off into the sunset.” Biden’s due to speak just before 5 p.m. On the same theme: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is speaking in Brooklyn at 5 p.m. for a “Social Security Day of Action.”
| | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: A new first-of-its-kind poll from POLITICO and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center has mixed news for Harris as she mulls a bid for California governor. The poll finds political influencers in the Golden State are greeting her potential bid with a shrug, but that registered voters react more passionately — in both positive and negative ways, POLITICO’s Melanie Mason writes. Crucially, 33 percent of Democrats said they felt “joyful” about her possible candidacy, while 41 percent said they felt “mostly excited.” YOUTH MOVEMENT: Keep an eye on Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, who will announce in the coming weeks whether he intends to retire at the end of his term — a move that would set up a major generational shift in Senate leadership for the Democrats, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney writes this morning. His most likely successor as whip is 52-year-old Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, SPEAKING OF GENERATIONAL CHANGE: Oakland, California, is set to vote in its mayoral election today — a race that pits former Rep. Barbara Lee against the insurgent Loren Taylor. Though Lee was seen as the clear frontrunner at the outset in this progressive stronghold, Taylor has made up significant ground in the closing weeks, running on a campaign touting his outsider bonafides. Our California Playbook colleagues will have more later this morning.
| | | | 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. | | | | | BEST OF THE REST WAR IN UKRAINE: After Russia escalated its lethal attacks against Ukraine this past weekend, a group of White House officials are urging Trump to “be more skeptical of Moscow’s desire for peace with Ukraine, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to show genuine interest in halting the fighting,” WSJ’s Alex Ward and Alan Cullison report. Taking sides: The group includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, who have “recommended more caution when dealing with Putin and for a harder line against Moscow’s demands for territorial concessions from Kyiv.” But Trump is still siding with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who thinks Putin wants to make peace after meeting with him twice in Moscow, the officials said. THE CUTS KEEP COMING: Congressional Republicans will return from recess to a request from the White House to cancel $9.3 billion already approved for foreign aid initiatives, public broadcasting including PBS and NPR and other programs, POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes and Megan Messerly report. The admin is also considering asking Congress to cut the budgets of the State Department and USAID by nearly half, POLITICO’s Nahal Toosi reports. WE’LL DO IT LIVE: WSJ’s Michelle Hackman has a remarkable anecdote leading her report on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s made-for-TV approach to her job. “Just days after Kristi Noem took office as President Trump’s head of Homeland Security, she accompanied U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on a predawn raid of several neighborhoods in New York City. ‘Live this AM from NYC. I’m on it,’ she posted on Jan. 28 at 4:43 a.m. on X, with a photo of herself sporting an ICE baseball cap and getting into a car. The problem: The raid was still ongoing when Noem posted about it, undercutting the element of surprise.” ICE not cool with it: The report says Noem’s public persona is “rankling ICE officials, who grumble that her desire for publicity interfered with the operations of the agency she is in charge of running.” BUILDING BRIDGES: Vice President JD Vance has told Britain’s conservative-leaning website UnHerd that he actually “loves Europe,” despite saying mean things about the continent at the Munich Security Conference (as well as in that Signal chat group). But “it’s not good for Europe to be the permanent security vassal of the United States,” he adds. “Most European nations don’t have militaries that can provide for their reasonable defence.” NEW NOMINATION INCOMING: Adm. Daryl Caudle is the leading candidate to take the top officer post for the Navy, POLITICO’s Jack Detsch, Joe Gould and Daniel Lippman report. Caudle is a longtime admiral who currently heads the command that trains and equips the Navy’s sailors. His likely selection comes two months after Trump fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve in the role. A META PERFORMANCE: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand yesterday in the FTC’s landmark antitrust trial aimed at breaking up the social media giant, POLITICO’s Brendan Bordelon recaps.
| | TALK OF THE TOWN | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — THE FINAL STRAW: While Trump has told America “we’re going back to plastic straws” — and issued an executive order to require the federal government to do just that — his own Mar-a-Lago club doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo: It uses natural agave straws, a plastic alternative, our Daniel Lippman writes in. On Feb. 10, Trump banned the federal government from buying paper straws and required the government to write a “National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws” within 45 days. “It’s a ridiculous situation,” Trump said. But at numerous events over the last two months, Mar-a-Lago has used agave fiber straws from Greenprint, according to two recent attendees and a photo obtained by Playbook. The straws are made from agave waste from tequila, and use “verified recycled plastics and FSC certified plant fibers.” A Trump Organization spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Palm Beach has banned plastic straws since 2019. D.C. FUNDING UPDATE — Washington officials said yesterday the city could “cover more than half of the $1.1 billion budget gap created by Congress last month, by taking advantage of a 2009 law that allows the city to increase spending in certain cases,” but that absent federal legislation, they “still need to reduce spending by $410 million before the end of the fiscal year in late September — and the cuts will have to start fairly soon,” WaPo’s Jenny Gathright reports. No word yet from the House GOP on whether emergency laws will be rushed through. RIPPLE EFFECT — “D.C. restaurants pushed to the brink,” by WaPo’s Warren Rojas, Tim Carman and Emily Heil: “Some factors — inflation, rising rents, crime, pandemic-related debt — are not limited to Washington. But some are: the thousands of government workers who find themselves in unemployment lines, their discretionary income for dining suddenly zeroed out.” MORE MEASLES IN THE DISTRICT — DC Health noticed yesterday that there was another confirmed case of measles in a person who visited the Five Guys at 1400 I St. NW on April 5 between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. IN MEMORIAM — “Richard Armitage, Powell deputy and foreign policy heavyweight, dies at 79,” by WaPo’s Warren Strobel: “Richard Armitage, who as deputy to Secretary of State Colin Powell helped guide U.S. foreign policy during President George W. Bush’s tumultuous first term and was a central figure in chapters of American national security from the Vietnam War era to the post-Sept. 11, 2001, war on terror, died April 13 at a hospital in Arlington, Virginia. He was 79. The cause was a pulmonary embolism, said his wife, Laura.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Matthew Ballard is launching his own strategic comms consulting firm, Ballard Strategy Group, focused on corporate reputation, public affairs and geopolitical risk. He previously was EVP/managing director at Burson, and is a Hill and Bush White House alum. The team also includes Taylor Thistlethwaite as director of operations and client services, Heather Martin, Anthony Estrada and John Sheradin. — Jonathan Clifford has joined the General Catalyst Institute as VP of defense tech and industrial manufacturing policy. He previously was a professional staff member for the House Intelligence Committee. TRANSITIONS — Chris Gustafson is now comms director for Senate Leadership Fund. He previously was comms director for Mike Rogers’ Michigan Senate campaign. … Sam Schiller is now a legislative assistant to Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas). He previously was a legislative assistant for former Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.). … Monica Robinson is now senior comms strategist at the DSCC. She previously was comms director for Sen. Jon Tester's (D-Mont.) campaign and is a DCCC alum. … … Brad Crabtree will be senior director and global head of technology policy for ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. He most recently was assistant secretary for fossil energy and carbon management at DOE. … The National Council of Nonprofits is adding Sarah Saadian as SVP of public policy and campaigns and Kara Young Ponder as VP of knowledge, impact and strategy. Saadian previously was SVP of public policy and field organizing for the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Ponder previously was director of community engagement and racial justice for the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California San Francisco. ENGAGED — Tom Brandt, who works in the Office of Legislative Affairs at NASA, and Lacey Elmore, who works at Apple, got engaged this weekend. Pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Samantha Vinograd, partner and U.S. geopolitical lead at Brunswick Group, a CBS News national security contributor and a Biden DHS alum, welcomed Asher Marley Vinograd on Saturday. She joins big sister Aurora. — Sheel Tyle, founder and CEO of VC firm Collective Global, and Sejal Tyle Hathi, head of the Oregon Health Authority and physician/professor at Stanford and a Biden White House alum, on April 6 welcomed Sia Hathi Tyle. Pic … Another pic — Mollie Gelburd, senior director of delivery system and payment transformation at AHIP, and Mason Barret, senior manager of federal civilian business value at Salesforce, recently welcomed Graham Barret. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: The Hill’s Amie Parnes … former Reps. Colin Allred (D-Texas) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.) … Leslie Shedd of Rising Communications … POLITICO’s Liz McCormick, Devyn Rorie, Alex Samsel and Suzanne Lynch … Rishi Banerjee … Lisbeth Lyons Black of Women in Print Alliance … Dana Gansman … Nina Rees of the George W. Bush Presidential Center … Bloomberg’s John Harney … Alex Miller Murphy … Visa’s Cheyenne Hopkins … Jaimey Sexton … SEC Newgate’s Cara Rich … Troy Endicott … Ascent’s Cody Hall … Kate Bernard … Pat Devney … Sarah Bloom Raskin … Pete Rouse … Ray Locker … Mary O’Driscoll … Robyn Swirling … Tom Rosenstiel 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: Yesterday’s Playbook incorrectly identified Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s nationality. He is Salvadoran
| | | | 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 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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