| | | |  | | By Zack Stanton | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine Good Sunday morning. This is Zack Stanton. Get in touch.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Pope Leo XIV singled out the need for peace in three war-torn regions of the world: Gaza, Myanmar and Ukraine. | Domenico Stinellis/AP Photo | THIS MORNING’S CALL: In front of a jubilant crowd of at least 150,000 worshippers, Pope Leo XIV held his inauguration mass this morning at St. Peter’s Square, marking the official start of his papacy with a mix of ancient tradition and an urgent plea for the here and now. His priorities: “In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference and an economic paradigm that exploits the earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest,” the pope said in his homily. Later, he called for a “unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people.” The long and short of it: The NYT has a superb six-bylined profile of the new pontiff, charting his rise from Father Bob Prevost to Pope Leo XIV. Of his time in Peru: “He washed the feet of the faithful in a shack with a dirt floor, wore jeans and spoke plainly. His homilies were unusually direct. ‘He’d say that a homily should be short and to the point, like a miniskirt,’ said Elsa Ocampo, 81, a volunteer at the Our Lady of Montserrat church in Trujillo.” Calling for peace: At the end of today’s mass, the pope singled out the need for peace in three war-torn regions of the world: Gaza (“the surviving children, families, older people are reduced to hunger”), Myanmar (where violence has “cut short innocent young lives”) and Ukraine (which “awaits negotiations for a fair and lasting peace”). On that latter note: “Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shook hands at the ceremony, in quite a contrast to their public clash in February at the White House,” POLITICO’s Hannah Roberts reports. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also in attendance for the mass, and met yesterday with top Vatican officials to discuss ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, per NBC’s Freddie Clayton. TOMORROW MORNING’S CALL: President Donald Trump announced yesterday that he plans to call Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow at 10 a.m. to discuss an end to the war. What to expect: “Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday that Russia will prepare and deliver a list of ceasefire conditions to Ukraine, according to Tass, the Russian government-owned news agency,” per WaPo’s Maegan Vazquez and colleagues. “Peskov also called a future, in-person meeting between Putin and Trump ‘certainly necessary.’” How sincere is Russia’s interest in a ceasefire? During Friday’s talks in Istanbul, lead Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky suggested they were willing to continue fighting “however long it takes” to win, as the Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer reports. “We fought Sweden for 21 years. How long are you ready to fight?” Medinsky said, per The Economist’s Oliver Carroll, referencing Peter the Great’s 18th-century war. “Maybe some of those sitting here at this table will lose more of their loved ones. Russia is prepared to fight forever,” Medinsky later said, according to the Moscow Times. Putin is smart enough to know not to outwardly take that posture with Trump during tomorrow’s call. The question is how Trump will perceive that in light of what Russia is saying when he is not at the table. Will he see it as belligerent double-speak and a sign that Putin is perhaps lying to him about his interest in a ceasefire? Or will Putin spin him on that gulf — what Russia says when the American president is there compared to when he is not — as a suggestion that Trump alone can fix it, allowing the Russian autocrat to drag this out as long as possible?
| | | | A message from The Vapor Technology Association: The U.S. vaping industry and the thousands of small businesses it supports were crushed by the Biden Administration, which used broken policies and regulations to keep flavored vapes out of the country and hands of American consumers.
But President Trump and his administration can save flavored vapes – and the Americans who depend on them to quit smoking.
President Trump, American vapers and small businesses nationwide are counting on you.
Learn more at VaporTechnology.org. | | | | TONIGHT: At 10 p.m., the House Budget Committee is due to reconsider the massive taxation-and-spending package it rejected Friday. On this morning’s “Fox News Sunday,” Speaker Mike Johnson said that negotiations on the reconciliation bill are “going well.” “This really is [a] once-in-a-generation opportunity we have here,” Johnson said. “The plan is to move it to the Rules Committee by mid-week and to the House floor by the end of the week so we meet our initial, our original Memorial Day deadline.” Watch this space: AP’s Nicholas Riccardi flags a provision of the legislative package that is potentially hugely consequential but hasn’t received much coverage: “Tucked deep in the thousand-plus pages of the multitrillion-dollar budget bill making its way through the Republican-controlled U.S. House is a paragraph curtailing a court’s greatest tool for forcing the government to obey its rulings: the power to enforce contempt findings.” SUNDAY BEST … — Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Democratic opposition to the GOP mega-bill, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “What we’re standing in the way of is the most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country.” — Mike Pence on Trump’s Middle East trip, on “Meet the Press”: “It was a very successful trip for the American economy. … And I don’t gainsay that. But, Kristen, I’ve never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil. And to have the president in Saudi Arabia questioning America’s global war on terror, and describing it as nation-building and interventionist, I thought was a disservice to generations of Americans who wore the uniform and who took the fight to our enemy, you know, in Afghanistan and in Iraq.” — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the U.S. credit rating downgrade, on “Meet the Press”: “Moody’s is a lagging indicator. I think that’s what everyone thinks of credit agencies. … It’s the Biden administration and this spending that we have seen over the past four years … And we are determined to bring the spending down and grow the economy.” — Special envoy Steve Witkoff on the Trump-Putin call, on ABC’s “This Week”: “[Trump’s] sensibilities are that he’s got to get on the phone with President Putin, and that is going to clear up some of the logjam and get us to the place that we need to get to. … Monday will go a long way towards identifying where we are and how we complete this negotiation.”
| | | | A message from The Vapor Technology Association: President Trump understands what consumers want – including flavored vapes.
That's why VTA and 65% of Americans support President Trump in keeping his promise to save flavored vapes, not ban them.
President Trump: American vapers are counting on you to stand up for our freedom to vape.
Learn more at VaporTechnology.org. | | | | TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
- “I Worked for Joe Biden. I Love Joe Biden. He Must Rethink His Post-Presidency,” by Steve Schale for The Bulwark
- “Broken Windows at the White House,” by Peggy Noonan for the WSJ
- “I Thought I’d Love Being a Congressman. I Prefer Owning a Bookshop,” by Steve Israel for the WSJ
- “MSNBC in five words: ‘I could not agree more,’” by Erik Wemple for WaPo
- “The Question the Trump Administration Couldn’t Answer About Birthright Citizenship,” by Amanda Frost for The Atlantic
- “I Came to Study Aging. Now I’m Trapped in ICE Detention,” by Kseniia Petrova for the NYT
- “Senate Democrats and Republicans trade places on the filibuster — again,” by Karen Tumulty for WaPo
- “The Hidden Cruelty of Capping Drug Prices,” by Tyler Cowen for The Free Press
- “Manufacturing is thriving in the South. Here’s why neither party can admit it,” by Gary Winslett for WaPo
- “Trump promised to end HIV by 2030 — we can’t turn back now,” by George Arison for The Hill
- “Trump’s Embrace of White South Africans Takes Dark, Unnerving New Turn,” by The New Republic’s Greg Sargent
- “A Free People Need a Free Press,” by A.G. Sulzberger for the NYT
- “House Republicans are about to wreck Trump’s nuclear-powered dream,” by Thomas Hochman and Pavan Venkatakrishnan for WaPo
| | | | Did you know Playbook goes beyond the newsletter—with powerhouse new co-hosts at the mic? Tune in to The Playbook Podcast every weekday for exclusive intel and sharp analysis on Trump’s Washington, straight from Jack Blanchard and Dasha Burns. Start listening now. | | | | | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: The Justice Department is weighing a change that some experts say could allow more politicized prosecutions of members of Congress, WaPo’s Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck scooped. The proposal would allow U.S. attorney’s offices to pursue more investigations into public officials without first getting sign-off from DOJ’s Public Integrity Section. That “would remove a layer of review intended to ensure that cases against public officials are legally sound and not politically motivated,” though the decision isn’t final yet. 2. WAITING FOR THE DOUGH: “Trump touts flood of foreign investments, but local economic officials aren’t yet seeing it,” by POLITICO’s Daniel Desrochers: “To the contrary, economic development officials and lawmakers from several states say that the uncertainty fueled by Trump’s on-again, off-again trade wars is keeping many foreign businesses from pouring money into the U.S. market right now. … Despite Trump’s fast-changing policies, local economic development officials say businesses continue to express interest in making investments.” 3. IN THE DOGE HOUSE: In Eswatini, the sudden decimation of American foreign aid has posed some existential questions for anti-HIV efforts, WaPo’s Chico Harlan and Ilan Godfrey report from Sidvokodvo. PEPFAR is widely credited with transforming the country’s health system and helping to raise its life expectancy by a decade. Trump’s historic pullback, which instigated huge and sudden cuts to lifesaving work despite the State Department’s claims, is widely condemned in the country. But it also has health workers grappling with the long-term sustainability of relying so heavily on another country, and imagining more self-sufficiency. On the home front: Trump’s gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Services has posed financial problems for libraries around the country, AP’s Nadia Lathan reports. State libraries have fired staff, terminated e-book and audiobook programs, and more. … Meanwhile, WaPo’s Scott Dance has the story of a Kentucky National Weather Service office that had to monitor a deadly tornado: Despite recent cuts triggered by the Department of Government Efficiency, the office did manage to staff up sufficiently for the storm. 4. THE DISMANTLING OF GOVERNMENT: “Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn’t like,” by WaPo’s Maxine Joselow and colleagues: “At the Transportation Department, enforcement of pipeline safety rules has plunged to unprecedented lows … Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for showerheads and other household appliances. And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt most work related to antidiscrimination laws. … Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process.”
| | | | A message from The Vapor Technology Association:  
| | | | 5. THE MOST TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORY: Despite officials’ messaging, historians say the Trump administration may actually be documenting less than any other White House — and sanitizing its records to fit a political narrative, AP’s Will Weissert reports. The U.S. is now “scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it finds disagreeable.” From Cabinet leaders talking on Signal to DOGE cuts taking down databases, archivists fear that future Americans will have a less clear view of the facts of the day. The White House has pointed to Trump’s frequent accessibility to reporters as an example of his transparency. 6. WHAT UNDERGIRDS OUR POLITICS: “One Thing Helping Trump’s Approval Rating: Some People Are Not Paying Attention,” by NYT’s Ruth Igielnik: “Trump’s strategy to ‘flood the zone’ may be working to keep his approval rating from sinking even lower. Voters who have not heard much about some of the many major news events from the first 100 days of Mr. Trump’s second term have a higher opinion of the job he is doing … [V]oters who said they had not heard much about recent news events had one thing in common: They were much more likely to get their news from social media.” 7. KAMALA HARRIS’ BIG DECISION: People in the former VP’s orbit increasingly expect that she’ll launch a campaign for governor of California in late summer, CNN’s Isaac Dovere reports. Harris hasn’t decided yet, but she’s been thinking through the specifics of governing in Sacramento — and envisioning the role as a suitably consequential one for her next steps. But some Harris allies are also aware that she’d have “presidential campaign FOMO” if she focused on California. 8. WITH AUTOMAKERS LIKE THESE: “GM Is Pushing Hard to Tank California’s EV Mandate,” by WSJ’s Sharon Terlep and colleagues: “GM, one of the biggest sellers of EVs in the U.S., is encouraging employees to use scripted talking points to lobby Senators. The goal is to nullify a 2022 California measure that would ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks by 2035 … GM set its own internal goal of ending sales of nearly all gas-only vehicles by 2035 and initially supported the California target, while advocating for a uniform national standard. But the EV market has taken a turn.” 9. TRADING PLACES: Key U.S. allies like the EU, Japan and South Korea haven’t been able to make quick breakthroughs in trade talks with Washington, leaving them subject to heavy tariffs, WSJ’s Jason Douglas and Timothy Martin report. Auto tariffs have proven especially difficult for negotiators to make progress on. And in Tokyo, there’s some concern about whether Trump will really abide by the rules of a new deal.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | JD Vance, one of the last public figures to meet Pope Francis in person, and Usha Vance paid their respects by visiting his tomb in Rome. Bruce Springsteen wasn’t cowed by Donald Trump’s Truth Social insults: He warned again that the U.S. “is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” IN MEMORIAM — “Ronald Goldfarb, legal reformer who battled mafia for RFK, dies at 91,” by WaPo’s Brian Murphy: “Mr. Goldfarb’s more than six-decade career had multiple layers, including as a documentary producer and literary agent whose clients included Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). … Many of his nearly a dozen books stemmed from work done by his Washington law firm, which specialized in public interest cases.” PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — The ACLU launched a 9,000-square-foot installation of transgender pride quilt panels on the National Mall, ahead of WorldPride, WaPo’s Emma Uber reports. At the opening event yesterday for the “Freedom to Be Monument,” Peppermint decried Trump for seeking “to push transgender people out of public life by denying the freedoms to be ourselves.” OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a party last night for Mark Whitaker’s new book, “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” ($30.99), at Amy Nathan’s home: hosts Mandy Grunwald, Chris Matthews, Eugene Robinson, Kathy O’Hearn and Mignon Clyburn; Andrea Mitchell, Don Graham, Gordon Peterson, Kathleen Matthews, Jeff Ballou, Ann Klenk, Janet Donovan, Mike Sarchet, Lynn Sweet, Michael Isikoff, Ginny Grenham, Catherine Valentine and Zack Cohen, Margaret Carlson, Amanda Bennett, Katharine Weymouth and Lois Romano. TRANSITION — Sarah Wiszniak will be mid-Atlantic, abroad and PAC finance director at the DNC. She previously was chief of staff at Helen Milby & Company. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Matthew Yglesias … former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) … Josh Lederman … Ernesto Apreza … Seven Letter’s Erik Smith … Tim Chapman … Libby Nelson … POLITICO’s Felicia Figueiredo, Melanie Mason, Chelsea Harvey and Simona Lightfoot … Cristiano Lima-Strong … Anduril Industries’ Sofia Rose Gross … Gabrielle Shea of Visa … Laura Morgan-Kessler of Carpi & Clay … AP’s Meg Kinnard … Farah Melendez … Pete Boogaard … Eric Trager … Jonathan Glickman … Ezra Cohen … Robin Winchell … Clyde Haberman … former Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) … Javier LLano … Bryan Bender … Ryan Hofmann … Lance West … Querry Robinson … Alex Witt … Democrat Matt Gorman … Joseph Davis … Maddie Sugg 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 Zack Stanton and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
| | | | A message from The Vapor Technology Association: Nearly 500,000 Americans die annually from smoking cigarettes. 67% of Americans say the government should promote nicotine alternatives to help Americans quit smoking – and they're counting on President Trump to save flavored vaping.
In 2019, President Trump took action to protect flavored vapes and small businesses that make up this multibillion-dollar industry. He implemented commonsense age restrictions that allowed adult smokers to vape while pushing youth tobacco rates to an all-time low.
After four years of crushing Biden regulations and enforcement, flavored vaping must be saved again. 71% of Trump voters want Biden's illegal policy and regulations banning flavored vapes replaced. And 62% of Trump voters say small businesses should not be penalized just because their products are made in China, as Biden was doing.
President Trump, your voters are counting on you to keep your promise – save flavored vaping and save American lives.
Learn more at VaporTechnology.org. | | | | | | | | 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 | Canada Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
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