| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | Good Wednesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, even more bleary-eyed than usual after being treated to an epic 1 a.m. Rules Committee hearing, which is still ongoing. (Thanks, guys.) At least I didn’t actually nod off like this dude. In today’s Playbook … — Congress grabs the limelight, with GOP tax-and-spend plans set for showdown vote. — All the latest goss from Biden world after the former president moves to shut down cancer timeline allegations. — Trump hosts South African president for a fiery Oval Office summit amid monthslong feud.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Speaker Mike Johnson appears likely to hold a vote later today on Republicans' megabill to enact President Donald Trump's agenda. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL: The central legislation of the Trump 2.0 project looks headed for a showdown vote on the floor of the House in the coming hours after a night of dramatic backroom dealing between Republican factions. President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” — a massive tax-and-spend package which enacts core pledges from his election campaign — appears close to winning enough support from the fractious House GOP conference, and could be put to a vote by Speaker Mike Johnson as soon as today. Watch this space. (Our ace Hill team will have all the latest on Inside Congress Live.) At time of going to pixel, Republicans were yet to publish their final version of the bill as negotiations continued through the night between party power brokers and key holdouts. GOP moderates from higher-tax states were the first to cut a tentative deal with Johnson, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and Benjamin Guggenheim scooped just after 9 p.m., agreeing to hike the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions to $40,000 per household. But but but: That would still require the green light from GOP hard-liners worried about the impact of all these tax cuts on America’s debt mountain. There were positive(ish) noises emerging from that side of the party, too: The Hill’s Emily Brooks reported the hawkish House Freedom Caucus was close to an agreement on its own holdout issues — the speed of work requirements for Medicaid and ending Biden-era green energy subsidies — but it seems there’s no final deal yet. The lack of clarity was more than a little frustrating to Democrats on the Rules Committee, who were dragged into a 1 a.m. debate on a bill which has still not been finalized. “You are intentionally hiding what you are doing,” complained Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who tried and failed to have the meeting adjourned until a more sensible hour of the day. “Why not debate this in primetime, so people can watch?” (Lol: Nobody wants to watch the Rules Committee, pal.) As of 6 a.m. this morning, there are still plenty of moving parts … but the momentum appears to be with Johnson, who has pledged to get the bill through the House before Memorial Day if he can. That means winning a vote on the floor of the House — and keeping almost every GOP representative paddling in the same direction — before tomorrow night. This really matters. Of course, these to-and-fro machinations in Congress can feel repetitive and opaque. But this bill is in many ways the centerpiece of Trump’s second term. So much of what the president has done this year has been delivered via executive order or social media post. This bill is a laundry list of real-life policy shifts that will affect household budgets throughout the country. It may yet prove one of the most-decisive factors in next year’s midterm elections.
| | | | A message from the Alzheimer's Association: Congress Can Connect Americans to Alzheimer's Solutions: This is the most hopeful time in the history of Alzheimer's. Breakthrough research — made possible by bipartisan support in Congress — has led to the first FDA-approved treatments, earlier detection, improved diagnosis, and better support for caregivers. With over 7 million Americans living with this fatal disease, and their nearly 12 million caregivers, Congress must accelerate, not stop, progress. Congress, it's up to you. | | | | A quick reminder of what’s in it, while we await the white smoke: The tax cuts:
- The bill spends $3.8 trillion locking in the Trump tax cuts of 2017 — including lower income tax rates, a larger standard deduction and a higher estate tax threshold.
- It also makes good on two key Trump campaign pledges: Ending federal taxes on tips, and allowing people to deduct interest on car loans. (FWIW: the Senate unanimously passed its own taxes on tips legislation yesterday.)
- It increases the popular child tax credit by $500 — though an estimated 4.5 million children would lose eligibility because of a new requirement that both parents have a Social Security number, per USA Today’s Medora Lee.
- There are also business tax cuts (including on R&D spending), and a tax hike on university endowments, which spike from 1.4 percent to 21 percent, per the NYT.
- The SALT deduction remains in play, but looks likely to increase from $10,000 to up to $40,000 or more.
The spending cuts:
- Most controversially, the bill would cut an estimated $625 billion from Medicaid, largely through new work requirements. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would “lead to 8.6 million more people losing their health insurance,” per POLITICO’s Ben Leonard and Robert King.
- Big portions of Biden’s clean energy programs would be phased out.
- Food stamps and education programs would also be cut back.
The key spending measures:
- $175 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement.
- $150 billion in defense spending, including $25 billion for the “Golden Dome” missile defense system announced by Trump yesterday, per Reuters.
- $46 billion to “revive construction of Trump's wall along the U.S.-Mexico border,” per ABC News.
Oh, and let’s not forget … the bill raises the U.S. debt ceiling by a cool $4 trillion. So yeah, no big deal.
| | | | A message from the Alzheimer's Association: False claims are spreading — including the dangerous myth that the NIH has focused Alzheimer's research only on one target called beta Amyloid. Publicly verifiable facts prove this is untrue. Let's move past the confusion, and continue strong bipartisan support for life-saving research. | | | | NEWS FROM THE WILDERNESS FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — WHERE JOE BIDEN’S AT: “Before his cancer diagnosis, Biden had been taking the train from Delaware to Washington, meeting with his post-presidential staff, allies and former Cabinet secretaries,” Playbook’s Adam Wren and POLITICO colleagues reveal this morning. “In New York City for his appearance on ‘The View,’ he met with former President Bill Clinton. And last week he met with Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a rising star in the party.” Not any more: “But Biden, an inveterate creature of Washington who for most of his career seemed to gain life from glad-handing and working a room, hasn't yet talked to some longtime allies on Capitol Hill in the wake of his diagnosis,” they report. Old friends like Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and former Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pa.) have yet to hear from the former president. Some pals have drafted notes to him; others have been in touch with close family. All hope to speak with him soon. Shutting it down: Importantly, Biden’s team yesterday moved to address the questions that have swirled about the timeline of his cancer diagnosis since it was announced on Sunday afternoon, stating that Biden’s last PSA test — a simple blood test which might have revealed the cancer — was way back in 2014. His spokesman said bluntly that “prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer.” That statement would seem to put to bed the allegation raised by Biden’s critics that the former president and those around him concealed his condition while in office. The question everyone’s asking now: How did it get missed? Plenty of doctors — and even some of Biden’s allies — have queried how such an advanced form of cancer could develop undetected in one of the most carefully scrutinized people on the planet. Others point out the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force does not recommend screenings for men aged 70 or older — which presumably explains the former president’s lack of tests for the past 11 years. (Biden is now 82.) Then again, plenty of older men — including Trump — have regular tests anyway. It’s a complicated picture. All of which means … the debate will continue, to a degree — not least because Biden’s biggest critics on the MAGA right simply don’t believe yesterday’s statement. Also being debated: The track record of “Original Sin” co-author and CNN anchor Jake Tapper, which is also coming under severe scrutiny from the right. His (bravely accepted) interview with Fox News-host-turned-podcast star Megyn Kelly went ultra-viral yesterday as she took him to task for his coverage of Biden while in office for being many degrees less critical of the then-president than the bombshell reporting in his new book. Tapper largely held his hands up, even revealing he’d apologized to Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara for one particular toe-curling exchange about Biden’s mental acuity back in 2020. Also criticising Tapper: Hunter Biden, who went on the record last night to media reporter Lachlan Cartwright to confirm he’d had a “furious” falling-out with Tapper back in 2015, and had called him out years later when the pair met at a Super Bowl pregame party. Hunter accuses Tapper of repeatedly phoning him while his brother Beau was on his deathbed in search of a CNN scoop. Tapper (and his CNN spokesman) strenuously deny the allegation, and say the falling out was over other reporting by Tapper. Now read this: Nothing about the debate around Biden’s age, or the political saga over his growing frailty, should floor Democrats — despite the buzz generated by Tapper and Alex Thompson’s new book, The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich notes. “Just as scores of Republicans in Washington have been privately horrified over the years by Trump’s conduct while they’ve smothered him in rhetorical smooches on the record, Democrats confidentially expressed near-unanimous awareness of Biden’s feeble state, but claimed the exact opposite in front of cameras and microphones.”
| | | | Playbook isn’t just a newsletter — it’s a podcast, too. With new co-hosts who bring unmatched Trump world reporting and analysis, The Playbook Podcast dives deeper into the power plays shaping Washington. Get the insider edge—start listening now. | | | | | TODAY AT THE WHITE HOUSE ANOTHER MOMENT TO WATCH: At 11:30 a.m., South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will arrive at the White House for lunch with Trump followed by a closed-door bilateral meeting at 12:45 p.m. Though the tête-à-tête is ostensibly about trade and tariffs, Trump plans to press Ramaphosa on his country’s treatment of its white Afrikaner minority, WaPo’s Martine Powers and Cat Zakrzewski report. And it’s well worth keeping an eye on: This is an Oval Office meeting with the potential to go Full Zelenskyy. What’s eating Trump: “Trump has for years focused on the plight of Afrikaners descended from the colonists who built and led the nation’s brutal apartheid regime,” per WaPo. “Trump’s focus on South Africa’s relationship to its White minority appears to center on a new law that allows the government to expropriate land without compensation in rare cases — a measure leaders have cast as a ‘moral, social and economic imperative’ intended to help dismantle the legacy of racial apartheid.” That’s the context for … a cascade of aggressive actions taken by the Trump administration that have targeted South Africa, including expelling its ambassador, cutting off U.S. aid and threatening to boycott the G20 conference the nation is hosting this year. First in Playbook — But there’s more: It’s not just the Afrikaner issue that’s stirring the ire of the GOP. “South Africa’s political problems with Republicans cut across factions,” POLITICO’s Eli Stokols writes this morning. “The country has deeply angered hawkish Israel supporters in the U.S. for leading a case against Israel at the U.N.’s International Court of Justice, alleging Israel committed genocide in Gaza. And it has angered other Republican defense hawks for courting China and cozying up to Moscow … amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.” The challenge for Ramaphosa: rebutting Trump’s “debunked claims that white farmers in South Africa are being killed in a genocide” and “standing firm on his country’s principles without angering Mr. Trump,” as NYT’s John Eligon writes. “Mr. Ramaphosa is expected to try to convince Mr. Trump that the United States has a lot to gain from maintaining close ties with South Africa, the largest economy in Africa.” The elephant in the room: Trump adviser Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and is a vociferous opponent of its government, looms large in the discussion. The tech billionaire has echoed Trump’s claims of a genocide against Afrikaners. As a part of his visit, Ramaphosa says he hopes to mend ties with Musk and “plans to discuss business opportunities” for his various companies, Reuters’ Nellie Peyton reports.
| | | | A message from the Alzheimer's Association:  
The Alzheimer's Association is working with bipartisan lawmakers to make meaningful policy changes. More work remains. | | | | BEST OF THE REST IMMIGRATION FILES: A federal court ordered the Trump administration to prepare to return two migrants believed to be deported to South Sudan, noting the administration violated a prior court order against such flights, WSJ’s Mariah Timms and Michelle Hackman report. Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy held an emergency hearing yesterday “on the whereabouts of a Burmese national, and possibly others, who lawyers say received notice they were being sent to South Sudan. … Murphy told the government to maintain custody of the deportees covered by his previous order and ensure they are ‘treated humanely.’” Two of the migrants believed to be deported “are originally from Myanmar and Vietnam and were being held in U.S. immigration custody. Their lawyers say they learned of the deportation plan after receiving an abrupt notice Monday evening. By Tuesday morning, the men were already on a plane along with as many as 10 other deportees,” POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reports. Elsewhere in the courts: U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher is pushing the Trump administration for a status report by May 27 on the “steps they have taken to facilitate” the return of a wrongfully deported Venezuelan man from El Salvador, WaPo’s Katie Mettler reports. The demand comes after an appeals court upheld Gallagher’s order to move forward, “part of the mounting pressure from the court system to get the executive branch to follow due process in its immigration enforcement efforts.” ISRAEL’S FRAYING FRIENDSHIPS: U.S. intelligence suggests Israel is preparing for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities — a move which would be a “brazen break” with Trump and risks “tipping off a broader regional conflict in the Middle East,” CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand report. U.S. officials stress that Israel has yet to make a final decision, and that its choice will “likely depend on what it thinks of the US negotiations” with Iran. Meanwhile: As Israel ramps up operations in Gaza and interferes with the delivery of humanitarian aid, the U.K. formally suspended trade negotiations with the nation, and the E.U. pledged to review its trade accord with Israel, WaPo reports. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: The Trump administration has launched an investigation into Andrew Cuomo after Republicans speculated he lied in his testimony about his handling of the pandemic during his time as governor of New York, NYT’s Devlin Barrett reports. The investigation, which the U.S. attorney’s office launched around a month ago, comes after the DOJ dismissed corruption charges against Cuomo’s mayoral opponent Eric Adams earlier this year.
| | | | 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 | | Louis Prevost, the MAGA-supporting brother of Pope Leo XIV, swung by the Oval Office to meet with Donald Trump and JD Vance. Susan Collins has met with Jordon Hudson, the controversial (and much younger) girlfriend of Bill Belichick, as she lobbies for the fishing industry. MEDIA MOVE — Amanda Hayes Roark is now a booking producer for Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power.” She previously was a booking producer for MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Casey Contres will be chief of staff to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). He is a close confidant of Mehmet Oz, a former political director at the American Opportunity Alliance and a Cory Gardner alum. Outgoing Schmitt chief of staff Jimmy Peacock is joining Cornerstone Government Affairs, per Punchbowl. TRANSITION — Former Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) is now executive director of the newly created Social Gaming Leadership Alliance. … Black Men Vote has added Michael Bland as ED and Antonio Scott as chief of staff. Bland previously was southern battleground director for Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. Scott previously was national mayors director for the campaign. … … Andrew Coté is now SVP at Forterra. He previously was VP of strategy and growth at BRINC Drones and is a Defense Department and Trump 45 alum. … Hayley Gray-Hoehn is now comms director for Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.). She most recently was comms director for Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). … Blain Rethmeier is now head of corporate comms at Aramco Americas. He most recently was a senior adviser at 76 Group and is a George W. Bush alum. WEDDING — Tomas Gallegos, legislative assistant for Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Samantha Edwards, policy adviser for ClearPath and a Kyrsten Sinema alum, got married at the Blue Mountain Lodge located in Shenandoah National Park on May 10. The couple met at a holiday party in D.C. and had their first date at Cups. Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Philip Shulman, comms director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and an American Bridge and Biden’s 2020 campaign alum, and Caitlin Shulman, a wedding photographer and owner of Caynay Photo, recently welcomed twin girls, Flora and Theo Shulman. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Arthur Brooks … Rebecca Leber … Julia Debo … Katharine Noyes of the Senate Republican Whip’s office … Mary Ann Gomez Orta of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute … Mike Podhorzer … Brent Del Monte of BGR … JPMorgan Chase’s Ross Rattanasena … NewsNation’s Mike Viqueira … former Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and George LeMieux (R-Fla.) … Wally Hsueh … former Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) … Jeffrey Toobin … NBC’s Stacey Klein … Edgar Santana of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office … Mollie Binotto of Sena Kozar Strategies … POLITICO’s Erin Smith and Mike Gartland … Mosheh Oinounou … CNBC’s Steve Liesman … Time’s Jeffrey Kluger … Anna Smith Lacey … Matt Appenfeller … Fred Frommer … Abigail P. Gage … Brandon Pollak … Jill Dougherty … Julia Gaffney of Rep. Sharice Davids’ (D-Kan.) office … Jessica Lahey … Brayden Woods of Rep. Beth Van Duyne’s (R-Texas) office … Newsmax’s Nicole Ginis … Zipcar’s Torrey Fishman … Government Strategies’ Rachel Phelps Bayens … Jim Lokay of Fox 5 DC 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 editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook misstated Jacqueline Thomas’ previous employment. She is a Trump administration alum.
| | | | A message from the Alzheimer's Association: Congress Can Connect Americans to Alzheimer's Research, an Investment in America's Fiscal Health
As the most expensive disease in the nation, untreated Alzheimer's is a major driver of rising federal and state spending, adding to America's long-term debt.
The bipartisan path forward is clear: Sustained NIH investment in Alzheimer's and dementia research. This commitment accelerates innovation, leading to effective treatments, early detection and prevention strategies, and reduced long-term costs for families, Medicare and Medicaid.
Supporting NIH research is not just compassionate policy; it is a smart fiscal strategy with strong bipartisan backing in Congress and overwhelming support among the American public.
Together, let's create a future free from Alzheimer's and all other dementia.
Congress: Invest in research today, ensure a healthier and more fiscally sustainable tomorrow. | | | | | | | | 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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