| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard | Presented by The American Council of Life Insurers | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | | Good Monday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, wishing you a happy Cinco de Mayo. If you’re headed out after work, Apapacho Taqueria has an outdoor taco grill with live mariachi band. Fresca Taqueria on H Street also has live music from 6 p.m. Good times. In today’s Playbook: — Bessent to address global elites in L.A., with a first big U.S. trade deal now in sight. — … But Trump’s tripling down on his message that kids must get used to fewer toys. — Jordan’s King Abdullah II arrives in D.C., as RFK Jr. goes on the record to criticize him.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 29, 2025, in Washington. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP | CALIFORNIA DREAMING: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addresses the Milken Institute’s global conference in Beverley Hills at 11 a.m., with expectations growing we’ll see the first post-”Liberation Day” trade deal this week. Bessent's speech comes after a run of eye-catching stock market gains and last Friday’s better-than-expected jobs figures fueled hope inside the White House that the worst of the tariff storm has been endured. “This is just the cylinder firing,” Bessent writes in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “The American people should expect to hear the engine humming during the second half of 2025.” Gas in the tank: Adding to that sense of optimism is a report in the same paper — citing an unnamed “senior administration official” — that the White House is aiming to announce the first post-tariffs trade deal this week. In return for ditching so-called reciprocal tariffs, the U.S. hopes to secure “an array of benefits,” the WSJ’s Alex Leary writes, “including agreements that trading partners purchase more U.S. goods and curb non-tariff barriers.” India has been widely touted as first in line for a deal, but there’s no confirmation as yet. President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One last night that a trade deal “could very well be” coming this week. But but but: The S&P 500 Futures index was suddenly tanking again last night after Trump used Truth Social to open up a new and unexpected front in his trade war. If his steel tariffs were predictable and his trade war with China on brand, precious few people had an import tax on foreign-made movies on their Trump 2.0 bingo card. But yep, here we are: “Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” the president complained on his social media feed at 7:18 p.m. last night, describing the situation as a “national security threat.” Trump said he plans to implement “a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” (Yes, the caps are all his.) Further details are proving scarce. “As is often the case with Mr. Trump’s declarations on social media,”the NYT reports dryly, “ it was not entirely clear what he was talking about.” Perhaps we’ll get more detail today. But a way bigger deal than taxing movies … is Trump’s persistence with his jaw-dropping line of argument that it’s fine if tariffs mean higher prices and less choice because, hell, your kids have too much stuff anyway. Playbook had expected this kind of talk would be swiftly stopped after Trump first went there last week. But having doubled down on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday — “[Children] don’t need to have 30 dolls, they can have three. They don’t need to have 250 pencils; they can have five” —- Trump went at it a third time on Air Force One last night. “A young lady, a 10-year-old girl … doesn't need 37 dolls, OK?” he told journos on board. “She could be very happy with two or three or four or five.” From a philosophical point of view, Playbook is trying to think of the last time an American president — or any Western leader — decided to argue against abundance and consumer choice. From a political point of view, these quotes have a dangerous whiff of “let them eat cake” about them, given how many American families are just trying to make ends meet. Naturally, Trump’s opponents are already pulling out old photos of his own children that suggest they were not exactly subjected to these kinds of constraints themselves. And while the kids are counting their pencils … Trump will speak at a $1.5 million-a-head “crypto and AI innovators” dinner at his D.C. golf resort this evening, per Alex Leary. Not impressed: Veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove, who told Fox News last night that Trump sounds like “Mr. Scrooge” when he talks about shortages of children’s toys. Trump was obviously watching, and fired back angrily on Truth Social. Not helpful if you’re struggling: The federal government will today resume collecting defaulted student loan payments from millions of Americans, as NBC’s Melissa Chan reports. “Of the nearly 43 million people who owe money, only a little more than a third have made regular payments,” she notes. Loan-forgiveness advocates are warning of a “financial catastrophe” for millions of struggling households. The Trump administration says taxpayers should not have been used as collateral. Meanwhile in China: Those sneaky doll-makers have found a way round Trump’s tariff wall anyway, per the FT’s William Langley and colleagues. Welcome to the world of “place-of-origin washing,” whereby enterprising Chinese exporters send their goods over to neighboring countries first … before they are sold on to unsuspecting American importers as low-tariffed “southeast Asian” goods. If that’s not enough to trigger an angry Truth Social post, I don’t know what is.
| | | | A message from The American Council of Life Insurers: Life insurers put life into America
People, businesses and communities across the country rely on life insurers for the $8 trillion they invest in the U.S. economy, the policies they guarantee and the financial safety nets they create. See how life insurers help America grow and prosper. | | | | ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — RFK vs. King: Jordan’s King Abdullah II is back in D.C. today — and could face a tough reception. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gone on the record with POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin to directly criticize Abdullah for failing to make good on an unambiguous February promise to care for 2,000 Palestinian kids with serious diseases. “They took 44 — and then they’ve cut us off,” Kennedy said. “[P]ut the welfare of these children first and put the politics aside.” Kennedy joins a number of other top U.S. officials to pile the pressure on Abdullah — including, privately, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). More from the Middle East: An Israeli and American plan to change the distribution of aid to Gaza, which is beset by humanitarian catastrophe, was panned by every aid group in the territory and the U.N., Axios’ Barak Ravid reports. The U.N. says Gaza has only days’ worth of food left. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth head to the Middle East next week. RUBIO WATCH: It’s Marco Rubio’s first week in his new double-hatted role as secretary of State and national security adviser, following the “promotion” (lol) of Mike Waltz. The first big question for Rubio, POLITICO’s senior foreign affairs correspondent Nahal Toosi writes in, is how he’s going to function in two jobs at once. “Will he slim down the National Security Council and revamp how policy options reach the president?” she ponders. “Will he decide, as the Washington Post floated, that there’s no need for a standard NSC at all? Will he travel less? Will he use group chats to speed up decision-making?” Nahal also says it’s worth watching the future role of Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. “He seems eager to please Rubio,” she writes. “On Friday, Landau vociferously defended Rubio after the German government rebuked the secretary for criticizing its moves against a far-right political party. But that same day, Landau was, in an astonishing moment, heckled by some State Department employees during an award ceremony.” Miller Time? Asked last night about the potential for Stephen Miller to be his long-term pick for national security adviser, Trump was very clearly not ruling it out. “Stephen Miller is at the top of the totem pole,” the president said. “I mean, I think he sort of indirectly already has that job. He has a lot to say about a lot of things.” He sure does. And as for Waltz: 404 Media’s Joseph Cox and Micah Lee report that the company making an app he used to communicate — TeleMessage, a modified version of Signal — has been hacked.
| | | | A message from The American Council of Life Insurers: Communities across America benefit from the investments of life insurers.
Life insurer owned corporate and municipal bonds fund the roads you drive every day, the factory that's hiring your neighbors, the school where your children learn and more. See how life insurers build communities. | | | | MEANWHILE ON THE HILL BUDGET DELAY: The House returns today and Republicans will hope to regain momentum for their reconciliation bill. Votes in three key committees, which party leaders originally hoped to finish this week, have been delayed amid significant policy disputes over Medicaid, food aid and the state and local tax deduction (SALT). A week of important closed-doors meetings lies ahead for GOP types. More in Inside Congress One key provision to watch: Will the REINS Act make it in? The “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny” legislation would transform federal rulemaking and achieve an assault on the regulatory state that conservatives have long dreamed of, POLITICO’s E&E News’ Andres Picon reports. But whether it can pass muster with moderate Republicans — and the Senate parliamentarian — remains to be seen. First in Playbook: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is heading to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for a town hall Saturday, POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein scoops this morning. Gallego will be in Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s (R-Pa.) district to try to pressure moderate Republicans on reconciliation and Medicaid cuts. But the locale is also stoking some speculation about Gallego and the 2028 shadow presidential primary. Also happening today: The Senate will take a procedural vote at 5:30 p.m. on repealing a Biden EPA regulation on tire manufacturing emissions. At 4 p.m., the House Rules Committee will tee up a floor vote on renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will lead Democrats at a press conference decrying Trump’s tariffs. Tales from the crypto: Landmark cryptocurrency legislation is crashing into a partisan divide in the Senate, POLITICO’s Jasper Goodman reports. Over the weekend, crypto-friendly Democrats suddenly threw up major concerns to recent Republican changes to the bill, which would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
| | | | POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2025 MILKEN GLOBAL CONFERENCE:
From May 4–7, California Playbook will deliver exclusive, on-the-ground coverage from the 28th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference. Get behind-the-scenes buzz, standout moments, and insights from leaders in AI, finance, health, philanthropy, geopolitics, and more. Subscribe now for your front-row seat to the conversations shaping our world. | | | | | BEST OF THE REST MUSK AT MILKEN: The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, sat for an invite-only fireside chat yesterday at the Milken Conference in California — which Milken employees tried to lock down by drawing the shades in the glass conference room and banning onlookers from taking photos, POLITICO’s Sam Sutton and Tyler Katzenberger write in to Playbook. What Musk said: We got a rundown of Musk’s talk from three people in the room. One attendee who spoke with Sam said Musk made bold predictions about a possible SpaceX mission to Mars by next year — potentially followed by a manned mission within three years. Musk also told the audience that Tesla taxis in Austin, Texas, will be self-driving by next month, and that AI will eventually aid in the reduction of government spending, the attendee said. More from Milken in California Playbook … And more on tech in the Golden State in California Decoded UKRAINE LATEST: As Kyiv waits to see if Trump will start to ramp up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine, more U.S. help is heading to the battlefield, NYT’s Kim Barker, Helene Cooper, Lara Jakes and Eric Schmitt scooped. A Patriot system will be moved from Israel to Ukraine, and another may come from Germany or Greece. TRUMPISM WITHOUT BORDERS: Romania’s first round of presidential voting saw far-right insurgent George Simion leap to a big lead, per the AP. POLITICO’s Seb Starcevic has the download to understand Simion. … Local election wins for Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. last week indicate that a Trumpist shakeup can win in Britain too. It all means the picture is way more mixed than the Trump-fueled defeats for conservatives in Canada and Australia this past week might suggest. Coming attractions: Benedikt Franke, vice chair and CEO of the Munich Security Conference, will speak exclusively to POLITICO on Wednesday to conclude the 2025 Munich Leaders Meeting. The meetings bring together an exclusive group of participants from both sides of the Atlantic to discuss the future of global security. Full information … Doors open at 3 p.m. and you can register to attend here. BILL OF HEALTH: Steven Hatfill is now a special adviser at HHS’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, a senior-level return for a controversial official who advocated hydroxychloroquine during the Covid-19 pandemic in Trump’s first term, WaPo’s Lena Sun, Lisa Rein and Carolyn Johnson scooped. He is still advocating for it as a treatment. The cuts: NYT’s Benjamin Mueller reveals that nearly half of canceled NIH grants so far were for research relating to LGBTQ+ health — that’s a whopping $800 million gone. Meanwhile, cuts at HHS have shuttered more than a dozen tracking programs, eliminating data efforts on everything from youth smoking to pregnancy risks, AP’s Mike Stobbe reports.
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| | | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Hanna Trudo, the former senior political correspondent at The Hill, is exploring a campaign for Congress as a Democrat in New Hampshire’s 1st District, POLITICO’s Adam Wren writes in to Playbook. Billing herself as “a fourth-generation Granite Stater … who grew up working-class,” Trudo tells Playbook that she moved back home after Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas opened up the seat by announcing a Senate bid. Her byline last ran on The Hill on March 7. The background: Trudo describes herself as “a journalist who’s tired of writing the same story about how Democrats keep losing to Republicans and failing us.” “I’m used to disrupting the status quo in D.C.,” she tells Playbook. “I’ve lived it, I’ve covered it and I know how to beat the odds.” In addition to The Hill, she is an alum of The Daily Beast and POLITICO. LOOK WHO’S BACK: Republican former Gov. Paul LePage has filed to run for Congress against Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), per the Bangor Daily News’ Michael Shepherd. The once “unthinkable” comeback attempt for the Trumpy LePage — who has mostly lived in Florida of late — comes as Golden weighs his own gubernatorial bid. COMING THIS WEEK: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is expected to put out a new plan for the FAA to modernize its air traffic control system, Bloomberg’s Allyson Versprille and Mary Schlangenstein report. As the current system shows serious signs of strain, the new proposal would likely need major new money from Congress. SOMEONE WARN DOGE: Trump suggested on Truth Social last night that he would move to reopen Alcatraz, which has been a museum for several decades, as a maximum-security prison. “It was not immediately clear how his musing could be put into action,” NYT’s Devlin Barrett and Shawn Hubler note, “given that any such project would be extraordinarily expensive and that the administration already planned to cut billions of dollars from the Justice Department budget.”
| | | | 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 | | Mike Pence received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for refusing to subvert the 2020 election. Ella Emhoff backed Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor. SPORTS BLINK: At an event at 1 p.m. Trump will unveil D.C. as the host of the 2027 NFL draft, Axios’ Hans Nichols, Marc Caputo and Cuneyt Dil scooped. Speaking alongside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, Trump will lay out a goal to have the draft on the National Mall. OUT AND ABOUT — MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler hosted a post-show brunch at L’Ardente yesterday to toast Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Daniels and Jackie Alemany’s first weekend as co-hosts of “The Weekend.” SPOTTED: Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, Robert Zeliger, Kyle Griffin, April Ryan, Jane Harman, Steve Thomma, Virginia Coyne, John McCarthy, Jake Levine, Nick Schmit and Christopher Wiggins. — NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya gave opening remarks Saturday at the annual gala supporting The Children’s Inn, which gives housing and services to kids and young adults with rare diseases while enrolled in clinical research studies. Tony Perkins emceed, and Billy Harris led a live auction. SPOTTED: Brian Kelly, Liz Porter, Jennie Lucca, Kristen Honey, Eric Schnabel, Nicole Willis, Prashant Gaur, Todd Pantezzi and Nicole Kleinstreuer. — Ellen Carmichael’s Lafayette Company celebrated its 10th anniversary Saturday evening at Hotel Monaco. SPOTTED: Antoinette Aho, Corrine Williams, Andrew Moore, Patricia Simpson Rausch and Scott Rausch, Tiffany and Jordan Haverly, Conor and Erin Maguire, James Robbins, J.P. Freire, Liz Hill, Stacie Rumenap, Aly and Jim Beley, Morgan Martinez, Alex Tarascio, Lachlan Markay and Anna Massoglia, Leslie Paige, Helen Huiskes, Suhail Khan, Christine Balling, Mitch McQuate, Kyle Cormney, David Hauptmann, Israel Ortega, Adam Kissel, Katrina Bishop, Chaz Cirame, Sean Hackbarth and Sarah Lindsay. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Chandler Douglas is now special adviser to the assistant secretary of investment security at the Treasury Department. He previously was assistant VP of government relations at Blackstone. MEDIA MOVE — Hannah Lepow is now senior counsel for regulatory affairs at NBCUniversal. She previously was legal adviser to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. TRANSITIONS — Angela Hanks is joining The Century Foundation as chief of policy programs. She previously was associate director of external affairs at the CFPB. … Eric Kohn is now CEO of America’s Future. He most recently was chief marketing officer of Empower Illinois and producer of the documentary “The Hong Konger.” … … Adam Talbot is launching Pilotboat Strategies, an executive and leadership comms firm. He is an Apple, West Wing Writers and Human Rights Campaign alum. … Jackson Mueller is now a principal on the government relations and public policy team at FS Vector. He previously was a policy director at The Digital Chamber. … Caitlin Kovalkoski is now a policy adviser at Arnold & Porter. She most recently was director of legislative and intergovernmental affairs for the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration. WEDDING — Tim Svoboda, chief of staff for Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), and Ashley Smith, director of urban planning at Arlington Land Use Group, got married April 26 at Patterson Mansion. They met in 2018 at Penn Social. Pic … Another pic … SPOTTED: Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), Phillip Fordham, Caleb Conaway, Thomas Bailey, Billy Deere, Bernadette Guastini, Rachel and Brandon Ver Velde, and Samantha Klisarska. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Jesse Southerland, federal policy director at Americans United for Life and a Pete Olson alum, and Caroline Southerland, a freelance actress, welcomed John Wesley Southerland on Wednesday. Pic — Megan Jaye, associate director at the National Association of Manufacturers, and Josh Jaye, senior director of external relations at the Tax Foundation, welcomed Everett James Jaye on April 26. — Ashley O’Rourke, senior business development lead for political campaigns at Microsoft, and Liam O’Rourke, chief data officer at Data Trust, welcomed Mackenzie Marie O’Rourke on April 27. She joins big brother Charlie. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: WaPo’s Dan Balz … POLITICO’s Alex Guillén and Francesca Barber … Mark McKinnon … Dan Hornung … Terry Moynihan … Whitney Robertson … Bloomberg’s Mike Dorning … Dustin Walker … ABC’s Rachel Scott and Diana Paulsen … Sacha Haworth … Jenna Valle-Riestra … Reproductive Freedom for All’s Neisha Blandin … former Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas) … Danielle Stewart … Rachel Wein … Zach Huebschman … Ann Saybolt … Christine Pelosi … West End Strategy Team’s Blake Goodman … Raghav Joshi of Generation Vote … Brian Williams … David Sharp … Amanda Zamora … Lulu Cheng Meservey … Senate Budget’s Caitlin Wilson 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 Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Corrections: Yesterday’s Playbook misstated GOP Sen. James Lankford’s state. He represents Oklahoma. It also misspelled Ankush Khardori’s name. Saturday’s Playbook misspelled Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name.
| | | | A message from The American Council of Life Insurers: Life insurers invest trillions of dollars in America.
To guarantee policy payouts, life insurers make investments in America's economy, including $3.6 trillion in U.S. corporate bonds. These bonds fund jobs, small business, economic growth, and so much more. See how life insurers put life into America. | | | | | | | | 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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