| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun and Bethany Irvine On today’s podcast, Dasha and I discuss the mood inside the White House after a fourth night of protests in Los Angeles … and why Pete Hegseth may be looking forward to his first House committee grilling as secretary of Defense this morning.
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| Good Tuesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard. EYES-EMOJI SPOTTED: John Fetterman, the not-uncontroversial Democratic senator for Pennsylvania, dining in D.C.’s top MAGA hangout Butterworth’s on Monday evening. Fetterman was joined by Breitbart’s Matt Boyle, plus — for a good 20 minutes or so — Steve Bannon. Now that’s a conversation Playbook would have liked to overhear. In today’s Playbook … — Why Trump thinks he’s winning the standoff in LA. — Hegseth hits the Hill for his first committee grilling as secretary of Defense. — No sign of peace for Ukraine, as Putin unleashes hell on Kyiv.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump's aides believe the scenes out of Los Angeles will bolster public support for his hard-line approach to immigration. | Win McNamee/Getty Images | CALIFORNIA SCHEMING: Last week’s news cycle — driven by Elon Musk’s jaw-dropping X posts — was deeply uncomfortable for the White House. This week’s focus on law and order and immigration in California feels very different indeed. Whatever your take on Donald Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard — plus, as of last night, 700 Marines — to help quell anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, the view from those close to the president is clear: This is a huge political opportunity, they believe, and Trump has seized it with both hands. “We couldn’t script this any better,” one gleeful person close to the White House tells my Playbook colleague Dasha Burns. “Democrats are again on the ‘20’ side of an 80-20 issue. … It’s the same thing that won [Trump] the election.” In the eyes of the White House, Trump already had a clear mandate from voters for the mass deportation effort that was driving those ICE raids in LA. And aides believe the chaotic scenes that followed — masked protesters pelting police with rocks, setting fire to cars and waving Mexican flags on abandoned freeways — will only bolster public support for Trump’s hard-line approach. Indeed, every time a Dem speaks out against the president’s actions in LA, the White House is happier still. And guess who’s the ultimate foil? Enter California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Newsom is playing the part,” the same gleeful person tells Dasha. An administration official separately made the same point, highlighting the “jarring contrast” between Trump’s approach and the “Dem posture on immigration,” and claiming that the party is “fine with [protesters] burning the city down.” Obviously, that’s not the case. But Trump’s aides believe that’s how the past few days will have been received across much of America. And the aforementioned Fetterman, at least, sees the same danger. “This is anarchy and true chaos,” the Pennsylvania Democrat wrote on X last night. “My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.” In defense of Newsom … The governor has condemned all those things, repeatedly. But it’s also true that the central message Newsom has projected (and has sought to project) since Saturday has been steely-eyed opposition to Trump. The WSJ editorial board is predictably unimpressed, warning Newsom’s stance “won’t sit well with most Americans.” Which may or may not be true: But Newsom’s audience is not “most Americans.” He is speaking for a state that voted almost 60-40 for Kamala Harris last November. And he’s speaking to a Democratic base that will choose the party’s candidate for president in 2028. Newsom said Trump is speaking like an “authoritarian,” in an exclusive interview with POLITICO’s Melanie Mason and Christopher Cadelago. “There’s no working with the president,” Newsom told MSNBC on Monday night, in comments that sounded suspiciously aimed at potential 2028 rivals like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “There’s only working for him. And I will never work for Donald Trump.” The truth is … Everyone is playing politics here. How Dems see it: All of which will enrage millions of liberally minded people across America, who believe the president himself triggered this unrest with heavy-handed ICE raids on everyday workplaces, and then ratcheted up the tension with an unnecessary show of military force. (The WSJ has a great piece out this morning on how the raids came at the urging of White House aide Stephen Miller, himself a native of southern California.) Dems also scoff at Trump’s law-and-order credentials, given what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, and the pardons that followed. The flip side: Those close to Trump insist his chief motivation is to avoid a reprise of the civic unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd in 2020, when the president’s draconian instincts were blunted by the aides and military officials around him. “He’s been through this before,” the administration official tells Dasha. “If you don’t take it seriously early, it will get out of hand.” The person close to the White House adds that Trump’s show of force is also about “sending a message to other governors and other states: Don’t let your cities burn down, because this will happen to you.”
| | A message from PhRMA: Let's address the real reasons Americans pay more for medicines.
The U.S. is the only country in the world with 340B hospital markups and PBM middlemen fees driving up costs for patients. Americans also foot the bill for the research and development of new treatments and cures, while other countries don't pay their fair share. It's time to lower drug prices by cracking down on middlemen and foreign free riders. Learn more. | | | | More where that came from: Trump was — literally — doubling down last night, sending another 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to follow the original 2,000 sent on Saturday. And the battalion of 700 Marines deployed on Monday were due to arrive late last night, despite public consternation from the LAPD. Newsom accused Trump of “trying to provoke chaos.” But on the ground, the clashes between protesters and law enforcement in LA last night seemed much more limited than at the weekend. This thing could yet just fizzle out. But there’s still more: The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matthias Gafni and colleagues have obtained a weekend letter from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking him to direct the military to detain or arrest “lawbreakers” during their deployment. She also asked Hegseth for “drone surveillance support,” as well as weapons and logistics assistance, the Chronicle said. Speak of the devil: Into this stormy fray steps Hegseth himself, who at 9:30 a.m. will make his first appearance before a House committee since his epic Senate confirmation hearings at the start of the year. Expect questions to fly about the wisdom — and legality — of sending troops to LA, and what exactly the military’s role is meant to be. Naturally, you can expect the pugnacious Hegseth to lean into the conflict. Off-topic: Things may get a little stickier for Hegseth if Dems decide to grill him on some of the other controversial moments that have dogged his four-and-a-half months at the Pentagon. His conduct around Signalgate, for example — both the sharing of attack plans in Yemen and his subsequent denials that the information was classified. Or perhaps the general sense of chaos around the Pentagon since he took charge, with numerous key staff getting fired. It could be a lengthy session. And when all that wraps up … Hegseth will join Trump at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, for a celebration of the Army’s 250th birthday. Trump is due to speak at 4 p.m. Expect the situation in Los Angeles to be front of both men’s minds.
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| | | | WAR AND PEACE SO MUCH FOR PEACE ON ‘DAY ONE’: Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered another blow to Trump’s dwindling hopes for peace with a second intense night of bombing on Ukraine’s cities. Putin deployed more than 300 drones and missiles against Kyiv and Odesa over a five-hour period, ABC’s Jason Volack and David Brennan report, and the images and footage coming out this morning are bleak. “Russian missile and Shahed strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X. The damage: Reuters reports that the attack damaged a maternity ward in Odesa. Bloomberg adds that in Kyiv, “a fleet of Russian drones struck apartment buildings, a business center, a drug store and a warehouse, causing blazes in several districts.” It comes just a day after Russia launched the largest drone attack of its three-year-long war against Ukraine, AP’s Illia Novikov and Hanna Arhirova report. This will be the backdrop to this weekend’s annual G7 leaders’ summit hosted by Canada, and which both Trump and Zelenskyy will attend. You can expect Trump to face pressure from allies across the board to take a far harsher line with Putin. Also on the G7 agenda: Trump’s ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, with a sixth round of talks expected either Friday or Sunday, per Axios’ Barak Ravid. White House aides remain optimistic a deal could be close. But but but: But an influential group of GOP hawks has launched a behind-the-scenes lobbying offensive pressing Trump to not only back off his administration’s quest for a nuclear deal with Iran, but also to greenlight an attack on Tehran by Israel, POLITICO’s Rachael Bade and Felicia Schwartz report this morning. Making his mark: “During a private lunch with the president at the White House last Wednesday, conservative talk show host Mark Levin told Trump that Iran was days away from building a nuclear weapon,” Rachael and Felicia write, “an argument Trump’s own intelligence team has told the president is not accurate … Levin urged Trump to allow the Israeli government to strike Iranian nuclear sites.” Inside track: Levin has beef with Trump’s “everything envoy” Steve Witkoff, they report. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is also said to be unimpressed and privately briefing against Witkoff and his strategy. Aides close to Trump are mounting a frantic rearguard effort.
| | | | 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. | | | | | MEANWHILE ON THE HILL RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: With the GOP megabill’s July 4 deadline now just three-and-a-half weeks away, House Republicans are trying to trim the package of any measures they believe the Senate parliamentarian will rule are impermissible via the reconciliation process. House Republican leaders expect to receive a report on the bill’s potential problem areas this morning, ahead of a crunch Rules Committee meeting at 2 p.m. POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Jennifer Scholtes have the details. More changes: Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are still eyeing their own changes to the megabill, of course — pitting them against House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith and, potentially, against the White House too, our colleagues with POLITICO’s Inside Congress newsletter report this morning. Any tax provisions deemed insufficiently “pro-growth” — including Trump’s promises of no taxes on tips or overtime — could be in the firing line. Senators to watch include Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). About that July 4 deadline: Speaker Mike Johnson remains confident that Congress will get the bill passed by then. But Trump, who was seated next to him at a White House event yesterday afternoon, sounded more ambivalent. “If it takes a little longer, that's OK,” the president said. More from POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy On the way out: Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said yesterday he plans to resign from Congress for a private-sector job offer after the House votes again on the GOP megabill, POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs reports. The Homeland Security chair’s looming departure tees up a potential intra-party battle for his committee perch, and Reps. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) have both expressed interest in the role on a long-term basis, per WSJ’s Olivia Beavers.
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| | | | BEST OF THE REST ENERGY SUMMIT TODAY: White House officials, congressional leaders and energy experts will explore the strategic choices shaping America's energy future under the Trump administration at POLITICO's Energy Summit. Key speakers include Jarrod Agen, deputy assistant to the president and executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council; Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.); Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Bob Latta (R-Ohio); Jennifer Granholm, Neil Chatterjee and more. The summit kicks off at 8 a.m. More details here … Watch live here ICYMI: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced yesterday in a WSJ op-ed that he will be “retiring” all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel. “The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy wrote. Roughly two hours after the op-ed posted, committee members received termination notices, POLITICO’s Sophie Gardner reports. What about his promise to Cassidy? During his raucous confirmation process, Kennedy promised Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that he would not make changes to the vaccine advisory committee. After yesterday’s announcement, Cassidy took to X, writing: “I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure” that the panel isn’t packed with vaccine skeptics. Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether he regretted voting for Kennedy’s confirmation, Cassidy demurred. TRADING SPACES: Officials from Washington and China are continuing their trade talks in London today in an effort to preserve the tenuous truce negotiated last month. Though Beijing’s rare earth minerals and its related exports were predicted to be the main focus of discussion, experts say “Beijing is unlikely to give up its strategic grip over the essential minerals,” CNN’s John Liu reports. Still, leaders in Washington remain optimistic, with Trump telling reporters yesterday that he was “only getting good reports” from London, per Reuters. MUSEUM WARS: The Smithsonian is insisting that it — and not the president — retains power over personnel decisions, a move that challenges Trump’s assertion that he has the ability to fire directors within the museum system, NYT’s Robin Pogrebin and colleagues report. Trump recently announced that he was firing Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, whom he alleged was “a highly partisan person.” DEEP IN THE HEART: With the chances of a 2026 Democratic takeover of the House looking very real, the White House is pushing Texas to redraw its congressional maps to create “four or five” additional Republican seats in an effort to up the party’s majority nationally, NYT’s J. David Goodman and Shane Goldmacher report. The pressure from the administration has “unnerved some Texas Republicans, who worry that reworking the boundaries of Texas House seats to turn Democratic districts red by adding reliably Republican voters from neighboring Republican districts could backfire.” In a 20-minute “emergency” meeting last night, “congressional Republicans from Texas professed little interest in redrawing their districts,” which were last updated in 2021. Even so, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials have “discussed the possibility,” and there’s speculation in Austin that a special session of the state legislature will be called in July.
| | | | 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 | | Maggie Haberman told Vanity Fair’s Natalie Korach that she’s found sourcing more difficult in Trump’s second term. “I have been astonished at the number of people who are no longer willing to speak because they just don’t think that it does anything to help their sense of anxiety about their lives.” YOUR NEXT MORNING LISTEN: Playbook’s own Dasha Burns joined Brendan Buck and Annalyse Keller in the latest episode of Seven Letter’s “CONTROL” podcast to discuss Elon Musk’s rise and fall in Trump world. Listen here OUT AND ABOUT — The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition convened more than 400 state leaders at the Marriott Marquis for its 2025 Impact Forum yesterday, where it launched a new report “Economic Security is National Security.” SPOTTED: Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.), Laura Richardson, Keith Alexander, Mark Green, Brian Cavanaugh, Josh Rogin, Arrow Augerot, Liz Schrayer, Chris Clement, John Murphy and Sean Callahan. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Jason Mulvihill will be president and CEO of the Association for Consumer Debt Relief. He previously was president of Capitol Asset Strategies. TRANSITIONS — Kevin McKinley will be state lead for government affairs at Andreessen Horowitz. He previously was director of state legislation at Meta. … David Shapiro will be executive director of the MacArthur Justice Center. He currently is executive director of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee. … Michael Atleson is joining DLA Piper as of counsel. He previously was a senior staff attorney at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. … … Cara Duckworth is now SVP of comms at USTelecom – The Broadband Association. She previously was chief corporate comms officer at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. … James Laverty is now comms director for Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). He previously was producer for “The Will Cain Show” on FOX News. WEEKEND WEDDINGS — Clare Lattanze, comms director for Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Jacob Eskin, VP of insurance sales at Dye & Eskin, got married Saturday at the Riggs Hotel. Pic — Darbin Wofford, deputy director of health care at Third Way, and Araceli Castillo, a senior onboarding specialist at Goodshuffle, got married in Dallas on Friday. They met at Texas State University, where they both studied political science and adopted their dog, Loki. Pic, courtesy of Caitlin Wood Photography HAPPY BIRTHDAY: CNN’s Jeff Zeleny … Carlos Elizondo … NBC’s Shannon Pettypiece, Kate Snow and Sarah DeCaro … NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe … WSJ’s Corinne Ramey … ABC’s Ellie Kaufman … Joe Trippi … James Rockas of ACLJ Action … Jeff Greenfield … Stef Weiss … Michael Daniels … Jennifer Donnelly of the Aspen Institute ... Edelman’s Matthew Streit … BPI’s David O’Brien … Thomas Showalter ... Al Mottur … Matt Jansen of Rep. Melanie Stansbury’s (D-N.M.) office … Paula Burris of the American Association for Justice … former Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) … Sasha Obama … former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) … Alex Goldman … former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal … Kylie Bohman … former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer … Ben DeMarzo … J.D. Grom … POLITICO’s William Shabazz-Smith 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, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Corrections: Yesterday’s Playbook misidentified GOP Sen. Mike Crapo’s home state. It is Idaho. It also misspelled Sang Yi’s name.
| | A message from PhRMA: Foreign-first pricing is a bad deal for American patients.
Government price setting policies like foreign reference pricing are bad for American patients, especially over the long term. These "foreign-first pricing" schemes don't guarantee lower costs. Instead, they take away dollars that could be invested in American manufacturing and undermine biopharma R&D. Most importantly, foreign reference pricing fails to address the real reasons Americans pay more for medicines than other countries: PBM middleman fees, 340B hospital markups and foreign governments not paying their fair share for innovative medicines. We must address these issues to support American patients in accessing and affording the medicines they need, while ensuring the United States remains the global leader in biopharmaceutical innovation. Learn more. | | | | | | | | 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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