| | | |  | | By Adam Wren with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco On today’s Playbook Podcast, Adam Wren and Megan Messerly talk about the WSJ’s bombshell report, how the White House is responding and what it means for the future of MAGA.
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| Good morning! It’s Friday. This is Adam Wren. What a week. Let’s get to it. In today’s Playbook … — How the WSJ’s big Jeffrey Epstein story has reunited MAGA — and why you should pay attention to JD Vance in this whole episode. — Doomsday for public media as House Republicans send the rescissions package to Donald Trump’s desk. — Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) tells Dasha Burns why he doesn’t buy that Congress is surrendering its power of the purse.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
A major new WSJ report has given President Donald Trump the chance to steer the conversation toward the media. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo | ‘ENIGMAS NEVER AGE’: In the span of a few hours, a bombshell report last night scrambled the politics of the conversation that Washington can’t stop talking about: the Trump administration’s non-release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. There are three things we need to talk about here: (1) The article that Washington was waiting for is finally out; (2) how that affects the narrative on which this issue will be litigated in public; and (3) the broader story of what this all means for the future of MAGA. THE ARTICLE: We’d been anticipating the Wall Street Journal’s piece about the long-ago friendship between Trump, the future president, and Epstein, the future convicted sex offender, since we’d first got rumblings of it a few days ago. Earlier this week, Playbook heard the article had caused a “stir” in the White House and with Trump himself; Status’ Oliver Darcy put some meat on those bones yesterday, reporting that ahead of publication, “Trump is said to have personally called Emma Tucker, The Journal's editor-in-chief, to voice his objections.” Then, at 6:45 p.m., the Journal published its much-anticipated investigation. In it, reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo detailed a letter Trump purportedly wrote that accompanied a “bawdy” drawing of a naked woman he purportedly drew and sent to Epstein for the financier’s 50th birthday. From the text Trump allegedly penned: Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey. Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it. Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you. Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret. Trump, of course, denied it. “I never wrote a picture in my life,” he told the Journal. (Demonstrably false, given his well-documented history of doodles, which he even wrote about in a 2008 book). “I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.” THE NARRATIVE: For 10 days — ever since the Justice Department released a memo saying there was “no incriminating ‘client list’” among the Epstein files and that no further disclosure of the investigation’s files “would be appropriate” — Trump has been in an unfamiliar spot: unable to change the topic of conversation in Washington, facing down an issue that was badly fracturing the MAGA movement and on the receiving end of questions that cut to the core of his political identity. Then came the Journal story, which has offered Trump the chance to steer the conversation away from his administration’s non-release of the Epstein files and instead toward the media’s treatment of him. Suddenly, after days of division, a profoundly fractured MAGA coalition came together in opposition to the press. In the shortest of short terms — however damaging in the long run and however much more trickles out — it is in this way a boon to Trump. It has brought together everyone from far-right activist Laura Loomer to Trump world persona non-grata Elon Musk to Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), who said he’s “introducing legislation to end the House of Representatives’ subscription contract with the WSJ.” (As one Republican close to the White House told Playbook late last night, “Nothing unifies MAGA more than a little bit of suspected fake news.”) Then came two plays for the slightly longer term. Keeping the focus on the press as MAGA’s common enemy, Trump announced that he will sue the Journal, parent company News Corp and Rupert Murdoch, whose family owns a controlling stake. (Intriguingly, Trump also said he “personally” warned Murdoch about the article. Could this have been a topic of conversation this past Sunday, when Murdoch spent time in the president’s box — along with AG Pam Bondi! — at the FIFA Club World Cup?) Then, Trump tossed out red meat to his base, asking Bondi to release grand jury testimony related to the Epstein case, which she quickly said she would do. It seemed as though Trump had begun to turn the page. But here’s why it might not work: Even if the grand jury transcripts are released, that amounts to just a miniscule fraction of the files pertaining to the Epstein investigation. As Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), himself a former prosecutor, noted on X: “What about videos, photographs and other recordings? What about FBI 302’s (witness interviews)? What about texts and emails?” Said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who is working with Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on a bill to force their release: “Folks, Keep the pressure on, it’s working. But we want all the files.” They’re hardly alone in that. A number of Republicans are on board with releasing all the files. And it’s not just libertarian types like Massie or deep-red district conservatives like Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), but also frontline swing-seat members, like freshman Tom Barrett (R-Mich.). What is in the files that aren’t being released? ABC’s James Hill and Peter Charalambous write that the earlier “phase one” disclosure of the Epstein files contained a little-noticed “three-page catalog of evidence” that “offers a roadmap to the remaining trove of records that President Donald Trump's administration has declined to release, including logs of who potentially visited Epstein's private island and the records of a wiretap of [Ghislaine] Maxwell's phone.”
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Learn more. | | | | THE BROADER STORY: Then there’s the lingering question of what all of this means for the future of the MAGA movement. And in that, perhaps no figure looms larger than Vance. Earlier this week, Vance had been remarkably quiet. In the days since the DOJ memo announcing there would be no further release of the Epstein files, the most online vice president ever, amid perhaps the most online scandal ever, had said virtually nothing publicly about the matter. The silence seemed to speak volumes about the man who could inherit the MAGA movement, and about perceived liabilities of getting — again — crossways with Trump’s base ahead of a possible 2028 bid. (Vance, for example, could not realistically repost Trump’s Truth Social post declaring he did not want the support of MAGA voters who are upset about the Epstein non-disclosure without nuking his own political future.) Yesterday, before the Journal story dropped, we asked around Vance world about the VP’s silence. Playbook heard from one person that Vance was quiet because he was “following President Trump’s lead and focusing on celebrating the administration’s policy victories like the historic passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill.” Another Republican close to the White House suggested the same, adding that Trump didn’t want Vance “putting more focus on Epstein.” “The White House is racking up wins on a daily basis, and there’s a lot the Vice President can be talking about and working on that actually affects Americans’ day to day lives,” the first person said. It seemed as though Vance was caught in what our POLITICO colleague Ian Ward — who has interviewed Vance and has chronicled his thinking — described as being stuck “between siding with his allies on the populist right on the one hand, and backing Trump on the other.” “On Iran and the megabill, he could credibly claim to thread the needle between the two with some clever messaging,” Ian told us. “That’s not as easy when it comes to Epstein, because Trump and the populist right are on such divergent sides of the issue. Hence, I think, the silence. From his perspective, it may be better to stay on the bench in a fight he can’t win.” Yesterday morning, MAGA seemed in shambles. Vance appeared to be trying to ride out the storm. No Epstein off-ramp materialized for the White House, as we reported. That all changed when the Journal posted its article. Less than an hour later, Vance weighed in on X, calling the story “complete and utter bullshit.” His post underscored several realities: By breaking his silence on the Journal story, he did not have to speak to the actual core of the MAGA fight over the Epstein files and their merits. He could take the comfortable GOP terrain of fighting with a familiar foil in the press. He could elide and avoid endorsing Trump’s position that it’s all a “hoax.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt quickly reposted Vance. MAGA influencers followed suit. Vance was the tip of the spear. The whole episode shows Vance as the ultimate MAGA waterline to watch. Ahead of 2028, Vance will continue to find himself in fraught moments. “Trump can afford to burn some bridges with the base and the MAGA activist class,” Ian tells us. “Vance can’t afford that, and he knows his response to this controversy will be scrutinized as an indication of whether his loyalties lie with Trump or with the movement.” That there’s occasionally an emerging delta between those two means difficult new terrain for every Republican in Washington — and beyond.
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Learn more. | | | | ON THE HILL HAPPENING OVERNIGHT: Just after midnight, the House passed Trump’s rescissions package in a 216-213 vote, repealing $9 billion in public media and foreign assistance. It now heads to the president to be signed into law. The process: Up against a make-or-break deadline (the bill needed to land on Trump’s desk by the end of the day today, or else the money would have to be spent as originally allocated), House Republicans used a fast-track process in which instead of voting “directly on the bill, lawmakers triggered passage by voting for a procedural measure that’s typically used to set up debate,” as POLITICO’s Katherine Tully-McManus and Jennifer Scholtes explain. The flip: Senate Republicans earlier added language to the proposal to stave off an additional $400 million in cuts to the PEPFAR, the global program to fight AIDS. That language helped persuade Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) and Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) flip to “yes.” The public media ‘doom loop’: The rescissions package strips about $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS stations throughout the nation. “The cuts are a time bomb for the public media system,” NYT’s Elena Shao and Benjamin Mullin write. After September, when current funds dry up, “more than 100 combined TV and radio stations that serve millions of Americans in rural pockets of the country will be at risk of going dark … The sudden and dramatic reduction in funding will result in a pool of fewer stations to buy programming and solicit donations, potentially creating a ‘doom loop’ with dire consequences for the rest of the system.” More from NPR First in Playbook — In defense of rescissions: Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) has heard the critiques from some of his fellow Republicans that in acquiescing to Trump’s rescissions requests, Congress is surrendering its power of the purse — and he doesn’t quite buy it. “It’s hard for me to digest some of the criticism about this is sort of ‘gutting the appropriations process’ when we don’t really have one on the floor,” Schmitt tells Playbook’s Dasha Burns in an interview for “The Conversation,” recorded ahead of the Senate’s passage of the package. “The rescissions process actually considers the legislature’s role in what the executive branch is identifying as waste, fraud and abuse, and that’s what we’re doing right now. … I’m very protective of the Article I branch’s role, but I also think the Article II branch has an important role in executing policy.” Watch the clip Let’s do it over again: Now, as OMB Director Russ Vought says a second rescissions request is likely coming soon, many Republicans are wincing at the prospect of having to do it all over again, as our colleagues on Inside Congress cover. Also overnight: The House passed its $831 billion defense appropriations bill, 221-209, per POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien. Five Democrats supported the measure and three Republicans opposed it.
| | | | 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. | | | | | BEST OF THE REST IMMIGRATION FILES: The Trump administration has greenlit a plan to hand over the personal data and home addresses for 79 million Medicaid enrollees to ICE officials in order to track migrants who entered the country illegally, AP’s Kimberly Kindy and Amanda Seitz report. As part of the agreement, immigration officials will have access to the “names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information, as well as Social Security numbers for all people enrolled in Medicaid,” including millions of children. Meanwhile, new records reveal that dozens of people on the administration’s recent deportation flights to El Salvador were not included in DHS’ flight manifests and remain unaccounted for, 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and Joseph Cox report. “[I]mmigration experts who have been closely monitoring Trump’s deportation campaign say they have no idea where these people are or what happened to them.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The Maine event: Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-Maine) routine independent streak — and occasional threat to withhold her crucial vote on key pieces of Trump’s agenda — has prompted the White House to weigh potential replacements, POLITICO’s Andrew Howard and Jessica Piper report this morning. Still, “there are no thoughts of actually launching a primary challenge” against her. In a state “that continues to trend blue, local Republicans warned, Collins is effectively the lone Republican who can fend off high-level Democratic challengers … And while Collins may frustrate the MAGA wing, a different Republican more in line with Trump’s agenda would also be much more likely to lose the seat.” MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu apologized yesterday for the deadly Israeli air strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church, which killed three people and garnered ferocious criticism from world leaders, including Trump, POLITICO’s Seb Starcevic reports. “Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy,’ Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on X. SHIFTING WINDS: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin moved forward yesterday with a plan to restructure and reduce the nation's top environmental agency after rounds of mass layoffs and the shuttering of the agency’s research branch, POLITICO’s Alex Guillén and Annie Snider report. It will “consolidate its finance and administrative offices into one entity, while making other structural changes to its enforcement and Superfund offices.” FED UP: Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who was appointed by Trump during his first term and is seen as a potential contender to succeed Chair Jerome Powell, said the nation’s central bank should “not wait until the labor market deteriorates before we cut the policy rate,” per NYT’s Colby Smith. Waller maintains that Trump’s sweeping tariffs will lead only to a temporary inflation hike, not persistent inflation — which is probably music to Trump’s ears. Even so, the quarter-point reduction Waller proposes is “unlikely to satisfy the president, who has called on the central bank to cut by 3 percentage points,” Smith writes. Powell, meanwhile, formally defended the central bank’s National Mall renovation project from Trump’s frequent attacks over the project’s $2.5 billion dollar price tag, WaPo’s Andrew Ackerman reports. “In a three-page letter to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, Powell said the project was large in scope because it involves the renovation of two historic buildings that were first constructed in the 1930s but hadn’t seen a comprehensive renovation since they were first constructed.” DEEP IN THE HEART: The Cook Political Report has shifted its rating of the Texas Senate race from “Solid” to “Likely Republican,” as the GOP braces for a brutal face-off between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and state AG Ken Paxton. Still, it’s unlikely the seat turns blue, and “Texas Democrats could also be facing a series of new expensive downballot fights if the Republican Party’s threatened mid-cycle redistricting efforts,” CPR’s Jessica Taylor writes. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Making moves: Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) pledged a $100,000 donation from her campaign to the NRCC this week.
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| | | | THE WEEKEND AHEAD TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Leigh Ann Caldwell, Stephen Hayes, Meridith McGraw and Michael Scherer. SUNDAY SO FAR … POLITICO “The Conversation with Dasha Burns”: Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Senate Majority Leader John Thune … Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) … Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) … Curtis Sliwa. CNN “State of the Union”: Beto O’Rourke … Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). Panel: Bryan Lanza, Karen Finney, Jamie Herrera Beutler and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) … Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) Panel: Yoni Appelbaum … Jessica Taylor … Tia Mitchell … Michael Warren. MSNBC “The Weekend”: Jim Parsons … Colorado AG Phil Weiser … Matt Crane.
| | | | 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 | | James Clapper was reportedly blackballed by the Trump administration from his dog’s graduation from a CIA training course. Pam Bondi and Doug Burgum scoped out Alcatraz. IN MEMORIAM — “William Lacy ‘Bill’ Clay Sr., Missouri’s first Black congressman, dies at 94,” by FOX 2’s Andy Banker and Joey Schneider: “There was no blueprint for his rise to prominence in the 1960s. He certainly left one behind. … Clay is largely remembered as an advocate for environmentalism, labor issues, and social justice. He was one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus, fighting for workers’ rights, minimum wage hikes, and sponsoring the Family and Medical Leave Act, which became law in 1993.” OUT AND ABOUT — Jon Kelly hosted a “Puck Power Breakfast” yesterday morning at Ned’s Club featuring Leigh Ann Caldwell in conversation with Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, on farm policy, crypto, MAHA and the future of the Democratic Party. SPOTTED: Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Gregg Muehler, Mitchell Rivard, Jonathan Cousimano, Andrew Wills, Charlotte Smith, Britton Burdick, Erick Lutt, Brian Naber, Brian Leake, Amber Lyons, Tony Zagora, Tucker Warren, Tammy Haddad, Liz Johnson, Govind Shivkumar, Katy Ball, Brennen Cain, Robyn Patterson, Abby Livingston, Brielle Hopkins, Josh Dickson, Rod Snyder, Anne MacMillan and Annie Adair. — SPOTTED last night at GlobalWIN's happy hour honoring the House Chiefs of Staff Association at the Visa Payments Vault: Terry McAuliffe, Joe Crowley, Michelle Dorothy, Ashley Jones, Sarah Kaplan Feinmann, Mitchell Rivard, Kate Kenworthy, Katherine Sears, Dylan Sodaro, Anne Sokolov, Megan Malone, Lila Nieves-Lee, Leah Graham, Sarah Hudson, Hollyn Schuemann, Nicole Mortier, Jennifer Curley, Julie Eddy Rokala, Krysta Juris, Melissa Wade, Amy Murphy, Sydney Paul, Helen Milby and Melika Carroll. MEDIA MOVE — Casey Murray is joining Bloomberg Tax as a reporter covering Sacramento upon completion of her Allbritton Journalism Institute fellowship at NOTUS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Del. James Moylan (R-Guam) … Kate Balcerzak … Olivier Knox of U.S. News and World Report … Pepper Natonski … Coinbase’s Julia Krieger … Teddy Tanzer … POLITICO’s Daniel Cusick … Carol Ross Joynt … NBC’s Gadi Schwartz … Chris Marroletti … John Sobel of Telegraph Advisors … Billy McBeath … Evan Ross of This January … former Reps. T.J. Cox (D-Calif.) and Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) … Suzanne Ruecker … former Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) … Matt Hite of the American Rental Association … David Vandivier … Lizzie Ivry Cooper of EMILY’s List … Fox Business Network’s Jackie DeAngelis … David Kamin … Nathan Mick of the American Association of Orthodontists … State’s Alexander Knorr … Steve Forbes 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 misstated the nature of the vote that the House took Wednesday night. The House advanced a trio of cryptocurrency bills and a 2026 Defense spending measure with a procedural vote. It also misstated which legislation the House was scheduled to vote on yesterday. It was the Defense appropriations bill.
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