| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco Good Tuesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard. Reminder: There’s no Playbook Podcast or Playbook PM this week. Both will be back next week. Get in touch. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Gavin Newsom, the California governor and Democratic man-of-the-hour, will be the star turn tomorrow at POLITICO’s first California Policy Summit. Newsom will sit down for a livestreamed interview with POLITICO’s editorial director for California, Christopher Cadelago, and you can expect plenty of back-and-forth about Newsom’s redistricting plan, his 2028 presidential hopes and — of course — his gleeful trolling of Donald Trump. Sign up now: Register for the summit livestream here, and stay tuned for interviews with other Golden State figures including Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla and 2026 Democratic gubernatorial rivals Katie Porter, Xavier Becerra, and Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco. The summit is just the latest milestone in POLITICO’s trailblazing expansion into West Coast politics, having tripled the size of our California operation and launched new, dedicated coverage in areas like tech, climate and energy. In today’s Playbook … — Standoff at the Fed as Trump moves to fire Biden appointee. Next stop: the courts. — Indiana GOP hits the White House for gerrymandering talks. — Outrage grows over latest Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital.
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President Donald Trump's intention to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is the latest test of the central bank's independence. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo | STANDOFF: Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook last night insisted she’s going nowhere after Trump announced he was firing her with immediate effect. The president published a bombshell letter shortly after 8 p.m. telling Cook — who was appointed to a 14-year term by then-President Joe Biden in 2022 — that she was being removed from her position over (as yet unproven) allegations of mortgage fraud. The unprecedented move would give Trump a majority of appointees on the Fed’s all-powerful board of governors and — potentially — a vice-like grip on the direction of the independent central bank. We’re in uncharted territory here. No president has ever fired a Fed governor before, as AP notes. The Fed has been independent of executive branch influence since 1951. This AP primer explains why previous efforts by politicians to sway the Fed (think Richard Nixon ahead of the 1972 election) have tended to go disastrously wrong. The question all D.C. is asking: Can he actually do it? Going nowhere: Cook insists the answer is no, releasing a defiant statement via her attorney shortly after 11 p.m. vowing to remain in the post. “President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” she said. “I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.” But no one knows for sure. Despite the White House’s assertions that this is a done deal, most lede-all headlines are carefully framing this only as an attempt to fire Cook. “President Says He Is Removing Lisa Cook …” writes the NYT. “Trump moves to fire Federal Reserve governor …” says WaPo. “Trump Says He Is Removing Fed Governor …” reports the WSJ. In short … this remains a standoff. And it’s surely headed for the courts. But let’s be clear: It’s a massive moment for the nation and the economy. Trump’s actions suggest he has his eye on a far more ambitious prize than just replacing Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term ends next May. Instead, the president appears to want total control over the bank’s interest-rate setting structures. Firing Cook now would give Trump a majority of appointees on the Fed’s seven-person board, ahead of a key moment next year when the board reappoints the independently chosen regional chairs who make up the rest of the voting bloc. The bottom line: Plenty of Fed watchers believe we’re seeing the greatest threat to its independence in generations.
| | | | A message from Booz Allen: Booz Allen uses the most advanced tech to engineer, build, and deploy what nobody else can. So our nation can stay ahead. It's how we win every time, everywhere. It's in our code. Learn more. | | | | So again — can he do it? The NYT’s respected legal guru Adam Liptak has a go at answering that question, noting that while recent Supreme Court decisions have largely upheld Trump’s right to fire government officials, the justices have also been clear that the Fed is a very different beast. Instead, the rules suggest Trump needs due cause to fire a central bank governor. And given Cook has not even faced formal charges — let alone been convicted of anything — Liptak concludes Trump has “probably” overstretched. But who knows? This one could easily be escalated to the Supreme Court, where decisions have been anything but predictable of late. Liptak’s NYT colleague Charlie Savage ponders whether this Supreme Court might not “say a president can’t be second-guessed if he says he sees a cause,” which certainly sounds like a plausible outcome. We’ll have to wait and see. Abbe’s road: A further layer of legal intrigue sees Cook represented by D.C. megalawyer Abbe Lowell, who has supported a long line of controversial political figures over the past 30 years, from former President Bill Clinton (in his impeachment trial) through former Sen. Bob Menendez to Jared and Ivanka Trump, and recently Hunter Biden. This looks like yet another blockbuster case for the résumé. Two other big questions loom this morning. 1) How does the Fed respond today, given the impossible position it now finds itself in — caught in a showdown between one of its own governors and the president? As POLITICO economics guru Victoria Guida notes: “The dilemma for the Fed is immediate. … Do they treat her as fired or not?” Watch this space. 2) How will markets react? Along with the courts, the markets have been the only other major force to put any kind of brake on Trump’s second presidency — with Wall Street meltdowns reportedly pushing him to postpone “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, and to drop reported plans to fire Powell last month. Could things turn ugly again today, given the importance so many economists place on Fed independence? Markets open at 9:30 a.m. Now read this: WaPo’s Rachel Siegel has a timely piece looking at how the Trump administration is using mortgage filings to go after targets like Cook, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and New York AG Letitia James. It’s also worth reading this short essay by Georgetown Law School’s Adam Levitin accusing Trump’s mortgage fraud attack dog, FHFA Director Bill Pulte, of abuse of office. And then watch this: Trump is due to host a cabinet meeting at 11 a.m., with the press pool invited in to ask questions. No prizes for guessing what’s going to be top of mind.
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| | | | TRAIL MIX HOOSIER DADDY? Trump’s other big appointment today is a private meeting with GOP state legislators from Indiana, who have been invited to the White House for redistricting talks at 1 p.m, Playbook’s Adam Wren texts in to say. The expectation is that Trump and other White House officials will put the screws on skeptical GOP Hoosiers who harbor serious doubts about the wisdom of trying to redraw the electoral map mid-decade in order to scoop up extra seats. Reminder: Today’s summit is only the latest step in an ongoing White House campaign to pressure the Indiana GOP into taking Texas-style gerrymandering action, as Adam and Andrew Howard reported earlier this month. We’re expecting dozens of Hoosiers in town today, although some of the most skeptical have flat-out turned the president down. Quote of the day: Among them is GOP state Sen. Jim Tomes, who told State News that redistricting “is something we don’t need to do.” “I’m not going to D.C.,” Tomes added. “I wouldn’t go out to D.C. under a court order.” Family affair: Among those who are making the trip is Indiana Speaker of the House Todd Huston. His daughter, Liz Huston, will also be at the White House, Adam notes, where she works full-time as an assistant to Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. First in Playbook — Warning shot: New polling reveals the very risks for the Indiana GOP if they press ahead with Trump’s plan, POLITICO’s Lisa Kashinsky and Adam scoop this morning. In a survey from left-leaning firm Change Research, 52 percent of “registered voters in Indiana — which Trump won by 19 points last year — said they are against Republicans revising their maps, with 43 percent ‘strongly’ opposing the effort. That opposition rises to 60 percent after voters are informed of arguments for and against redistricting.” Meanwhile, in the Golden State: California Republicans are suing to block Newsom’s Democratic gerrymander, per The Sacramento Bee. … But the electoral opposition to Newsom’s proposal is looking fractured with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy each helming committees opposing the new maps — while “not coordinating their efforts,” POLITICO’s Emily Schultheis and Will McCarthy report. Oh dear. The gist: “That distance reflects a core divide among the Republicans jumping into the fray against Gov. Newsom’s Prop 50,” they write. “One faction that hopes to manage President Donald Trump’s involvement, one that wants to keep him far away.” Fun one: Schwarzenegger’s “Twins” co-star Danny DeVito has donated to support Newsom’s proposal campaign. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Coming soon to the airwaves in NoVa: Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s campaign is out with a new six-figure ad buy this morning attacking Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears for supporting Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It marks the first time a major Democratic candidate has targeted a Republican opponent over the megabill, which Earle-Sears said “does so many great things.” The ad, which will begin running in the Richmond and Norfolk TV markets today, claims the bill will raise health care and energy costs for some Americans. Watch the 30-second spot KEY IN THE KEYSTONE: The entry of firefighters union head Bob Brooks into the race to unseat Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District is set to roil an already crowded Democratic primary and jumpstart a proxy battle between party leaders, POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein scoops. Brooks, who is pitching himself as a working-class everyman, has the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and a slew of other state officials — endorsements that “reveal a split in the political establishment” with Carol Obando-Derstine already holding a number of influential endorsements.
| | | | The California Agenda-- Don't miss POLITICO's inaugural California policy summit in Sacramento. Join us virtually to explore policy debates around tech, energy, health care and more. Hear from Sen. Alex Padilla (D), Katie Porter, GOP gubernatorial candidates and more! Register to watch. | | | | | BEST OF THE REST MIDDLE EAST LATEST: A storm of outrage continues today over the back-to-back Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza, which killed an estimated 20 people, including five journalists, AP’s Wafaa Shurafa and colleagues report. Following the first strike, journalists and rescue workers can be seen on video “rushing to the scene … before a massive explosion hits an exterior staircase where journalists are often stationed.” Netanyahu responds: In a statement, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office described the strike as a “tragic mishap,” though stopped short of a formal apology. Netanyahu said the military was investigating the incident, and that “Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians.” Not having it: “They are doing everything they can to silence independent voices that are trying to report on Gaza,” said Thibaut Bruttin, the director general of press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders. The organization is calling for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council “to examine what it called Israel’s failure to uphold the U.N. resolution protecting independent journalists in times of conflict,” per the AP. TRUMP’S CONSTITUTIONAL TESTS: In the Oval Office yesterday, Trump appeared before a press spray and pushed against the outer limits of his constitutionally recognized powers. On critics of the military presence in Washington: “They say, ‘We don't need him. Freedom. Freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator,’” Trump said, per NBC. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense, and I’m a smart person. And when I see what’s happened to our cities, and then you send in troops.” Up next on that front: Chicago. “Trump repeatedly decried the nation’s third-largest city as ‘a disaster’ and ‘a killing field,’ suggesting he will deploy the Illinois National Guard to Chicago against the wishes of city and state officials,” per POLITICO’s Jacob Wendler and Paul McLeary. “‘We go in, we will solve Chicago within one week, maybe less,’ Trump said Monday morning. ‘But within one week, we’ll have no crime in Chicago, like no crime in D.C.’” Not fans of that: pretty much every major elected official in Illinois. Gov. J.B. Pritzker corralled dozens of legislative leaders, clergy, education leaders and CEOs downtown to stand alongside the governor in a show of force yesterday, POLITICO’s Shia Kapos writes in. Pritzker, considered a possible 2028 presidential candidate, leaned into the optics, corralling images across social media of the governor and others hitting the streets that run directly against Trump’s dystopian description of Chicago. Long may she wave: At the same event in the Oval, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to prosecute people who burn the American flag, arguing that it can amount to an attempt to “incite violence and riot,” in the words of the order. “If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing,” Trump added … though the order included no such language. One big problem: Flag-burning is constitutionally protected free speech, as the Supreme Court ruled in 1989’s Texas v. Johnson. Among the jurists in that majority opinion: conservative legal titan Antonin Scalia. Today’s court has shifted considerably to the right, of course, and it’s possible that it may rule differently now. Trump’s executive order nodded at precedent, and, per the AP’s Darlene Superville, “called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue litigation to challenge the 1989 ruling.” Notable names: “Trump’s flag-burning order draws rare fire from conservatives,” by Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick
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| | | | IMMIGRATION FILES: A Maryland federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from again deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The administration, which previously sent Abrego to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador, now seeks to send him to Uganda — a country to which he has no ties, per the WSJ. In her ruling, Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the federal government is “absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States,” and said she’d hear additional arguments from lawyers in the next few days. EPSTEIN LATEST: House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) subpoenaed the estate of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, demanding it hand over documents and communications by Sept. 8. The committee also announced that Alexander Acosta, the former Trump Labor secretary who was U.S. attorney for Southern Florida when Epstein received a plea deal in 2008, will go before the committee members for a “transcribed interview” on Sept. 19. NOW READ THIS: Pulling all of these strands together is a new column from POLITICO’s Rachael Bade, who considers the motivations and the politics of Trump’s crackdown in D.C. Her conclusion is that Dems are walking straight into a GOP trap. “The president is playing to a national audience — and betting this is a battle he and the GOP can win,” she writes. “If his recent escalation was an attempt to goad Democrats into declaring that crime isn’t a problem, repelling swing voters in the process, top Democrats did not disappoint him.” Same mistakes: Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine says: “Just like with immigration, Trump has found another issue where the Democratic Party is on a back foot ... The fact that we have people arguing that crime is not a problem is crazy.” GOP strategist Karl Rove adds: “[Trump] senses that it's a vulnerability on the part of Democrats — and it is. It galvanizes public attention, keeps the Epstein issue and to a lesser extent the Ukrainian war issue off the front pages, and keeps the focus on the controversy between the president and the big-city Democrats.”
| | | | Want to know how policy pros stay ahead? Policy Intelligence Assistant — only with POLITICO Pro — merges trusted reporting with advanced AI to deliver deeper insights, faster answers, and powerful report builders that drive action. Get 30 days free. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | MEDIA MOVES — ProPublica has added Keri Blakinger and Raquel Rutledge as national reporters. Blakinger previously was a reporter for the LA Times and is a Marshall Project and Houston Chronicle alum. Rutledge previously was investigations editor at The Examination and is a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel alum. … Lydia Wheeler is now a legal affairs reporter at The Wall Street Journal. She previously was a Supreme Court reporter for Bloomberg Law and is a The Hill and Inside Business alum. TRANSITIONS — Former U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is now a partner in Cooley LLP’s global litigation department, leading their Supreme Court and appellate practice group. … Juan Carlos Mora is now a professional staffer on the House Natural Resources Committee under Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). He previously was a professional staffer on the House Judiciary Committee under Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and is a Mike Thompson and Alex Padilla alum. … Samantha Cantrell is now regional press secretary at the NRSC. She was previously comms director for Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.). ENGAGED — Danny Smith, senior advisor and director of member services for the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, and Reilly Knecht, associate director and editorial booker for Axios Live, got engaged over the weekend on The Met rooftop in New York City. They are both Texans, Aggies, and met in 2018 over coffee in the Rayburn cafeteria. — Gates McGavick, deputy director of public affairs at DOJ, and Jacki Kotkiewicz, policy comms director at the White House, recently got engaged in downtown Annapolis. The couple met working together at the RNC in 2022. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Bill Whitaker … Bob Barnett … David Jackson … State’s Tiffany Cox and Kirk Anderson … The New Republic’s Grace Segers … Gara LaMarche … Oracle’s Josh Pitcock … former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge (8-0) … Eddie Vale of New Paradigm Agency … Jennifer Sherman of Reservoir Communications Group … Nicole Gaudiano … POLITICO’s Jordan Muller and Reese Quanstrom … Bloomberg Government’s Maeve Sheehey … Ilyse Hogue … Miriam Elder … Patrick Dorton of Rational 360 … Resonate’s Navin Nayak … Rebekah Hoshiko … Lindsey Curnutte … Satyam Khanna … Stephen Dubner … Arthur MacMillan … NBC’s Savannah Sellers and Sophia Maltese … Myles Miller … Julian Epstein … Russell Adam of the Herald Group … Quint Forgey … Hunter Wilson of Plus Communications … Jordan Wong of Vote Mama Lobby … Justin Dillon … Jim Harris of Bain … Nick Martin of Rep. Suzan DelBene’s (D-Wash.) office … Payton Fuller of Sen. Roger Marshall’s (R-Kan.) office … Anna Connelly of New Heights Communications … Eric Fehrnstrom 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.
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