| | | |  | | By Adam Wren | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine, Ali Bianco and Rachel Umansky-Castro You made it to Saturday. I’m Adam Wren. Get in touch. MAHA MUST READ: “An ‘anarcho-capitalist’ is bringing libertarians into RFK Jr.’s fold,” by POLITICO’s Amanda Chu, Tim Röhn and Amanda Friedman: “If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ends up finding the cause of autism, convincing parents vaccinating their kids is optional and turning conservatives into advocates of using government to combat chronic disease, he can thank Jeffrey Tucker. “In founding the Brownstone Institute, Tucker, a 61-year-old libertarian activist who brought leading opponents of Covid lockdowns into the health secretary’s orbit, has carved out a splinter faction that’s promoting Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement from the right.”
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
On the heels of the June "No Kings" event, today’s set pieces are expected to unfold across all 50 states and some 2,600 events. | Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images | CAPTURE THE FLAG — Millions of Americans are expected to demonstrate as part of the second “No Kings” movement march later today, in what could be the largest wave of protests of President Donald Trump’s second administration. On the heels of the June event — which coincided with a parade celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary and Trump’s 79th birthday, drawing an estimated 5 million — today’s set pieces are expected to unfold across all 50 states and some 2,600 events. But demonstrations will collide with at least three major forces that will make today’s events fundamentally different. For starters, “No Kings” will arrive in Washington at around noon, where protestors steered clear in June, amid a federal government shutdown. National Guard troop deployments loom over half a dozen major U.S. cities, and tensions are running high. But organizers say today’s marches happen amid an intentional effort to paint the events as patriotic. In the run-up to today, Republicans ranging from Speaker Mike Johnson to House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain (Mich.) to House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Minn.) have portrayed the planned events as un-American. “We call it the ‘hate America’ rally that will happen Saturday,” Johnson told reporters this week. “Let’s see who shows up for that. I bet you you’ll see Hamas supporters, I bet you’ll see antifa types, I bet you’ll see the Marxists on full display, the people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.” Democrats are seeking to reframe the protests as a fundamentally patriotic and American exercise. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) helped organize a social media video of her fellow colleagues who have served the nation in national security roles to promote the event, including Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain and pilot, and Ruben Gallego, a former Marine, and Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), a former Army captain. In the video, Kelly and others called on those who have served to “step up for the country we all love” and attend a “No Kings” event “out of a deep sense of patriotism.” They all spoke with American flags draped behind them. For Slotkin and her allies, the effort is part of a larger post-November Democratic project, as she put it to me earlier this year laying out her “war plan,” to “fucking retake the flag.” Ryan told Playbook the group has been having a pretty much daily dialogue as “Trump has ratcheted up the politicization of the military.” “It’s been more and more urgent that we’re talking and coordinating, and particularly when we heard this absolute bullshit rhetoric from Johnson and Trump about ‘No Kings.’ We knew they’d try to do what they’re now doing. So we thought it was really important to make clear that there’s literally nothing more patriotic and more American than exercising your First Amendment rights when you disagree with the direction of your country.” That Democrats even need to make a point of retaking the flag suggests that they sensed they had lost it to Republicans. In their long journey out of the wilderness, Democrats believe they need to recenter themselves around what they have allowed to become a right-coded symbol. Today’s protests will be a test of whether they can. Ryan told Playbook he’d be hitting at least two “No Kings” events in his New York congressional district, including in Kingston, and says he’ll be wearing an American flag hat and T-shirt. He’ll be reading excerpts of the Declaration of Independence — “the original ‘No Kings’ document,” as he put it.
| | | | A message from Evernorth Health Services: Controversy around GLP-1s and how much pharmaceutical companies want Americans to pay for them continues to rise. Which is why we offer a benefit that ensures members pay no more than $200/month out of pocket for certain GLP-1s for weight loss. That's not a middleman. That's an advocate.
See how Express Scripts Pharmacy Benefit Services is advocating to make GLP-1s more affordable for millions here. | | | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. SO MUCH FOR THAT PIVOT: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy left the White House without the long-range Tomahawk missiles he came for to strike deep inside Russia, POLITICO’s Eli Stokols and colleagues report. Zelenskyy told NBC’s Kristen Welker he’s still hopeful Trump will say yes. Trump didn’t rule it out, but expressed concern about escalation. More than that, Trump appears to have been convinced by Russian President Vladimir Putin yet again that he wants to end the war he started. And he called for both countries to agree to a ceasefire at current battle lines, which Zelenskyy was open to as a starting point for negotiations, per WaPo. Talking about talks: Trump is now doubling down on the prospect that another round of diplomacy can move the Ukraine war toward a resolution, hoping a summit in Budapest can prove more fruitful than Alaska. The U.S. is taking steps to bolster leverage over Russia, including more staff meetings before the summit; Ukraine and its European allies see the switch from special envoy Steve Witkoff to Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a welcome one, WSJ’s Vera Bergengruen and Annie Linskey report. But “Ukrainians now worry they have lost the momentum they had built in recent weeks,” NYT’s Constant Méheut reports from Kyiv. 2. THE MAINE PROBLEM: Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is trying to pivot away from the fallout of his divisive online posts that endorsed political violence, minimized rape in the military and disparaged police, POLITICO’s Aaron Pellish writes. The former Marine, oysterman and small business owner posted a video message to X last night that’s closing in on 3 million views. “When I got back from Afghanistan in 2011, I stayed in the Army for another year. I got out in 2012. Some of the worst comments I made, the things that I’m — I think are least defensible, that I wouldn’t even try to defend, come from that time,” he said in the video message. “When I got out, I still had the crude humor, the dark, dark feelings, the offensive language that really was a hallmark — hallmark of the infantry when I was in it.” The online left has mostly praised the apology video as an example of authenticity and personal growth. Whether Platner can turn the corner remains a question. Playbook obtained screenshots of additional archived Reddit posts from September 2021 in which he calls “some” Maine lobstermen “drug addicted maniacs” and a “few” who were “pieces of shit … absolutely terrible people.” He added that “lots of guys are assholes, some are strung out or drunks, and some are lazy,” and that “the future of lobstering is pretty uncertain” on account of regulations and global warming. In response to a user who said they had a dream of becoming a lobsterman, asking users to “crush my dreams with reality," Platner, posting with the Reddit username “P-Hustle,” said “the majority are solid folks making a living. I work on the water and know a whole bunch of lobstermen, and only a few are pieces of shit. Granted, those few are absolutely terrible people, but it’s not remotely the bulk of guys fishing.” Lobstermen, who number in the thousands, are a political force in an essential Maine industry. Yesterday, Platner’s political director, former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald, stepped down, according to the Bangor Daily News’ Billy Kobin. ”While I am empathetic to Graham’s experiences and respect his personal journey and growth, I cannot overlook the volume and nature of his past comments, many of which were made as an adult, not as a young man,” McDonald wrote. She was a lobsterman. A spokesperson for Platner did not respond to a request for comment on the lobstermen posts.
| | | | A message from Evernorth Health Services: Controversy around GLP-1s and how much pharmaceutical companies want Americans to pay for them continues to rise. Which is why we offer a benefit that ensures members pay no more than $200/month out of pocket for certain GLP-1s for weight loss. That's not a middleman. That's an advocate.
See how Express Scripts Pharmacy Benefit Services is advocating to make GLP-1s more affordable for millions here. | | | | 3. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: In the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, career prosecutor Elizabeth Yusi has been fired after determining there was no probable cause to bring criminal charges against New York AG Letitia James, NYT’s Alan Feuer and colleagues report. So was deputy Kristin Bird. They’re the latest in a series of ousters that have hit the office as Trump erases its independence to go after his political opponents. Bracing for impact: As the Soros family readies for Trump to use the power of government to target them, the Open Society Foundations and others in the liberal megadonor’s network aren’t retreating, WSJ’s Maggie Severns and Gregory Zuckerman report. “The foundation is continuing to hand out millions of dollars in grants even as it girds for a fight.” 4. HEADED TO SCOTUS: Trump’s deployment of the military in American cities is headed to the Supreme Court for the first time. The administration yesterday asked the justices to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that blocked 700 National Guard troops from going into the Chicago area, per the Chicago Tribune’s Jason Meisner. … Meanwhile, local officials in Memphis filed suit against Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, arguing that the deployment of the National Guard in the city violated the state constitution, per the Commercial Appeal’s Brooke Muckerman and colleagues. … And in San Francisco, tech titan Marc Benioff apologized and retreated from his previous support for troops to be sent in. 5. DEMOCRACY WATCH: “White House Hires ‘Stop the Steal’ Lawyer to Investigate 2020 Election Claims,” by WSJ’s Josh Dawsey and colleagues: “Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who unsuccessfully pushed claims of voter fraud, has joined the administration as a ‘special government employee’ … He is talking directly with President Trump … Olsen has begun asking intelligence agencies for information about the 2020 election … Olsen has told others he also wants to weed out some government employees who he believes are disloyal to Trump.” 6. SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN: OMB Director Russ Vought continued to use the government shutdown to freeze federal spending in Democratic-led states and pressure congressional Democrats, pausing $11 billion worth of Army Corps of Engineers projects, per POLITICO’s Ben Johansen. The majority of the money would have gone to New York. Vought now “has assembled one of the most powerful and exacting teams in Washington,” POLITICO’s Sophia Cai reports, “all aimed at slashing the federal bureaucracy and ensuring what’s left bends to the administration’s will.” Going deep on Vought: “Donald Trump’s Deep-State Wrecking Ball,” by Andy Kroll for The New Yorker and ProPublica: “Russell Vought is using the White House budget office to lay waste to the federal bureaucracy — firing workers, decimating agencies, and testing the rule of law.” More fallout: Despite a federal court order barring many layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown, Treasury, HHS and DHS said in court yesterday that it wouldn’t apply to the thousands of civil servants they’ve fired, per Bloomberg’s Zoe Tillman. Meanwhile, the number of federal workers filing for unemployment more than doubled to roughly 7,200 last week, Bloomberg’s Mark Niquette and Nazmul Ahasan scooped. And the federal court system will have to begin furloughing employees and reducing some of its operations, which hasn’t happened in almost 30 years, Reuters’ Nate Raymond reports.
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➡️ Subscribe to West Wing Playbook | | | | | 7. CRIME PAYS: “Trump grants clemency to disgraced former lawmaker George Santos,” by POLITICO’s Aaron Pellish and Erica Orden: “[George] Santos had served less than three months of a seven-year term for wire fraud and identity theft when Trump announced in a social media post that he would commute the rest of the sentence. The president cited the former New York lawmaker’s political support in the announcement.” Santos’ lawyer said he was set free last night. 8. SCHOOL DAZE: The University of Virginia became the fifth of nine top schools to reject the Trump administration’s offer of a “compact” that would impose several conditions in exchange for access to greater federal funding, per The Cavalier Daily’s Cecilia Mould. These rejections “highlight the risks of the president’s penchant for enforcing loyalty through aggressive, punitive tactics that can alienate potential allies,” NYT’s Michael Bender reports. But the White House is expanding its push to other schools, inviting Arizona State University, the University of Kansas and Washington University in St. Louis to a meeting about it yesterday, WSJ’s Douglas Belkin and colleagues scooped. 9. TRADING PLACES: Trump officially signed an order to slap 25 percent tariffs on imported trucks and 10 percent on imported buses starting Nov. 1, per CBS. But at the same time, the administration lengthened a tariff exemption for some auto parts that are difficult to find in the U.S. Both announcements were welcomed by some American automakers as important relief. The step back: Recently, the administration has been exempting more products from reciprocal tariffs or individual deals with trading partners, WSJ’s Gavin Bade and Jesse Newman note. That “reflects a growing sentiment among administration officials that the U.S. should lower levies on goods that it doesn’t domestically produce.” Dance of the superpowers: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer spoke yesterday evening with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng ahead of face-to-face talks next week, as the two countries seek to de-escalate recently flaring trade tensions, per Bloomberg’s Daniel Flatley and Josh Wingrove.
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| | | | CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 15 funnies
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Drew Sheneman - Tribune Content Agency | GREAT WEEKEND READS: — “The Rules of Investing Are Being Loosened. Could It Lead to the Next 1929?” by NYT’s Andrew Ross Sorkin: “A group of financiers is trying to convince the public to invest heavily in private equity and crypto — a risky gambit with some real 1920s vibes.” — “How I Became a Populist,” by Alvaro Bedoya in The New Republic: “My time at the Federal Trade Commission — before Donald Trump fired me — totally changed the way I see our political divide.” — “Unfettered and Unaccountable: How Trump is Building a Violent, Shadowy Federal Police Force,” by ProPublica’s J. David McSwane and Hannah Allam: Current and former national security officials “describe the legions of masked immigration officers operating in near-total anonymity on the orders of the president as the crossing of a line that had long set the United States apart from the world’s most repressive regimes.” — “Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data,” by Wired’s Andy Greenberg and Matt Burgess: “With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data — including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications — sent by satellites unencrypted.” — “‘It broke me’: Inside the FBI hunt for the online predators who persuaded a 13-year-old to die,” by WaPo’s William Wan with Der Spiegel in Gig Harbor, Washington: “As the case dragged on, the FBI would come to view these groups as a terrorist threat, estimating that their members have targeted thousands of children.” — “Sex, Rage, and Video: The Making of an Incel Hero,” by Jen Golbeck in Esquire: “In the dark corners of the Internet, a growing number of angry men fantasize about violence against women. Johnny Young went viral for turning his twisted vision into reality.” — “The Vanishing Act: How Assad’s Top Henchmen Fled Syria, and Justice,” by NYT’s Erika Solomon and colleagues: “As Syria’s regime collapsed, the world’s eyes were on Bashar al-Assad’s getaway flight. Behind him, officials key to his brutal rule made a mass exodus, virtually undetected.”
| | | | POLITICO’s Global Security briefing connects the policies, deals, and industrial shifts shaping the global defense landscape. From Washington to Brussels, we follow who’s funding what, what’s being built, and how power moves across continents. Subscribe now for the free preview. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | IN MEMORIAM — “NPR ‘founding mother’ Susan Stamberg has died,” by NPR’s David Folkenflik: “Susan Stamberg, an original National Public Radio staffer who went on to become the first U.S. woman to anchor a nightly national news program, died Thursday at the age of 87. Few figures have informed the sensibility of NPR more than Stamberg.” FRONTIERS OF TROLLING — The White House and federal agencies launched Bluesky accounts to criticize Democrats for the government shutdown and get GOP messaging in front of liberal-leaning audiences. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — Michael Schaffer pens his latest Capital City column for POLITICO Magazine: “In D.C., the Arc de Trump Goes Up as the Local Workforce Shuts Down”: “As an economic matter, the question is tricky: Can you have a shiny, crime-free city full of head-turning new memorials if you’ve just taken a jackhammer to that city’s major industries? In most places where the top employers have undergone similar tumult — Detroit when the auto industry fell, say — it hasn’t exactly led to a golden era of tourism, safety, and beauty.” PLAYBOOK ARCHITECTURE SECTION — The centerpiece of the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center is a huge granite obelisk that Barack Obama envisions as “a bustling community anchor,” but some South Side locals aren’t thrilled about it, NYT’s Sam Lubell reports from Chicago. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Randi Braun’s Something Major power lunch yesterday at Rasika West End: Chelsea Koski, Allison Dembeck, Teresa Stepic, Erin Stublarec and Laura Vogel. TRANSITION — Ted Lee is now a principal at capital markets platform Crux. He previously worked at the Treasury Department and is a Biden White House alum. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Young Kim (R-Calif.) and Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) … NYT’s Annie Karni … former SEC Chair Gary Gensler … Puck’s Julia Ioffe … Makese Motley … Brunswick Group’s Michael Krempasky … Babs Chase … Jordan Cox of the White House … Jon Decker … J Loft Company’s Jake Loft … Marc Ginsberg … Heritage Action’s Janae Stracke … Edelman’s Trisch Smith … Marion Smith of Common Sense Society … former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) … Martha Burk … Disney’s Caitlin Conant … Bloomberg’s Matt Shirley … Andrew Millman … former Reps. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.), Chris Shays (R-Conn.) and Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) … Sophie Shiff … Beau Salant of Impact Research … Sahil Jain THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): POLITICO “The Conversation”: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker … Jacqui Heinrich. Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: President Donald Trump. NBC “Meet the Press”: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy … Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Panel: Sara Fagen, Carol Lee, Susan Page and Neera Tanden. ABC “This Week”: Speaker Mike Johnson … House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Sarah Isgur and Leigh Ann Caldwell. Fox News “The Sunday Briefing”: Speaker Mike Johnson … Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) … Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin … Jensen Huang … Dave Portnoy. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) … Jack Ciattarelli … Grace and Bill Drexel. Panel: Josh Holmes, Stef Kight, Kevin Roberts and Juan Williams. CNN “State of the Union”: DNC Chair Ken Martin … Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). Panel: Faiz Shakir, Paul Begala, Chris Sununu and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) … Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) … Christine Lagarde. Higher education panel: Miki Turner, Jeri Seidman and Leila Hudson. MSNBC “The Weekend: Primetime”: Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) … Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) … Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) … Minnesota AG Keith Ellison. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) … Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) … Chris Sununu. Panel: George Will, Julie Mason, Sarah McCammon and Tal Kopan. 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 deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
| | | | A message from Evernorth Health Services: Lowering costs. Improving patient access. Supporting long-term health. Express Scripts Pharmacy Benefit Services is making it all possible through better GLP-1 benefits. Benefits delivering better care for millions by ensuring members pay no more than $200/month out of pocket for certain GLP-1s for weight loss. And it's not just their patients who are benefiting from this first-of-its-kind offer. They're helping to lower costs for health plans, unions, government agencies, public sector organizations, and more. Savings that allow them to expand access to more patients without breaking their budgets. That's not a middleman. That's an advocate.
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