| | | |  | | By Jeff Coltin | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine, Ali Bianco and Rachel Umansky-Castro Happy Sunday, this is Jeff Coltin. I cover New York City politics as co-author of New York Playbook, where we’ve been all over this electric mayoral race in the greatest city in the world. Get in touch, and subscribe to New York Playbook!
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Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani now stands on the cusp of winning the general election. | Angelina Katsanis/AP | LIVE, FROM NEW YORK — Sitting at a White House lunch with the president of Argentina last week, it only took President Donald Trump three minutes to bring up the New York City mayoral race. If “a communist wins, you feel a lot differently about making an investment” in the city, Trump said. He elaborated later, threatening to cut off federal funding to his hometown if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani wins. “We have a communist who's 33 years old, doesn't know a damn thing,” Trump added. “Practically, he's never worked a day in his life. And he's sort of caught on.” “I watched [Mamdani] a couple of times be interviewed, and he’s pretty slick,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” this morning. “But he doesn’t have what it takes. He doesn’t have what it takes. The city will be in big trouble.” Some quick clarifications: Mamdani is a democratic socialist, not a communist. He has represented part of Queens in the state Assembly for nearly five years, and he turned 34 on Saturday. (“I know some of you have expressed concerns about my age,” Mamdani said in one of his recent viral videos. “I’m committing that for every single day from here on out, I will grow older.”) But he’s certainly caught on, becoming a political sensation the likes of which the Big Apple hasn’t seen since Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) became an overnight celebrity in 2018. Months after he foiled former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s comeback attempt with a shock Democratic primary victory, Mamdani now stands on the cusp of winning the general election. The millennial has a double-digit lead in every poll — up 21 points in a Fox News poll conducted last week — and victory seemed even more likely after Mamdani’s commanding performance in the first debate on Thursday, where he consistently steered the conversation back to affordability, his winning issue. But just because a win appears inevitable doesn’t mean it’s boring. Mamdani’s main opponent is Cuomo, the 67-year-old business-friendly former executive who resigned four years ago following sexual harassment allegations that he denies. A lifelong Democrat whose father was a three-term Democratic governor before him, Cuomo is now making a last-ditch comeback attempt from his failed comeback attempt by running as an independent in the general election.
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See how Express Scripts Pharmacy Benefit Services is advocating to make GLP-1s more affordable for millions here. | | | | But standing in the way of his efforts to consolidate the anti-Mamdani vote is Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa — the tabloid-famous founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol group, who charmed some debate viewers with his frenetic energy and Real New York tales of getting shot by the mob in the back of a taxi cab. Mayor Eric Adams dropped his reelection effort last month, dogged by a historically low approval rating even after the Trump administration dropped the bribery charges against him. But Sliwa has been firmly resistant to such pressures, saying the only way he’s getting out is if “a Mack truck hits me and I get turned into a speed bump and they can’t recover me in the ICU.” Despite that, Cuomo is all but demanding Trump pull strings to get Sliwa out of the race — and theorizing that Trump isn’t doing so because Republican leaders want a socialist mayor of New York City who previously called to “defund the police” and sponsored a bill to decriminalize prostitution to use as a foil next year. Trump seemed to move away from any potential meddling on Fox News this morning. “Would I rather have a Democrat than a communist? Barely. They’re almost becoming the same thing,” the president said. “I don’t know that I’m going to get involved.” Of course, Trump intervening would only energize Mamdani voters in this deep blue city. But it’s true that some Republicans love the idea of the Mam-democratic Party. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suggested at a news conference Friday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was forcing a government shutdown to please a party that elected Mamdani. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries still haven’t endorsed the Democratic nominee for mayor in their city. But Mamdani seems to be cruising to victory without them — and having fun doing it. He hosted a citywide scavenger hunt for supporters, DIY campaign merch events, and today he’s hosting a soccer tournament. In a nod to his affordability agenda — freezing the rent on rent regulated apartments, five city-owned grocery stores and fare-free buses, for example — it’s called the Cost of Living Classic. And he’s got plenty of high-profile backup: AOC and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have both already rallied for Mamdani separately. Now, all three socialists are coming together for a “New York is Not For Sale” rally in Queens next Sunday. Even some in big business are warming to a Mamdani mayoralty — or at least accepting it as an inevitability. “So be it,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg. But other business interests like hedge funder Bill Ackman and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia have poured millions of dollars into anti-Mamdani super PACs. In his first Fox News interview last Wednesday, Mamdani returned to his bread and butter. Responding to Trump’s claim he never worked a day in his life, Mamdani stared at the camera and addressed the president directly, in a bit of theater. “I won’t be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo who will call you to ask how to win this election,” he said. “I will, however, be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living. That’s the way that I’m going to lead the city.”
| | | | 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. | | | | SUNDAY BEST … — Trump on the National Guard deployments, on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”: “We’re going to go to San Francisco. The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco. San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world, and then 15 years ago it went wrong. It went woke. … And don't forget — and I haven't used it, but don't forget I can use the Insurrection Act. Fifty percent of the presidents almost have used that, and that's unquestioned power. I choose not to. I'd rather do this.” — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a potential ceasefire for Russia’s war in Ukraine, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I agree that, if we want to stop this war and go to peace negotiations urgently and in a diplomatic way, we need to stay where we stay, not to give something additional to Putin because he wants. Because, I mean, he's [a] terrorist. That's it, I can't find other words.” — Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on whether Virginia Democratic AG candidate Jay Jones should drop out of the race, on “Meet the Press”: “No he shouldn't. Those texts, private texts with a colleague, cannot be defended. They cannot be defended. But Jay Jones has apologized earnestly. … The voters will make up their mind about these texts. … I've known Jay Jones for 25 years. I think this single text exchange that he had with a colleague was very out of character for him. And that's why I continue to support him.” — Speaker Mike Johnson on why he’s keeping the House out of session, on ABC’s “This Week”: “The House did its job exactly a month ago today, on Sept. 19. … I refuse to allow us to come back and engage in anything until the governments reopen, when the Democrats do the right thing for the people. They're playing politics and we have to use every ounce of leverage we have to make sure they do the right thing.” — George Santos on being freed after a commutation from Trump, on “Fox & Friends”: “I understand people want to make this into ‘He’s getting away with it.’ I'm not getting away with it. I was the first person to ever go to federal prison for this type of civil FEC violation … I don’t want to focus on trying to rehash the past, I want to take this experience and do good and move on with the future. … I have been dealt a second chance, I have a lot to prove to a lot of people and I have to make sure President Trump understands that I am not going to disappoint him.” More on how Santos secured his freedom from the NYT TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
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Vice President JD Vance participates in a briefing on Oct. 18, 2025 at Camp Pendleton, California. | Oliver Contreras/Getty Images | 1. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: VP JD Vance is headed to Israel this week as the Trump administration looks to hold together the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports. Vance will lead the delegation, which also includes U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as they look to begin implementing the next phase of Trump’s peace deal. The trip comes not a moment too soon as Israel and Hamas both accuse each other of violating the ceasefire agreement. Israel launched airstrikes into Gaza after alleging a group of Palestinians attacked their troops in Rafah, NBC’s Nick Duffy and Matt Bradley report. But Hamas said at least 27 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the last week, Bloomberg’s Dan Williams and Fadwa Hodali write. Meanwhile, the State Department warned Hamas is planning an “imminent” attack against Palestinians that would violate the deal, per Bloomberg’s Wendy Benjaminson and María Paula Mijares Torres, which Hamas denies. On the ground: Following the clash in Rafah, Israel announced it would not reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, saying it will remain closed pending the release of more deceased hostages, Reuters’ Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell report. Israel said it received two more bodies late yesterday, bringing the total to 12 out of 28 hostages back in Israel. Pain points: Hamas has drawn its red lines over key portions of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, with officials saying Hamas will maintain security control over Gaza in the interim and refusing to commit to disarming, Reuters’ Ahmed Jadallah and Andrew Mills scoop. The group is open to a five-year ceasefire, but the position indicates a lot of daylight between what U.S. negotiators have proposed and what Hamas will accept. Knowing Ron Dermer: “The Israeli Politician Who Became Netanyahu’s Top Trump Whisperer,” by WSJ’s Anat Peled 2. TO PUTIN, WITH LOVE: In a phone call last week with Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Kyiv surrender control of the Donetsk region as a condition to ending the war in Ukraine, WaPo’s Michael Birnbaum scoops. Putin has had his sights on the territory for over a decade, and the renewed demand risks extending the stalemate that goes against Trump’s renewed optimism for securing a peace deal. During Friday’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Witkoff reportedly pressed Ukraine’s delegation about ceding Donetsk. Trump plans to meet Putin for talks in Hungary in the coming weeks. State of play: Putin got his relationship with Trump back on track in one phone call, dashing the prospect of the U.S. imminently granting long-range missiles to Ukraine and getting yet another summit in the works, WaPo’s Robyn Dixon writes. “It was the latest swing in Trump’s back-and forth-positions on the Russia-Ukraine war that often change following contact with Putin.” 3. TRADING PLACES: Australian PM Anthony Albanese will visit the White House to meet with Trump tomorrow for talks on supplying rare earth materials, Bloomberg’s Adam Haigh reports. It comes as speculation abounds that the U.S. will take stakes in Australia’s mining companies amid Trump’s interest in acquiring rare earths. … And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is planning to meet this week with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Malaysia to deescalate the rising trade tensions between the two countries, per Reuters. APEC anticipations: The administration is considering whether to set up a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when Trump visits Asia next month, CNN’s Alayna Treene and Kylie Atwood report. Though no planning is underway, officials are privately leaving the door open to a meeting with Kim on the sidelines of the APEC gathering. Meanwhile, South Korea is optimistic it’ll land a trade deal with the U.S. before APEC, Reuters’ Hyunjoo Jin writes. Big read: The Trump administration is “pushing manufacturers to bring factories home. His policies are punishing them when they try,” POLITICO’s Megan Messerly reports. “Tariffs meant to protect American producers are raising the cost of the very materials they need to expand their footprint in the U.S. New visa policies risk narrowing the talent pipeline needed for that expansion. And spending cuts pushed by White House budget hawks threaten some of the subsidies companies need to make bringing back jobs pay off.” 4. SPLIT SCREEN: Vance spoke in front of the Marine Corps during a large display of military firepower celebrating the group’s 250th anniversary. But the show of force was so large it pushed California Gov. Gavin Newsom to shut down a busy interstate. Newsom blasted the event as an intimidation tactic sowing “chaos and confusion,” POLITICO’s Ben Fox reports. But while Vance presided over the thousands of troops at Camp Pendleton, millions of protestors across the country marched and rallied yesterday for the second “No Kings” protests, per AP. The “No Kings” group said in a statement that roughly 7 million people participated, per CBS’ Scott MacFarlane.
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| | | | 5. BREAKING NOEMS: DHS purchased two Gulfstream private jets for Secretary Kristi Noem and other top officials — at a cost of $172 million, NYT’s Catie Edmondson reports. The department said the jets are necessary for safety and the existing jet was “well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft.” It’s unclear where the funding for the jets came from. The big city crackdown: As many blue city mayors and top Democratic leaders mount public challenges to the Trump administration and raise their national profile, Houston Mayor John Whitmire told NYT’s J. David Goodman that he’s keeping his head down to avoid a confrontation between Trump and his city. And while the city’s progressives are pushing for leadership to show up and show out, Whitmire’s strategy is in keeping with the city’s tradition of dealmaking over confrontation. 6. SOUTH OF THE BORDER: Trump announced this morning that the U.S. is axing aid to Colombia, the administration’s latest move in its crusade against drug production, per AP. In a post on Truth Social, Trump denounced Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “an illegal drug dealer” and said he must end the country’s drug operations, “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.” Three strikes, you’re out: Trump said yesterday that survivors from Thursday’s military strike against a boat allegedly carrying drugs will be returned to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, POLITICO’s Ben Johansen reports. The military detained the two men who survived on Thursday, while two others were killed in the sixth known strike against boats near Venezuela. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s government has begun its own military exercises preparing for combat in case of a possible intervention, per NYT’s Genevieve Glatsky. Sealing the deal: To deport hundreds of Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison back in March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised that nine MS-13 gang leaders in U.S. custody — who were also protected U.S. “informants” — would be handed back to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, WaPo’s John Hudson and colleagues scoop. “The deal would give Bukele possession of individuals who threatened to expose the alleged deals his government made with MS-13 to help achieve El Salvador’s historic drop in violence, officials said. … It was also a key step in hindering an ongoing U.S. investigation into his government’s relationship with MS-13.” 7. SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN: We’re entering week four of the shutdown, with the Senate no closer to a deal to break the deadlock as Democrats remain dug in on health care. The House has been out of session for a month as of today, per Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman. The White House “feels as confident about the shutdown on day 19 as it was on day one — in part because congressional Republicans have, for the most part, remained largely in line,” POLITICO’s Alex Gangitano reports. “There’s no discussions at all at the rank-and-file level, and what is there even for Republicans to be skittish about?” a Senate GOP aide told Alex. Indeed, Trump has shown little interest in making moves to end it — using his power instead to minimize the impact on the military and law enforcement and taking his shot to continue remaking federal agencies, NYT’s Luke Broadwater writes. Hanging in the balance: Funding for the food assistance program SNAP, which will dry up in two weeks with contingency plans still up in the air, CNN’s Tami Luhby reports. 8. FROM THE WILDERNESS: As Democrats come up on nearly a year of trying to move forward after losing the White House and Senate in 2024, they’re still using the same message in this year’s campaigns. NYT’s Shane Goldmacher writes that Trump is still the main talking point, from New Jersey to Virginia to California. One political strategist told the NYT that Trump is like “crack cocaine for our party,” and though rallying against the president may work in the short term, it doesn’t make inroads into rebuilding the DNC’s brand. 2025 watch: The Virginia governor’s race was supposed to be the bellwether for both parties ahead of next year, but down-ballot scandals have largely taken the spotlight, per WaPo’s Gregory Schneider. First it was GOP lieutenant governor candidate John Reid’s lewd photos in April, and now it’s Dem state AG candidate Jay Jones’ violent texts revealed in October with early voting underway — as the election could increasingly reflect voters’ reactions to the scandals. 9. WHAT K STREET IS READING: “How Trump grabbed all the levers in Washington,” by POLITICO’s Brendan Bordelon and colleagues: “In Trump 2.0, American policy influence has shifted from its previous channels — agency officials, top lawmakers and staffers on key congressional committees — to a new reality where change comes suddenly from the top. … Trump’s gravitational pull has forced CEOs to act as their companies’ top lobbyists, plying the president with gifts and concessions to secure their policy priorities. … The new dynamic has transformed the business of Washington influence, shutting out many veteran lobbyists and excluding even longtime experts from the most important policy fights in Washington.”
| | | | Global Security is POLITICO’s new weekly briefing on the policies and industrial forces reshaping transatlantic defense. From Washington to Brussels and beyond, we track how decisions ripple across borders — redefining the future of security and industry. Sign up for the free preview edition. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Dan Caine and Pete Hegseth are set to be airborne for a fighter jet demonstration in Nevada today. OUT AND ABOUT — “I will say this book if f--king awesome,” Juleanna Glover told partygoers crowded into her Kalorama home to fete Ken Vogel’s new tome last night, POLITICO’s Julia Marsh writes in. “Devils’ Advocates: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests,” ($24) got a less enthusiastic reception from the pages of Vogel’s own New York Times just days earlier, with reviewer David Greenberg calling it a “detailed if frustratingly dense” account. If that snub stuck, Vogel didn’t show it as he smiled broadly while Glover said “We had to shut down the RSVPS. Two-hundred and twenty, we had to shut it down.” After signing books, Vogel gave brief remarks and took questions. He said his book lays bare the fact that despite laws to keep foreign influence out of U.S. politics, plenty of international actors “throw a bunch of money at people in government” to win favors, whether that’s skirting sanctions or tariffs. Vogel’s book wraps at the beginning of Trump 2.0, though a sequel isn’t out of the question. “This is not getting any better,” Vogel said, noting how the president’s family and allies have cashed in on his tenure from crypto deals to Trumpifying candidates abroad. When asked to rank some of the most accomplished influence peddlers and their foreign clients, Vogel named Paul Manafort, who “was really a pioneer” as well as the more contemporary Brian Ballard. On the client side, he said many Persian Gulf countries are “quite sophisticated and free spending in their influence.” SPOTTED: Maggie Haberman, Josh Dawsey, Josh Gerstein, Heather Podesta, Shawn Cohen, Michael Schaffer, Molly Ball and David Kihara, Hailey Fuchs, Jamie Kirchick and Josef Palermo, Isaac Arnsdorf, Tyler Pager, Annie Linskey and James Hohmann, Meridith McGraw, Byron Tau and Alicia Rose, Brody Mullins, Heidi Vogt, Eric Lipton, Adam Green, Ben Schreckinger, Eric Bazail-Eimil, Irie Sentner, Nancy Cook, Viet Shelton, Nick Cleveland-Stout, Kate Andrews, Gabe Kaminsky, Josh Christenson, David Mark and Lauryn Fanguen. MEDIAWATCH: “Booking Big Guests and Irked by Leaks: Bari Weiss’s First Days at CBS,” by NYT’s Michael Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin: “Since her start date on Oct. 6, [Bari] Weiss has met with leading anchors and executives, impressing some and confounding others. She has mused about CBS-branded live events, booked interviews for the network with high-profile newsmakers by text message and complained about a flurry of leaks concerning her early tenure, urging executives to identify the leakers in the newsroom. … Still unanswered is how Ms. Weiss plans to juggle her duties at The Free Press … It is not lost on some CBS journalists that The Free Press has occasionally been among the network’s harshest critics.” TRANSITIONS — John Glenn has launched JKG Strategic Partnerships, a strategic consulting firm. He previously worked at the National Endowment for Democracy. … Brendan Fischer is rejoining the Campaign Legal Center as director of strategic investigations. He previously worked at the watchdog group Documented. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney … NYT’s Carl Hulse … Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform … Amy Walter … Fox News’ Steve Doocy … former RNC Chair Michael Steele … Katie Rayford of Slate … 720 Strategies’ Jeremy Gosbee … Steven Greenhouse … Kevin Keane of the American Beverage Association … Kathryn Fanlund of the Legal Services Corporation … Lauren Crawford Shaver of FTI Consulting … Andrea Bernstein … Will Cadigan of CNN … Dave Lapan … Dana Brown Ritter … Dale Brown of the Financial Services Institute … Kim Sullivan of the American Foreign Service Association … former Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) … Brandon Morales of Palantir … Ximena Barreto … Campaign Legal Center’s Grace Gerenday … Washington Examiner’s Ross O’Keefe … Dory MacMillan … Marc Sklar … WaPo’s Anthony Faiola … Amy Carter 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.
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