| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine, Ali Bianco and Rachel Umansky-Castro On today’s Playbook Podcast: Jack and Dasha discuss the reality of peace in Gaza, and the spiralling Democratic civil war over the government shutdown.
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| Good Tuesday morning, and Happy Veterans’ Day. This is Jack Blanchard. As a Brit living in this country it’s always an honor to remember those who served in the U.S Armed Forces, including the millions who fought alongside my own countrymen during the darkest hours of our time. Thank you for all that you did. Get in touch. For your radar: President Donald Trump will pay his respects with a speech at the traditional wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington at 11 a.m. WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Big news out of Utah this morning, where federal Judge Dianna Gibson has finally delivered her ruling on a new congressional map — and it’s a win for Democrats, who now look on course to pick up another House seat in 2026. Salt Lake shake: Gibson ruled that a revised map put forward by the Republican-controlled administration following a previous court defeat — creating tough but potentially winnable Democratic seats — was still unfair to Dems. Instead, “the judge put in place … a solidly-Democratic district that covers Salt Lake City, giving the party its second win in the redistricting wars that have swept the nation,” POLITICO’s Andrew Howard and colleagues report. Currently, Republicans hold all four of Utah’s congressional seats. And right on cue: “Former Rep. Ben McAdams, the only Democrat to represent Utah in federal office this century, is expected to announce his candidacy soon, according to three people with direct knowledge of his thinking.” Numbers game: Republicans have drawn nine favorable new districts across Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio so far. Democrats hit back with +5 in California last week. So as of this morning, the redistricting “score” — if you don’t object to seeing all this as a game, which you obviously should — is now 9-6 to the GOP. Only 11-and-a-half months left on the clock … In today’s Playbook … — One month on from the Gaza peace agreement, how is Trump’s plan shaping up? — The shutdown is drawing to a close — and Dems are still furious. — And Dasha reveals the smartest way to lobby the president.
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump walks after stepping off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 9, 2025. Trump is returning from the weekend in Florida with a stop at the Commanders NFL game on the way home. | Shawn Thew/EPA | ALARM BELLS IN GAZA: We’ll get to the shutdown in a minute (tl;dr; it’s still on track to end this week.) But first — an important question: One month on from that glitzy signing ceremony in Egypt, how’s the Gaza peace deal actually going? “Amazingly well,” according to Trump. “We have peace in the Middle East,” he told journalists in the Oval Office yesterday. “It’s a great thing, and nobody's ever seen anything quite like it.” Trump talks like this all the time. Last week, the president was asked when the new International Stability Force might be on the ground in Gaza. “Very soon,” he told journos. “Gaza is working out very well, and you haven’t been hearing too much about problems.” Trump said “very powerful countries” have volunteered to “go in and take care of” any issues which arise. “It’s not tentative,” he said. “This is a very strong peace.” So that’s the president’s take. But the situation being discussed on the ground by U.S. State Department officials and other regional leaders sounds an awful lot more complex than that. And Playbook’s own Dasha Burns and POLITICO’s Felicia Schwartz, Nahal Toosi and Paul McLeary have the goods. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: “Some members of the Trump administration are deeply concerned that the Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas could break down because of the difficulty implementing many of its core provisions,” they write this morning, “as private documents circulating among U.S. officials underscore the lack of a clear path forward.” The receipts: POLITICO has obtained a compendium of documents that were presented last month during a two-day symposium for U.S. Central Command and members of the newly created Civilian Military Coordination Center in Israel. Around 400 people attended from the State Department, Defense Department, non-governmental organizations and private companies like the Rand Group in Israel. “Among the Power Point slides and deks presented at the symposium were materials from U.S. government agencies, ‘situation reports’ on conditions in Gaza and advisory documents from the Blair Institute, the think tank helmed by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair,” they write. “A U.S. defense official said the slides reflect the administration’s close-held concerns about the region’s future.” Reality check: “The 67 slides broken into six segments paint a vivid picture of the hurdles the Trump administration and its allies in the region face … There is particular concern about whether a so-called International Stabilization Force — a multinational security initiative meant to keep the peace in Gaza — can really be deployed.” Remember: The peace deal brokered by Trump and his team was only a tentative “phase one” agreement. All the knotty detail of the later phases is still to be negotiated. “One slide shows an arrow with a question mark on it linking the first and second phases of the U.S.-brokered peace plan,” Dasha and co. report, “underscoring the uncertainty about its prospects.” None of which is to say the peace deal is failing; only that it’s a lot more complicated than the president likes to suggest. “The presentation, including one section titled, ‘The Hard Work Begins Now: Implementing President Trump’s Plan,’ does not propose concrete policy solutions,” my POLITICO colleagues write. “Instead, it lays out a multitude of obstacles Washington and its partners face in trying to convert a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas into a lasting peace.”
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Learn more at siemens-energy.com | | | | View from inside the room: “Divorced from the peace deal is a plan of how to actually implement this peace deal,” one participant said. “Everyone is floating around at 40,000 feet and nobody is talking operations or tactics.” Right of reply: Predictably, the Trump administration hates this story, and does not acknowledge the picture these documents present. State Department spokesperson Eddie Vasquez told us: “This story demonstrates a complete ignorance of the workings of the Gaza effort. Everyone wants to be a part of President Trump’s historic Middle East peace effort.” He said that “thousands of ideas and proposals” have been put forward and it would not be possible to comment on them all. Speaking of proposals: The Atlantic got the scoop last night on what it reports is a U.S.-backed plan to temporarily house thousands of Palestinians in Israeli-occupied east Gaza. Only those Palestinians approved by Israel’s domestic intelligence agency will be permitted to move into these “Alternate Safe Communities,” Hana Kiros writes. MEANWHILE IN IRAQ: While U.S. diplomats and security chiefs try to chart a future for Gaza, citizens in another Middle Eastern country 500 miles to the east will head to the polls today … in relative peace. Iraqi elections are always a fascinating moment for those keeping track of the West’s (mis?)adventures in the Middle East, and today’s is no exception. Iraq is way calmer today than it has been for much of its recent past, as this Atlantic Council report notes — but it’s a long way from the thriving democracy envisioned by Western “nation builders” in 2003. “The election will not alter the fundamentals of power in Iraq,” writes author Yerevan Saeed. “Consequential decisions are negotiated outside of formal institutions, and they are only later packaged for parliamentary consumption.” And the Iraqi parliament, he notes, “is the most dysfunctional institution.” Speaking of which …
| | | SHUTDOWN WIND-DOWN THE ENDGAME: The Senate last night formally passed a bipartisan spending bill to reopen the federal government, on the same 60-40 split we saw Sunday night. The same eight-strong group of senators from the Democratic caucus banded together to support ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history. We’re still on track for the government to reopen later this week. Big read: “How Senate Republicans won the last vote to end the shutdown,” by POLITICO’s Jordain Carney: “Sen. Tim Kaine wanted a ‘moratorium on mischief’ from the Trump administration. He didn't get it until Sunday night.” Up next — the House: The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet today to move the bill forward in the chamber, as lawmakers race back to D.C. for a floor vote as soon as 4 p.m. tomorrow — chaos at the airports permitting. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he believes he has the votes to pass the package, POLITICO’s Nicholas Wu and Meredith Lee Hill report. It will have been a remarkable 54 days since the chamber was last in session. More from POLITICO’s Inside Congress The art of the deal: Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he will set aside floor time for a Democrat-led bill to extend the ACA subsidies, but “Republicans appear to be quickly pivoting from the debate around Affordable Care Act tax credits to developing their own health policy agenda,” POLITICO’s Benjamin Guggenheim and Meredith write this morning. In any case, Johnson is still refusing to commit to an ACA vote in the House, as this CNN clip from last night shows. Trump wades in: Speaking to Laura Ingraham on Fox News last night, Trump again laid out his desire for an alternative plan. Obamacare, he said, is “horrible health insurance at a very high price.” “Instead of going to the insurance companies, I want the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance,” Trump said. “If we did that, that would be so exciting. Call it Trumpcare.” Less enjoyable for Trump: To her credit, Ingraham offered some decent pushback to Trump’s insistence that millions of voters are not, in fact, feeling the pinch. But the president just doubled — and then tripled down. “It’s a con job by the Democrats,” he said. “Costs are way down.” Pressed again by Ingraham why voters say they are anxious about the economy, he replied: “I don't know that they are saying that. I think polls are fake.” Let’s see if that line holds over the weeks and months ahead. To wit: Despite Trump’s insistence that Republicans have the upper hand on affordability, his actions since last Tuesday’s elections “demonstrate a White House more concerned with pocketbook issues than the president is publicly willing to admit,” POLITICO’s Megan Messerly and Myah Ward report.
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➡️ Subscribe to West Wing Playbook | | | | | HOT ON THE LEFT THE DEM DIVIDE: The rage among Dems over Sunday’s cave-in is only intensifying, meanwhile. “Democrats in both chambers, including members of leadership, questioned why they would support an agreement when Republicans didn’t come to the table on their one key demand,” POLITICO’s Jordain Carney writes. Some have placed the blame squarely at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s feet — though Schumer was reportedly urging moderates not to cave just two weeks in, Axios’ Stephen Neukam and Hans Nichols report. FAMILY AFFAIR: In some places the infighting has reached intrafamilial levels. Stefany Shaheen — who’s running for a House seat in New Hampshire — decried the deal that her mother Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) struck. “I can’t speak for her. I think she did what she believes is right,” Stefany Shaheen told NYT’s Reid Epstein. Ouch. No word yet from Angus King III, who’s currently running for governor in Maine and is the son of independent Sen. Angus King. But but but: A new survey from GrayHouse found that while Republicans still bear most of the blame for the shutdown in voters’ eyes, the gap was starting to close. A survey of almost 1,500 registered voters in early November found shutdown awareness jumped from 70 percent in early October to 84 percent this month — and that blame on Democrats rose from 24 percent to 32 percent over that same period, while GOP blame decreased from 44 percent to 42 percent. Read the toplines CLICHE CORNER: Is everyone sick of this one yet? “Leadership is about changing and adapting,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). “Unless we hear that, we will fail to meet the moment.” … “I can’t support this bill. It doesn’t meet the urgency of the moment,” said Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) … “Anything short of meaningful action on ACA tax credits doesn’t meet the moment,” complained Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) … “Sen. Schumer has failed to meet this moment and is out of touch with the American people,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) … … “Most top union leaders are failing to meet the moment”, a Jacobin headline complained … “Chuck Schumer has not met this moment,” wrote Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) … “Eight Dem senators failed to meet the moment,” wrote former Rep. Joe Walsh (D-Ill.) … “Chuck Schumer again proved he is a terrible leader; he cannot meet the moment,” ranted Dem podcaster Angie “Pumps” Sullivan … “Has there ever been a man who’s failed to meet the moment more than Chuck Schumer?” asked Dem organizer Aaron Regunberg … and on and on it goes. Can someone please meet the moment and ask them to give it a rest? NOW READ THIS — The dems’ new coastal stars: A few months ago Gavin Newsom had never heard of Zohran Mamdani. Now the two are inextricably linked following their resounding election victories last week, thrusting the California governor and New York City mayor-elect into the spotlight as their party casts around for leaders, POLITICO’s Jeremy White, Nick Reisman and Camille von Kaenel report. “What they share, in their tandem rise, is a savvy for modern campaigning and a return to the antagonistic posture that powered Democrats at the opening of Donald Trump’s first term .... Now, Newsom is bashing Trump from the West, Mamdani is doing it from the East, and both are lighting into Democrats who they cast as insufficiently resistant to the president.”
| | | BEST OF THE REST ON THE PRESIDENT’S MIND AT 12:37 A.M. … TARIFFS: “The U.S. Supreme Court was given the wrong numbers,” Trump wrote in a message that may unnerve his legal team. “The ‘unwind’ in the event of a negative decision on Tariffs, would be, including investments made, to be made, and return of funds, in excess of 3 Trillion Dollars. It would not be possible to ever make up for that kind of a ‘drubbing.’” MORE SCOTUS: Trump’s lawyers filed an appeal yesterday asking the Supreme Court to review the verdict in the $5 million civil case that found he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, per CNN. THIS SHOULD BE FUN: James Fishback, who counts himself among Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ allies, is launching a bid for governor in Florida and setting up a potentially heated primary faceoff with Trump-backed Rep. Byron Donalds, POLITICO’s Sophia Cai and Kimberly Leonard scoop. “Fishback, 30, is the founder and CEO of the ‘free-thinking’ investment firm Azoria, which manages public and private capital.” PARDON WATCH: The MAHA movement has found a new darling — Elizabeth Holmes, the firebrand Theranos founder now in prison, Catherine Kim writes for POLITICO Mag. SPEAKING OF PARDONS: Trump’s sweeping presidential pardons for dozens of alleged co-conspirators in the 2020 election subversion plot have triggered alarm among his adversaries that he’s laying the ground for a future election-related challenge, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein write. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Democracy Defenders is filing a complaint with the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General requesting an investigation into the reported $230 million settlement that Trump has demanded from the DOJ. FYI — THIS IS STILL HAPPENING: GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks stood before a “combative crowd Monday during her first in-person town hall of the year, as frustrated constituents booed, heckled and shouted over the congresswoman throughout an hourlong event in Keosauqua that laid bare southeast Iowa voters’ anxieties about the economy, health care and immigration enforcement,” The Gazette’s Tom Barton reports. FOR YOUR RADAR: “Bloody skirmishes” broke out last night on the University of California, Berkeley, campus, where Turning Point USA was hosting its final campus tour stop of the year, KTVU Fox reported. “Early on, authorities said one Turning Point attendee and one protester were detained. Berkeley and UC Berkeley campus police confirmed four arrests, saying two of which were the Turning Point supporter and the protester seen on video during a violent altercation. They said one of the arrests was for battery.” BROADCAST NEWS: “The BBC’s fight with Trump couldn’t have come at a worse time,” by POLITICO’s Annabelle Dickson in London: “The dispute — which has been seized on by figures on the British political right as well as Trump and his allies — comes as BBC bosses prepare to embark on a fraught round of negotiations with ministers over the rules it must abide by and, crucially, how it is funded. The outcome will determine whether the storied British broadcaster, once the voice of an empire, survives in anything like its current form.”
| | | | 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 | | REVEALED — How to bend Trump’s ear: White House officials and MAGA world are seething at Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who personally talked Trump into suggesting an out-of-left-field 50-year mortgage plan that has stirred consternation and confusion, Dasha and our colleague Sophia Cai revealed in a must-read piece last night. And all Pulte needed was an outsized prop at Palm Beach. How lobbying works in 2025: “On Saturday evening, Pulte arrived at President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach Golf Club with a roughly 3-by-5 posterboard in hand,” Dasha and Sophia report. “A graphic of former President Franklin Roosevelt appeared below ‘30-year mortgage,’ and one of Trump below ‘50-year mortgage.’ The headline was ‘Great American Presidents.’” And guess what? “Roughly 10 minutes later, Trump posted the image to Truth Social, according to one of the people familiar, who was with the president at the time.” Easy, this lobbying business. Just one problem — everyone hates the idea. “The last time anything got as much pushback as this was over the ‘Epstein Files.’ MAGA is furious,” one source tells Dasha and Sophia. Industry experts are resoundingly panning the idea, telling POLITICO’s Aiden Reiter and Cassandra Dumay that changes in financing are likely to be little more than a “band-aid,” while posing bigger risks to homebuyers. Trump tried to play the whole thing down on Fox News last night: “It’s not even a big deal,” he told Ingraham. “All it means is you pay less per month. You pay it over a longer period of time.” MEDIAWATCH — As new CBS News chief Bari Weiss searches for a lead anchor for “CBS Evening News,” a fresh name is rising on the list: Matt Gutman, who currently serves as ABC News’ chief national correspondent, per Status’ Oliver Darcy. Weiss’ shortlisting of journalists already under contract at rival networks — she previously floated taking a run at Fox News’ Bret Baier — “has raised eyebrows across the industry,” Darcy writes, noting that some insiders see it as a “telling sign of her inexperience.” WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT — “The USDA staffer whose smutty novella sparked controversy in September — and inside President Donald Trump’s White House, where top aides considered his termination — remains at the department. In fact, he’s been promoted — despite the swift blowback his foray into penmanship sparked just months ago,” POLITICO’s Eli Stokols, Grace Yarrow and Alex Gangitano report. “After the dust settled, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins quietly made Tucker Stewart a trusted legal adviser.” YIKES — Eighteen people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after a people mover at Dulles hit a dock yesterday afternoon, per AP. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a Washington AI Network “Empowering Veterans in the Age of AI” event at House at 1229 last night featuring VA’s Charles Worthington interviewed by Tammy Haddad: Neil Potts, Matt Kaplan, Jackie Rooney, Seval Oz, Karen Sessions, Justin Fanelli, Richard Cerros, Caitlyn Stephenson, Senay Bulbul, Katy Balls, Ted Johnson, Kathy O’Hearn, Olivia Igbokwe-Curry, Jonathan Clifford, Helen and Joe Milby, Kent Knutson, Charlotte Smith, Greg Douquet, T.W. Arrighi, Alex Allaire and Dan Meyers. TRANSITIONS — Steve Fier is now senior adviser at Grayson & Co. He previously worked at Tonio Burgos & Associates. … Michael Mohr-Ramirez is now manager of federal affairs at the Brewers Association. He previously worked at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. … Kuang Chiang is now of counsel in Morrison Foerster’s national security group. She previously worked at A&O Shearman and is a Treasury alum. … … AE Industrial Partners is adding Chris Aguemon and Bill Strobel as VPs in its D.C. office. Aguemon previously worked at Arlington Capital Partners, and Strobel previously worked at Liberty Strategic Capital. … Torrey Fishman is now a senior manager of government relations at Zillow. He previously worked at Zipcar. ENGAGED — Jack Youngblood, a John Cornyn and Nathaniel Moran alum, and Ivy English, a government relations staffer at Chevron and a Bill Cassidy alum, got engaged this weekend in Houston, Texas. They were introduced in Capitol Hill in 2022 by their then-landlord. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) and Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) … Alec MacGillis … SEE Solutions’ Sarah Esty … Nathan Imperiale … POLITICO’s John Hendel and Justine Schoenbart … Matt Kaminski … Norm Eisen of Brookings … Edgar Estrada … David Leiter of Plurus Strategies … Taylor Holgate … NYT’s Ruth Igielnik … Robert Raben of Raben … Elisabeth Conklin of Rep. Tom Barrett’s (R-Mich.) office … Daniel Huey of Something Else Strategies … former Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) … Jen Brown of Targeted Victory … Jessica Jennings … former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) … Rebecca Sharer of Sunshine Sachs … Burson’s Jenna Sauber … Austin Welch of DCI Group … Andrew Barnhill … Brendan Montesinos of Touchdown Strategies … Linda Rozett 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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