| | | |  | | By Bethany Irvine and Rachel Umansky-Castro | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | 
A new batch of emails released from the Jeffrey Epstein files — and President Donald Trump’s inclusion in them — have reignited the simmering drama on the Hill. | George Frey/AFP via Getty Images | THE EPSTEIN FILES: The House is finally back today to vote to end the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, but a new batch of emails released from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein — and their references to President Donald Trump — have reignited the simmering drama on the Hill. According to the emails released by the House Oversight Democrats, Epstein alleged that Trump “knew about the girls he was trafficking,” POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs reports. The names of Epstein’s alleged victims and other identifying information were redacted from the emails. What the emails said: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” Epstein wrote in a 2019 email to Michael Wolff, an apparent plea from the president for Epstein to leave Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. “[O]f course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” Epstein wrote, in reference to Ghislaine Maxwell. Wolff’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO. Epstein in a 2011 email referred to Trump as a “dog that hasn’t barked” — what “appeared to mean that Trump had not disclosed details about Epstein’s activities,” Hailey writes. “Epstein added that a victim, whose name was redacted, spent hours with Trump.” Read the full emails The view from the White House: Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein’s actions and has repeatedly said he and Epstein had a falling out years ago and that he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago “for being a creep," as White House comms director Steven Cheung put it. No evidence so far has suggested Trump took part in Epstein’s trafficking operation. “The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement today following the release of the emails. The view from the Hill: Speaker Mike Johnson initially dodged questions from reporters this morning, but later characterized the emails as just “another publicity stunt by the Democrats,” telling Punchbowl’s Max Cohen that they are “trying to mislead people.” The release of the emails comes at a time when the Epstein saga was already set to reenter the public debate. After over seven weeks away from D.C., Johnson is set to swear in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who is expected to become the 218th signature on the discharge petition seeking the full release of the Epstein files led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). The timeline ahead: “The completion of the discharge petition, a rarely used mechanism to sidestep the majority party leadership, will trigger a countdown for the bill to hit the House floor,” POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and colleagues write. “It will still take seven legislative days for the petition to ripen, after which Johnson will have two legislative days to schedule a vote. Senior Republican and Democratic aides estimate a floor vote will come the first week of December, after the Thanksgiving recess.” Administration officials are planning to huddle at the White House today to discuss the discharge petition, though the timing of the confab was unclear, CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and colleagues scooped. The meeting is said to include AG Pam Bondi, Deputy AG Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who has joined GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace in signing the discharge petition. Should Trump successfully flip Boebert to remove her name from the petition, Massie and Khanna’s effort could be moot. The president reportedly called Boebert himself to discuss the matter and is “playing phone tag” with Mace, per NYT’s Annie Karni: “So far, they are not planning to remove their names from the petition.” Good Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me us a line at birvine@politico.com and rumansky-castro@politico.com | | | | A message from Siemens Energy: Siemens Energy is expanding its U.S. workforce, offering
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., makes a statement to reporters following a vote in the Senate to move forward with a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government through Jan. 30, at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 10, 2025. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP | 1. SHUTDOWN WIND-DOWN: GOP leaders are eyeing a vote to turn the government’s lights back on by as early as 8 p.m. to then send to Trump’s desk for final signature. But despite how it shakes out, it will likely take time to get federal programs and other delayed agencies back up and running after such a long shutdown. Watch this too: Still stinging from a deal without guaranteed health subsidies, House Democrats are reportedly planning to file a separate discharge petition this afternoon for a three-year extension of expiring ACA credits, per Punchbowl. And AOC weighs in: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pointed the finger broadly at Senate Democrats and specifically at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today as members of the party continue to lambast the deal that was struck to end the shutdown, per POLITICO's Mia McCarthy and colleagues. “There’s a lot of focus rightfully on Leader Schumer, but I do think that when it comes to the Senate, it is Senate Democrats that select their leadership,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And so I actually think this problem is much bigger than Leader Schumer.” Beyond the beltway: Flight delays and cancellations are expected to drag on for at least several more days while air-traffic controller staffing could remain a challenge. And some of the nearly 42 million SNAP benefits across the country are still left waiting to find out when — and if — their full payments will arrive this month. 2. SURVEY SAYS: In yet another bad headline for the White House, the latest AP-NORC polling shows that while Trump’s approval ratings have remained largely unchanged, a growing number of Republicans say they don’t approve of how he’s managing the government. Only 33 percent of adults approve of the way the president is managing the government, down from 42 percent in March. Republicans’ approval of Trump’s government management dropped to 68 percent (from 81 percent in March) while independents’ approval dropped to 25 percent (from 38 percent). The polling was conducted after Democrats’ victories on Election Day last week, but before a deal was struck to reopen the government. 3. TRADING SPACES: Foreign partners are still coming to the table for trade talks — despite a looming SCOTUS decision on Trump’s authority to level sweeping global tariffs, POLITICO's Ari Hawkins and colleagues report. Foreign governments continue to “press for deals” to sidestep bruising tariffs on sectors not related to the court challenge and are “betting the administration will be able to use other laws to reimpose at least some of the duties that could be struck down.” Playing the long game: “At the same time, foreign countries expect talks with the administration to progress more quickly as the Supreme Court weighs the limits of Trump’s tariff powers. And they are betting that a ruling against Trump’s tariffs could weaken his bargaining power, giving smaller economies a better chance to shape future pacts,” Ari and colleagues write. Cuts incoming: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News today that the country should expect a “substantial announcement” from the White House soon offering up a package of new tariff cuts on coffee and other goods, POLITICO’s Doug Palmer reports. The tariffs will impact “things we don’t grow here in the United States, coffee being one of them,” Bessent said. “Bananas, other fruits, things like that. So that will bring the prices down very quickly.”
| | | | POLITICO Policy Outlook: Combating Financial Cybercrime: From identity theft to phishing scams, financial cybercrimes have skyrocketed in recent years. But catching perpetrators and preventing future scams remains a challenge. Join Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) for discussions on the latest strategies for confronting these crimes and empowering consumers. Register to attend or watch online. | | | | | 4. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Trump had sent him a letter requesting that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu receive a pardon amid the ongoing corruption trial against him, NYT’s Aaron Boxerman reports. “Mr. Netanyahu has not been convicted, and there is no end in sight for his trial, which has dragged on for five years. It is not clear whether Mr. Herzog could legally pardon him. The country’s president, who serves in a largely ceremonial post, generally cannot pardon people before they are convicted.” 5. IMMIGRATION FILES: “Newsom adviser to nervous Dems: Lean in on immigration,” by POLITICO’s Melanie Mason: “Juan Rodriguez knows the conventional wisdom that Democrats should steer clear of talking about immigration — and he thinks it’s dead wrong. The longtime adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom and former top Kamala Harris aide wants Democrats across the country to take heed of how the California redistricting campaign embraced the issue and won. Rodriguez oversaw paid media for the redistricting ballot measure, and under his watch, the campaign rolled out ads that prominently featured footage of President Donald Trump’s militarized immigration raids.” Word of warning: A group of lawmakers in a letter released today warned Democratic-led states are “inadvertently making their drivers’ data available to U.S. immigration authorities through a little-understood digital loophole,” Reuters’ Raphael Satter reports. “Drivers' license data is shared between state, local, and federal police forces through a nonprofit organization called Nlets. ICE and another Department of Homeland Security body, Homeland Security Investigations, also have access to the system, the letter said, and the two agencies together accounted for nearly 900,000 queries against the database in the year prior to Oct. 1.” Local fears: “Fearful of Trump's raids, some Hispanic shoppers turn to safety of online buying,” by Reuters’ Siddharth Cavale and Nicholas Brown 6. ROCKING THE BOAT: DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel over the summer wrote a classified opinion stating that military personnel involved in strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats would be shielded from any potential prosecutions, WaPo’s Ellen Nakashima and colleagues scooped. Despite some pushback on the strikes from officials, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told WaPo that the “current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law,” and are in “complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.” Parnell noted that lawyers “up and down the chain of command have been thoroughly involved in reviewing these operations prior to execution,” but acknowledged personnel have “the opportunity to disagree.” Strike force: The legality of the strikes may be put to Secretary of State Marco Rubio today during a meeting with G7 foreign ministers in Canada, Reuters’ Daphne Psaledakis and Maria Cheng report. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot criticized the strikes yesterday and a senior European official said today’s meeting is “the ideal place” to discuss U.S. military actions, though the strikes are not officially on the agenda. 7. FOR YOUR THOUGHTS: “US Mint to strike last penny as Trump’s phaseout rattles retailers,” by POLITICO’s Michael Stratford: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday will appear at the Philadelphia Mint to strike the final circulating one-cent coin, marking the end of the penny first authorized under the Coinage Act of 1792. … Ending a coin that has circulated for more than two centuries has turned out to be complicated, especially on the Trump administration’s fast track. Retailers, banks and convenience stores have spent months scrambling to adapt as pennies disappear from cash drawers. Shortages began piling up around Labor Day and have steadily worsened since.
| | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | OUT AND ABOUT — The Fund for American Studies hosted its 32nd annual Journalism Forum and Awards Dinner in New York City last night, where Christopher Buckley presented the organization’s Award for Courageous Journalism to City Journal’s John Tierney, while Daniel Henninger presented the Career Achievement Award to WSJ’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady. SPOTTED: Paul Gigot, Gerry Baker, Steve Forbes, James Bennet, Charles F. Lehman, Carine Hajjar, Audrey Fahlberg, Kate Bachelder Odell, Maya Sulkin, Caroline Downey, Christopher Buckley, James Taranto, Chris Ullman, Daniel Henninger, Brian Anderson, Faith Bottum, Jack Butler, Emma Camp, Bill McGurn, Diana Nerozzi, Timothy Nerozzi, Will Tomlinson, Roger Ream, Steve Slattery, Randy Teague, Randy DeCleene, Ryan Wolfe and Kristin Underwood. TRANSITIONS — Will Hunt is now senior fellow on the majority staff of the House Select Committee on the CCP. He previously worked at the Commerce Department. 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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