| | | |  | | 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 Epstein files bill passing into law, the latest development on the White House’s Ukraine peace plan and the state of Trump’s economy.
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| Good Thursday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, still coming to terms with being the only person in the whole city who’s excited that the Ashes starts tonight. If anyone out there actually wants to talk cricket, do please drop me a line. (And yes — sorry Kevin Rudd — England are going to win the first test.) HOW TRUMP SPENT LAST NIGHT: Watching Jimmy Kimmel (“Get the bum off the air!!!”) … Sharing AI-generated clips with Cristiano Ronaldo (“GREAT GUY! Really smart, and cool!!!”) … Signing the Epstein files bill (“This latest Hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have!”) … and — best of all — fixing up a date with Zohran Mamdani. Popcorn at the ready, Washington. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING: New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will meet Trump in the Oval Office tomorrow, the president has announced — and boy, it is going to be quite a scene. “Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani, has asked for a meeting,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st. Further details to follow!” It’s only late November, but the coming-together of the two standout politicians of 2025 has the feel of a glorious end-of-season finale. We can only pray they’ll invite the cameras in to watch. ‘Have you said thank you once?’ Since the infamous Volodymyr Zelenskyy blow-up back in February, visitors to the Oval have deployed an increasingly well-worn playbook to ensure positive relations with Trump. There’s usually a thoughtful gift, a dose of overt flattery, a general air of respectful deference and a careful avoidance of the thorniest subjects — during the public part of the meeting, at least. Will Mamdani deploy such tactics? Unlikely. In an age when politics is all about the fight, how many of his supporters even want to see him build a working relationship with Trump? “I want to just speak plainly to the president,” Mamdani told MS NOW last night, “about what it means to actually stand up for New Yorkers and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city.” Reminder: People speaking “plainly” to the president has rarely been a recipe for harmony. This could all go south pretty fast. But equally — Trump likes winners. Trump likes smooth-talking charmers. And Trump really likes New York City. Maybe they’ll get on like a house on fire. Who knows? In today’s Playbook … — For Trump, “affordability” is still the hardest word. — Backlash grows to the White House peace plan for Ukraine. — And the great and the good of U.S. politics gather for Dick Cheney’s funeral.
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump speaks during the Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Nov. 19, 2025. | Evan Vucci/AP | NUMBERS GAME: There weren’t too many upsides for the Trump administration to the longest shutdown in history, but the hiatus on BLS data reports in a way might have been one of them. That brief spell of blissful ignorance comes to an end at 8:30 a.m. with the delayed publication of September’s jobs report. No one expects the numbers to look great. Tired of so much winning? “If September job gains come in as expected at 50,000, they will keep this year on course for the weakest employment growth since the pandemic and, before that, the Great Financial Crisis,” CNN’s Alicia Wallace notes. “Since May, job gains have averaged 31,000 per month, which is about one-fifth of the average seen in 2024.” Others are a little more optimistic. Goldman Sachs predicts 80,000 new jobs for September, plus upward revisions for earlier months, per CNBC. But overall, the Trump 2.0 economy provides a mixed picture. The stock market is on a record-breaking run, and earnings growth is decent. Equally, the jobs market is weak, and inflation remains at 3 percent — just as it was on Inauguration Day. And the noises out of the Fed about a further rate cut in December are getting gloomier, especially given today’s out-of-date numbers will be all they have to go on. For politicians eyeing the midterms, the only economic fact that matters is that too many voters who struggled to make ends meet last year have felt little or no improvement in their finances. But so far, Trump — typically such a powerful deliverer of political messages — just doesn’t seem to have his heart in a cost-of-living campaign. Every day, Trump speaks passionately about his achievements — a record-breaking stock market, big reductions in egg and gasoline prices, strong earnings growth, no tax on tips. But there’s no acknowledgement his supporters are still struggling, no promise to tackle their concerns head-on.
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Explore the impact in communities like Altoona. | | | | Con job: In fact, Trump seems to find the whole debate to be a bit of nonsense. “We're making incredible strides to make America affordable again,” he said yesterday, reading his latest slogan from a White House-prepared script. Then he stopped. “That’s a new word they're using, affordability,” he explained. “They talk of affordability.” (He seems to be mocking the very word — watch the clip.) “They had the worst inflation in history … I mean, we're bringing prices down, but they came up with a new word, affordability.” To Trump, this is all a Democratic plot. But polls tell a very different story, and last night’s from Fox News was brutal for the president. “Some 76% of voters view the economy negatively,” Fox News’ Dana Blanton writes. “That’s worse than the 67% who felt that way in July, and the 70% who said the same at the end of former President Biden’s term.” Worse than Biden? That’s got to hurt. And there was plenty more: “Large numbers, overall and among Republicans, say their costs for groceries, utilities, healthcare and housing have gone up this year,” Fox reports. “Voters blame the president. About twice as many say President Donald Trump, rather than Biden, is responsible for the current economy. And three times as many say Trump’s economic policies have hurt them.” And it just keeps going: “Approval of how Trump is handling the economy hit a new low,” Blanton writes, “and disapproval of his overall job performance hit record highs among core supporters.” The response: Trump has already moved to cut tariffs on key supermarket products and is still kicking around health care support plans with Hill Republicans. (POLITICO’s Inside Congress has the latest on the state of play for the health care talks.) But his big policy idea on affordability appears to be the $2,000 check he wants to send households next year, shortly before the midterms, using revenue raised by tariffs.
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| | | | So will it work? The time-honored tradition of a pre-election giveaway to voters has certainly been effective for politicians in the past. The question is whether this policy is ever going to see the light of day. It’s hard to imagine fiscal hawks in Congress getting on board, as this Bloomberg story and this Axios story illustrate, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sounds lukewarm on the idea at best — gently suggesting this week that it might be a good idea if people receiving these checks chose not to spend them, to avoid an inflationary spiral. Good luck, as they say, with that. And then there’s the knotty question of whether the Supreme Court might not just kibosh Trump’s tariffs altogether in the coming weeks — although Trump insists he will find another way to implement them if so. All told, it’s going to be quite the needle for Trump to thread. At least the Epstein furor has gone away, for now. Trump finally signed the bill last night and in theory, the Justice Department now has 30 days to publish whatever information it has. My legally minded colleague Ankush Khardori set out in last night’s West Wing Playbook how he thinks the new law will play out in the weeks ahead. In the meantime: With Trump’s schedule (in theory) closed to the press today, it’s left to his two most-effective surrogates to speak to the White House’s new affordability agenda. We’ll hear from VP JD Vance at a Breitbart event at 11 a.m.; and press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a 1 p.m. briefing, and the language they use is worth watching. Will they go further than Trump and accept, 10 months to the day since he returned to the White House, that millions of ordinary Americans are still feeling the pinch?
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| | | | WAR AND PEACE TO ZELENSKYY, WITH LOVE: We’ve heard precious little in public so far, but 36 hours on from the leaking of Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine it’s clear there’s a backlash building. Yesterday saw an all-out scramble to understand the details of the plan, with many allies concerned it was a deep concession to Russia, POLITICO’s Felicia Schwartz and colleagues report. Ukrainian and European officials felt “blindsided,” as they’d believed Trump had finally begun to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin has little interest in making concessions. Knives out: There is also a simmering unease with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, of whom European and Ukrainian officials have been wary for months, Felicia and co. report. “Some have blamed his penchant for working alone for the failure of the administration’s peace efforts so far,” they write, “with his refusal to consult allies leaving him at times uninformed or unprepared.” One EU defense official said the Russians “have clearly identified Witkoff as someone who is willing to promote their interests.” The view from the White House: Officials in the West Wing remain “bullish about the burgeoning plan” and dismissed concerns about Witkoff’s approach, per my POLITICO colleagues. But is everyone singing from the same hymnal? Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a Russia hawk in a former life, of course — published an intriguing post on X that said the U.S. “will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides.” The language was very different to that being used by the White House, and read like an attempt to mollify Ukraine. Nevertheless, the WSJ’s Alexander Ward and colleagues report Rubio was involved in drawing up the plan, along with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who consulted with Kremlin confidant Kirill Dmitriev. And crucially, the U.S. has already started signaling to Zelenskyy that he has to agree to the main points of ceding some land and weapons — even as Russia’s demands remain unchanged, Reuters’ Tom Balmforth and Anastasiia Malenko report. A senior administration official said that “Trump doesn’t view it as his job to get Ukraine back its land that Russia has already taken,” WSJ writes. “Instead, he is aiming for a deal that halts the fighting concentrated in eastern Ukraine.” In the background — Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg has told associates he plans to leave his position in January, meaning one less staunch Ukraine ally in the administration, Reuters’ Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk scoop. FOR HIS PART: Trump will be focused on a different peace deal today when he meets with freed Israeli hostages and their families at the White House at 2 p.m. AND WATCH THIS SPACE: “The next item on Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda: Sudan,” by POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy: “Trump on Wednesday signaled his intent to focus on an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan, a priority for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, whom the president met with in Washington this week. Sudan has been racked by a civil war for two and a half years, pitting the Sudanese Armed Forces against the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, which international institutions have accused the United Arab Emirates of backing. It’s plunged tens of millions of people into a humanitarian crisis.”
| | | | With the shutdown behind them, the White House and federal agencies are pivoting to the next challenges. West Wing Playbook reveals how the administration is managing the fallout — and the people behind every move.
➡️ Subscribe to West Wing Playbook | | | | | ON THE HILL JAMMING THE PHONES: The House voted unanimously to ax a measure in last week’s government funding bill that would have awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to the GOP senators whose phone records were obtained by former special counsel Jack Smith, POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs reports. The provision — which was slipped in by Senate Majority Leader John Thune — sparked fury on both sides of the aisle and blindsided many in the House, including Speaker Mike Johnson, immediately setting off calls to reverse it even before the stopgap funding bill passed. But its path in the Senate is unclear. Party infighting: Thune hasn’t yet shown any interest in bringing the issue to a vote on the Senate floor. Senate Republicans were largely split yesterday after their weekly lunch about how to proceed, with Thune telling reporters that additional talks will be necessary. But Thune did get an earful from senators about being excluded from negotiations on including the provision in the first place, Hailey and Jordain Carney report. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who plans to sue over the review of his phone records, is floating expanding the class of protections from Smith’s probe from senators to “any private group.” THE BREAKUP: “Why Thune and Johnson are at odds this week,” by Jordain and Meredith: “The two men are known for rising above whatever theatrics are embroiling their respective conferences. But in recent days they became enmeshed in just that, when they publicly split and shadowboxed over a pair of internal GOP dilemmas over politically toxic issues.” CENSURE CRACKDOWN: The House last night punted the motion to censure Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) to the Ethics Committee, in a bipartisan 310-103 vote, POLITICO’s Nick Wu reports. The House Ethics Committee had already announced yesterday it would launch an investigative subpanel to determine whether Mills violated the House’s code of conduct. But there were fireworks on the House floor, with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) berating Mills. “Anything from the P word to you’re a POS to FU to all the — I mean, if you could just fill in the blanks on all that,” Mills told reporters of what Mace said to him, per Hailey. And there’s even more censure motions on the horizon … Landing today: Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) wrote on X that he’ll file a privileged motion to censure Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) and remove her from all committees. McCormick was indicted last night by the DOJ on charges of her embezzling $5 million in federal disaster funds and using the money on her 2021 campaign, per AP. That makes McCormick the third Democratic member of Congress under indictment — joining Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), per Punchbowl’s John Bresnahan. It’s also the fifth censure threat this week, per NBC’s Mel Zanona.
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Explore the impact in communities like Altoona. | | | | BEST OF THE REST FEMA DRAMA: Trump’s task force reviewing FEMA has recommended the disaster response agency not be abolished, NYT’s Maxine Joselow and Scott Dance report. Instead it will recommend reforms to the agency, with a final report due by the end of the year. It puts the review panel at odds with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who is looking to make FEMA into a grant-making agency, WaPo’s Brianna Sacks and Isaac Arnsdorf write. BOASBERG’S BACK: District Judge James Boasberg plans to restart criminal contempt proceedings against the Trump administration over whether they ignored orders to return planes carrying Venezuelan men being deported to El Salvador, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report. “The move by Boasberg, the chief federal district court judge in Washington, reopens one of the most fraught chapters of Trump’s second term: the president’s extraordinary invocation of wartime powers to summarily deport 137 Venezuelans to a notorious anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador.” VAX NOT: “RFK Jr. is battling a top health official on vaccines, again,” by POLITICO’s Tim Röhn: “A top aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is locked in a power struggle with his boss and the White House over vaccine policy and personnel … For now, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary, still has his job, but the dispute … is unresolved. … Tensions over Makary’s management of the FDA have simmered for months, but Kennedy is reluctant to be more forceful with his demands because it would contribute to a perception of chaos within his department.” REDISTRICTING RODEO: On one side of the shock federal court decision in Texas this week that could force the state to abandon its new congressional maps was U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee who is the subject of a new profile by POLITICO’s Daniel Barnes. But on the other side, Judge Jerry Smith issued a scathing dissent — or rather an “invective-laden, unusually personal excoriation” — of the redistricting decision, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein write. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Trail mix: Abraham Enriquez is launching a Republican bid for Texas’ 19th Congressional District, positioning himself as a Trump ally and a rising young conservative voice native to West Texas … Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has landed endorsements from four Democratic senators: Connecticut’s Chris Murphy, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich and Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen, POLITICO's Elena Schneider scoops. Flanagan is running against Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) for the blue-leaning Senate seat … And Democratic Majority for Israel PAC is announcing its first slate of Senate endorsements for the 2026 primary cycle — backing Craig in Minnesota, Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina.
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➡️ Explore POLITICO Pro Briefings | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | IN MEMORIAM — The late VP Dick Cheney’s funeral will be held at the Washington National Cathedral at 11 a.m., with more than 1,000 distinguished guests gathering to pay their respects. Former President George W. Bush will deliver a tribute at the service, per ABC, with Cheney’s daughter Liz Cheney and grandchildren are also expected to deliver remarks. Former President Joe Biden will be in attendance — but neither Donald Trump nor JD Vance received an invite, per CNN. (Needless to say, there was no love lost between Cheney and Trump.) Instead, every living former vice president — Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle — will be there this morning. Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan are all expected, plus Senate Majority Leader John Thune, former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It should be quite an event. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a reception last night celebrating the launch of the AI Infrastructure Coalition, which is pushing forward Trump’s AI agenda, with the event hosted by co-chairs Kyrsten Sinema and Garret Graves: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Sens. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Mike McCaul (R-Texas), Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Vince Fong (R-Calif.), Jeff Crank (R-Colo.), Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Blake Moore (R-Utah), Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) and Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Emily Domenech, Taylor Playforth, Emily Underwood and Adam Telle. — SPOTTED last night at Salamander in D.C., celebrating winners of the National Journalism Center’s 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Katie Pavlich, Mollie Hemingway, Guy Benson, Mary Katharine Ham, Vince Coglianese, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Sean Spicer, Susan Crabtree, Spencer Brown, Brent Scher, Emily Jashinsky, Chris and Sarah Bedford, Tom Bevan, Matt Vespa, Gabe Kaminsky, Phil Wegmann, Amber Duke, Luke Rosiak and Carl Cannon. — Forbes hosted an event in New York City last night celebrating its 2025 America’s Top Lawyers list, including a panel conversation led by Forbes’ Liane Jackson with Abbe Lowell, the go-to lawyer for those targeted by Trump; Marc Agnifilo, defense attorney for Sean “Diddy” Combs and Luigi Mangione; and Davida Brook, who is representing The New York Times in its case against OpenAI. SPOTTED: MariaRosa Cartolano, Lindsey Datte, Randall Lane, Ryan Anderson, Sigrid McCawley, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Jason Boyarski, Mathew Rosengart, Drew Findling, Christine Lepera, Paul Clement, Ronald Machen and Jeannie Rhee. MEDIA MOVES — Liam Quinn is now deputy news director for Bloomberg Government. He previously was editor at large. … Rachel Keidan has joined Semafor as head of comms. She previously worked at fintech firm Superstate. TRANSITIONS — Emily Trapani is now new markets lead for Valinor Enterprises. She previously worked for the House Appropriations Committee. … Michael Kwak has joined Berkeley Research Group’s securities practice as a managing director. He previously worked at Analysis Group. … Brandon Tatum is now interim executive director and CEO of the National Governors Association. He previously worked for Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and the Regional University System of Oklahoma. … … Steven Montoya is now program director of “A Constitution for 2076” at Democracy 2076. He previously worked at Transportation Energy Partners. … Julie Moss is joining the National Confectioners Association as VP of food safety & scientific affairs. She previously worked at the FDA. Sarah Brandmeier is also joining the NCA as director of nutrition policy & scientific affairs. She previously worked at the Consumer Brands Association. ENGAGED — James Bikales, an energy reporter at POLITICO, and Michelle Kurilla, research associate to the president at the Council on Foreign Relations, got engaged last month in Canada’s Banff National Park. They met in college as reporters for the Harvard Crimson. Pic, via Banff Photography BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Matt Barron of MLB Research Associates HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Former President Joe Biden … Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) … Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) … John Bolton … Charlie Cook of The Cook Political Report … Steve Herman … Bloomberg’s Ian Kullgren … Sarah Geary … CNN’s Ryan Struyk … Judy Woodruff … POLITICO’s Dan Goldberg, Sushant Sagar, Jing Sun and Mayo Hulse … Ron Suskind … Google’s Courtney Corbisiero … Robert Edmonson of the House Oversight Dems … Beverly Hallberg of District Media Group … Actum’s Cecelia Prewett … Brand Guild’s Jayne Sandman and Annie Perezchica Wood … Phil Ewing … Coleman Tolbert of the Defense 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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