| | | |  | | 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 why Donald Trump U-turned on Epstein … and why the White House fears it’s still not enough. Plus MBS at the White House — and the most surprising thing Trump’s said so far this week. Listen to the podcast Good Tuesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard. Get in touch. In today’s Playbook … — The House votes on the Epstein files this afternoon. What happens next? — MBS is back at the White House, seven years after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. — Trump gets a big win for his Gaza peace plan.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on Nov. 17, 2025, in Washington. | Evan Vucci/AP | MASSIE’S MOMENT: The House of Representatives will vote today to release the Epstein files, and the outcome is already a dead cert. After Donald Trump’s dramatic U-turn on Sunday, Republicans are expected to support the effort from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) en masse. And as Dasha revealed last night, the White House now expects this bill to become law. What a world. Here’s how it all plays out: Within minutes of this afternoon’s vote closing, all eyes will turn to the Senate. Congressional journos will spend the rest of the day chasing Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Senate Republicans around the halls, demanding to know if and when the House-passed bill will be brought to the floor — and if they intend to support it. Until Sunday night, most observers had expected the bill to die at that point. But Trump’s switcheroo has transformed the Senate dynamics. Is Thune really going to ignore a bill that has passed the House, which the MAGA base, most Republican voters and a majority of the American public want enacting — and which the president himself says he supports? Not likely. Next question. How many Republican senators will fancy going on record as having blocked the release of these files? Take a guess. “A growing number of GOP senators are open to giving the resolution a vote,” POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney report, “pointing to both Trump’s comments and interest from their own constituents in seeing Congress take action on Epstein. ‘I don’t have any problems with data coming out,’” Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) told reporters Monday.” Plenty more will follow. More from POLITICO’s Inside Congress
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Explore the impact in communities like Altoona. | | | | The White House knows where all this is headed. “This petition will move forward,” a White House official tells Dasha. “It will probably pass the Senate. And the president will sign it.” In other words: The bill is likely to become law. And so the Epstein files are going to be released. Aren’t they? Big caveat: As several observers have already noted, Trump’s announcement of a new investigation into Democratic links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein may give cover to the DOJ to insist certain files be held back. Legal experts tell Time’s Rebecca Schneid that provisions in the Massie/Khanna effort to protect ongoing legal inquiries mean the DOJ could, in theory, keep secret any files it chooses. Which means the conspiracy theorists are likely not going to be satisfied. The White House knows where this is headed, too. The official quoted above tells Dasha the administration is already turning over documents en masse to the House Oversight Committee, and that this work will continue — but that nobody expects to placate the masses. “The Department of Justice will continue to fully comply,” they said. “But are people ever going to be satisfied? No, because people in this country genuinely believe that the federal government is in possession of a list of pedophiles who work with Jeffrey Epstein. And that is just not true.” So here we are. Four months and 11 days after Trump’s DOJ told us no files would be released, the White House agrees to hand over the lot. And Trump is going to keep getting bashed anyway. Take a step back. What a debacle this has been for the president. Four months of defensive plays that divided his core supporters, wasted precious political capital and offered an open goal to his opponents … and still didn’t prevent the files being dragged out into the open. How different the summer and autumn could have been for Trump if he’d picked a different approach. On the podcast this morning, Dasha characterizes this as the “double-edged sword” of the president’s “attack, attack, attack” mentality: It is, after all, this same aggressive resilience that propelled him back into the White House for a second term. But it doesn’t always serve him well in the day to day.
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| | | | A few takeaways from this whole messy affair. After months of high-profile political rows, the Epstein files are now a mainstream cause — witness the survivors’ ad that aired during Monday Night Football last night; paid for by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. These things don’t come cheap. And what we’ve seen so far has already been damaging for Trump. There’s been no smoking gun, but that image in Epstein's birthday book — the one Trump still insists he had nothing to do with — will not fade from public memory. And people now believe Trump knew about Epstein’s crimes. A new Morning Consult poll shared with Playbook shows 60 percent of Americans think Trump knew what Epstein was up to, compared to just 15 percent who believe he did not. It’s not a great look. Other powerful men have been damaged too — former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers being the latest. It's Congress that emerges empowered. This is the most useful piece of presidential oversight we’ve seen from the legislative branch all year. Has the spell been broken? Might we see a genuinely co-equal branch of government start to reemerge? The laws of political gravity suggest at some point over the next 12-18 months, Trump’s authority — as a term-limited leader — will start to ebb away. To wit: POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney ticks through the seven ways in which Trump’s “iron-fisted grip on his party appears to be slipping in ways unseen since the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.” This is all overshadowing Trump’s new messaging on affordability. The president gave a 50-minute speech to McDonald’s franchise owners last night, with the cost of living as its central theme. Fox News carried a short section live during Bret Baier’s show, but there’s been precious little pickup elsewhere. The only stuff cutting through from his speech, as so often, are the bonkers clips where the president veers off-topic. (Last night’s’ favorite: Trump demanding more tartar sauce on his beloved Filet-O-Fish.) Which raises a whole separate question as we look toward 2026. Can even Trump cut through the wall of noise that is Trump 2.0? Will a bunch of domestic speeches about the cost of living — even by this president — actually be noticed in a world where the White House has flooded the zone? Judging by the sheer number of storylines the president has unleashed that are eating up coverage this morning — from Epstein to tariffs to deportations to the militarization of U.S. cities to lawfare to war and peace — it looks like an uphill task.
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| | | | FIT FOR A PRINCE MBS COMES TO TOWN: Epstein aside, Trump’s main focus today will be the arrival of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a glitzy two-day visit to the U.S. capital. Highlights of their schedule include a bilateral meeting at 11:45 a.m., a White House lunch at 12:15 p.m. and a grand state dinner at 7:15 p.m. Tomorrow they will jointly host an investment conference at the Kennedy Center. And invites have gone out for House leadership and committee leaders from both parties to meet with MBS tomorrow morning, per Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller. What to expect: Trump already announced yesterday that he’ll green-light the sale of F-35s to Riyadh — though Israel won’t be happy with that — and indicated that a U.S.-Saudi security agreement will be signed today, POLITICO’s Eli Stokols and colleagues report. It would be a long and difficult process to produce, send and train Saudi pilots for the fighter jets. Still, a major arms deal would signal a sea change in the U.S. approach to Saudi Arabia: No longer would deeper ties between the two countries be so dependent on Saudi normalizing relations with Israel. The bone saw prince: This is a landmark visit, too, for other reasons — MBS’s first trip to the U.S. since Saudi operatives murdered the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and chopped his body into pieces with a bone saw, a brutal killing which U.S. intelligence determined had received the crown prince’s sign-off (though MBS has denied involvement). MBS is now “on a mission to reclaim his place on the world stage and prove to President Donald Trump that backing his forceful leadership was worth the gamble,” Reuters’ Samia Nakhoul writes, as he “casts himself as a broker of peace.” Happily for him, Trump is already a big fan; expect the warmest of words between the two men. Also on the agenda: MBS wants to make progress on nuclear energy and artificial intelligence, while Trump will want MBS to make good on a promise to invest in the U.S., Reuters’ Timour Azhari and Matt Spetalnick preview. (One problem: Saudi Arabia is facing a worse financial outlook at home, WSJ’s Eliot Brown and Georgi Kantchev report.) And of course, Trump’s family business is also in ongoing talks about Saudi business deals, which in another would surely be receiving a lot more scrutiny than it is today. MORE BIG MIDDLE EAST NEWS: Trump scored a significant Gaza breakthrough last night, as the U.N. Security Council voted to support the U.S. peace plan and create a postwar stabilization force, POLITICO’s Felicia Schwartz reports. China and Russia abstained, while all other members voted yes. The diplomatic victory is a crucial step to move Trump’s Gaza process forward and get other countries on board with providing money or troops. That includes Saudi Arabia, which has emphasized that there must be a path to Palestinian statehood; Gaza will be another topic of conversation today.
| | | | 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. | | | | | TRAIL MIX CHICAGO BLUES: The House could vote as soon as today to condemn Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) for his gambit to install his chief of staff as his successor, effectively denying his constituents a choice, POLITICO’s Nick Wu and Shia Kapos report. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s (D-Wash.) unusual move to rebuke a fellow Democrat has angered many of her colleagues, and there were furious blue-on-blue rows breaking out on the floor of the House last night. In the end, only Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) joined Gluesenkamp Perez and Republicans in quashing an attempt to kill the resolution last night; though more Democrats are expected to join them on the final vote. The fallout: García’s office has defended his move, insisting he was forced to drop out at the last second for health and family reasons. House Dem leaders have stood by him. Though chief of staff Patty Garcia has the inside track on replacing her boss, she could yet face some competition: Mayra Macías intends to launch a bid as an independent to challenge the coronation, NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz reports. She’s a former leader of the Latino Victory Project and Build Back Together. FEELING SPECIAL: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott teed up the Houston special congressional election runoff for Jan. 31, by which point he will have kept the Democratic seat vacant for almost 11 months. Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards are the two contenders. More from Roll Call … In the New Jersey special election to replace Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill, Gov. Phil Murphy got behind Brendan Gill, per the New Jersey Globe’s Joey Fox. And fellow Democrat Zach Beecher jumped into the crowded primary. RED-LIGHT REDISTRICT: Trump’s vocal attacks on those Indiana state legislators resisting his gerrymandering demands are ongoing, but an even bigger prize for the GOP is coming into view. In Florida, a select panel on redistricting indicated that it will have its first meeting Dec. 4, per WCTV’s Cody Butler. That could presage a push by Florida Republicans to create an even deeper gerrymander in the state. PRIMARY COLORS: It looks like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will officially draw a primary challenge from the left, as New York City Council member Chi Ossé filed to run, POLITICO’s Jeff Coltin reports. But fellow progressives are not impressed. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani both indicated they thought challenging Jeffries was unwise.
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Explore the impact in communities like Altoona. | | | | BEST OF THE REST BILL OF HEALTH: VA Secretary Doug Collins and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak this morning at an HHS event unveiling new support for caregivers. Kennedy yesterday reiterated his belief that aluminum in vaccines may have caused a rise in food allergies — though noted there isn’t scientific evidence to back that up, per Bloomberg’s Rachel Cohrs Zhang. Not so healthy: The Trump administration’s huge cuts to science funding axed money for 383 clinical trials and 74,000 people participating in studies by August, new research shows. Studies focused on infectious disease and cancer were especially hit hard, WaPo’s Allyson Chiu reports. The ACA debate: It’s a pivotal week for the future of Obamacare subsidies, as House Republicans meet today to debate whether to extend the expiring payments or seek an alternative, POLITICO’s Benjamin Guggenheim reports. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) yesterday put out a plan to turn Trump’s idea of sending directly to Americans into substantive legislation, per POLITICO’s Cheyenne Haslett and colleagues. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: A new filing from New York AG Letitia James’ lawyers shows Fannie Mae officials didn’t think there was strong evidence of her committing mortgage fraud, per Reuters. They also argued that Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte, the driving force behind mortgage-fraud criminal referrals of Trump’s opponents, had abused his power. Pulte was similarly accused of weaponization by Lisa Cook’s lawyers, per the WSJ. WHAT LATIN AMERICA IS WATCHING: Trump offered a confusing mixture of olive branches and saber-rattling toward Latin America yesterday. He said again that he could be willing to speak directly to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, with CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Alayna Treene reporting that he’s open to diplomacy and hasn’t decided yet whether to attack. But Trump also indicated he was willing to launch strikes inside Mexico and Colombia against drug trafficking. THE CRACKDOWN: A state judge has ruled that National Guard troops have to leave Memphis, at least for now, per the Commercial Appeal’s Lucas Finton. … DHS said its Border Patrol operations in Charlotte, North Carolina, yielded an initial 130 immigration arrests over two days this weekend, per The Charlotte Observer’s Jeff Chamer. THE FEMA SHAKEUP: With acting Administrator David Richardson out, one possible next move for FEMA is to move the headquarters to Texas so Nim Kidd, who won’t move out of state, can lead it, POLITICO’s E&E News’ Thomas Frank reports. “Kidd is widely respected and has extensive experience,” but moving the agency would be a big undertaking.
| | | | 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 | | SO PEOPLE DO STILL GET FIRED — “Matt Gaetz Producer Fired at OAN Over Antisemitic Posts,” by TheWrap’s Corbin Bolies: “Right-wing news outlet One America News fired ‘The Matt Gaetz Show’ producer Vish Burra on Monday after he posted a cartoon last week that characterized Jewish people as scheming cockroaches he later labeled as ‘vermin’ … When reached by TheWrap by phone, Burra hung up.” GOOD NEWS — Jesse Jackson is getting out of the ICU. LOVIN’ IT — Donald Trump reminded a crowd last night of the time he got Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to eat a Big Mac — and claimed he “loved it.” NOTABLE CHANGE — Arabella Advisors is ceasing operations and essentially going in house at its managed funds, NYT’s Teddy Schleifer flags. BOOK CLUB — Former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) today is publishing his third novel, “The Einstein Conspiracy,” a work of historical fiction drawn partially from true events, in which FBI agents in 1939 try to stop Germany from abducting Albert Einstein. PLAYBOOK REAL ESTATE SECTION — “Major Republican Donor ‘Papa Doug’ Manchester Pays $28 Million for California Home,” by WSJ’s Katherine Clarke: “[H]e added one stipulation: The closing had to take place within six days. That meant the sellers had less than a week to vacate Villa Nafissa, the roughly 39-acre estate where they had lived for decades … Located in the guard-gated community of Fairbanks Ranch, Villa Nafissa has a 16,000-square-foot, European-inspired main house with seven bedrooms. There are also two guesthouses and a small ‘clubhouse’ with a dining room and a commercial kitchen … The estate has vast gardens inspired by Claude Monet’s renowned gardens in Giverny, France.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The Sine Institute of Policy & Politics at American University has announced its new cohort of spring fellows and distinguished lecturers. The fellows are Kwame Alexander, Anna Palmer, María Teresa Kumar and Kristen Soltis Anderson. The distinguished lecturers are Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Mete Coban, Tina Tchen, Shefali Razdan Duggal, Anita McBride and Stewart McLaurin. OUT AND ABOUT — Hemant Taneja and Teresa Carlson co-hosted the General Catalyst Institute’s inaugural “Summit on U.S. Resilience” last night at the Salamander DC. The event included conversations with CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Patrick Witt, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), Eric Glyman, Dino Mavrookas, James Proud and Kaledora Kiernan-Linn, with moderators Dasha Burns, Colin Demarest, Paul Kwan and Tammy Haddad. Also SPOTTED: Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), Julie Bush, Brad Porter, Grant Verstandig, Kent Thoelke, Abe Sutton, Jacqueline Acker, David Bray, Maryam Mujica, Pamela Brown, Sumi Somaskanda, Steve Clemons, Cathy Merrill and Luther Lowe. — The American Enterprise Institute held its annual Irving Kristol Award dinner at the National Building Museum last night, this year honoring historian Gordon Wood. SPOTTED: Robert Doar, Vince Haley, Wells King, Reps. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) and Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), John Chapuis, J.T. Jezierski, Marc Short, Ben Sasse, Adam O’Neal, George Will, Josh Rogin, Megan McArdle, Phil Klein, Guy Benson, Jon Hilsenrath, Jeffrey Goldberg, Pamela Reeves, Margaret Carlson, Anne Applebaum, Byron York, Meghan Gurdon, Charles Lane, Jonah Goldberg, Scott Gottlieb and Marc Thiessen. — SPOTTED at a launch party for the Digital Chamber’s State Network with Future Caucus at Arrels Courtyard at the Arlo Hotel yesterday evening: Andy Rabens, Gerald Gallagher, Chris Hayes, Kyler Phillips, Peter Cherukuri, Steve Olikara, Rich Berman, Delaware state Sen. Darius Brown, Louisiana state Rep. Travis Johnson, Kansas state Rep. Brandon Woodard, Iowa state Rep. Adam Zabner, New York Assemblymembers Ed Ra and Josh Jensen, Cody Carbone, Anastasia Dellaccio, Hailey Miller, Zunera Mazhar and Layla Zaidane. — The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations hosted a happy hour for its new head of government relations, Kyle Kizzier, last night at Smoke & Mirrors. SPOTTED: Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), Casey Clark, Alex Milliken, Liz Clark, Mike Goscinski, Eric Zulkosky, Reid Dagul, Jaryn Emhof, Jeff Bishop, Ben Falkowski, Grace White, Grace Yarrow and Justin Worrell. TRANSITIONS — Nadine Smith will be president and CEO of Color of Change. She previously has been the longtime leader of Equality Florida. … Alexis Serfaty is now an associate partner at Albright Stonebridge Group, leading its technology practice. He previously worked at Eurasia Group. … … Paige Rotunda is now director of government affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She previously worked at the Wilson Center. … Patrick Walsh is now senior director of procurement policy at the Aerospace Industries Association. He most recently worked for the U.S. Marshals Service at the Justice Department. … Connor Deir is now a staff assistant for Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). He previously worked for Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.). HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) … Reps. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) … Megyn Kelly … Shadow Representative Oye Owolewa … NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg … Abigail Jackson … POLITICO’s Matt Wuerker and Hailey Fuchs … Brooke Sommers … Drew Brandewie of Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) office … Heidi Przybyla … WaPo’s Theo Meyer … Amber (Manko) Hart … Dan Sadlosky of RTX … Karen Dunn … NBC’s Tom Namako and Morgan Radford … Paige Hutchinson … Brian Forest of Arboreal Communications … DCCC’s Robert Dougherty … Joel Mendelson … Ryan Caldwell of J.A. Green & Co. … Brannon Rains of Sen. Todd Young’s (R-Ind.) office … Carrie Matthews Noel … former Reps. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) … Abby Tinsley … Adali Hernandez of National Alliance for Caregiving … Arshad Hasan 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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