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|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | DEVELOPING: Another batch of the Justice Department’s files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released this morning. “They include some grand jury transcripts and other court documents from past cases against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell,” per CBS.
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The American flag is seen during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025 on Dec. 18, 2025, in Phoenix. | Jon Cherry/AP | THANK GOD FRIDAY’S OVER: The last 24 hours of news offered a stunning split screen: A drip, drip, drip of Epstein files revelations that continues to threaten a long and bipartisan list of Washington power players on a rolling basis as the DOJ opens up its files — WikiLeaks style, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Hassan Ali Kanu sharply observe. And then there was another Friday news dump and gusher from hell that surfed the Epstein wave. The Epstein files fallout: We learned this saga will continue to consume oxygen in Washington in the coming days and perhaps into 2026, as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed Friday that the documents would be, in Cheney and Kanu’s words, “released on a rolling basis through the holidays — and possibly beyond.” Blanche wrote to members of Congress before the release that he anticipates “this ongoing review being completed over the next two weeks,” per NYT. We also learned that Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), the sponsors of the law that led to Friday’s disclosure, are neither happy nor satisfied, with Massie saying the disclosure “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago.” Friday’s release was almost as notable for what was in it as what wasn’t, POLITICO’S Erica Orden reports. Former President Bill Clinton featured prominently, as White House aides gleefully underscored on X, even as a Clinton spokesperson criticized the timing as a distraction tactic and said the former president had ended his relationship with Epstein “before his crimes came to light.” But “financial records, internal memos from prosecutors who investigated Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring, key material obtained from the searches of Epstein’s palatial homes — none of it figured prominently in the documents released Friday,” Erica writes. Epstein’s victims are also dissatisfied with the partial release, per NYT. But amid that swirl of Epstein news, Washington saw both an epic Friday news dump and a gusher of news with political and geopolitical consequences, each of which tells us something about MAGA and its future. Case in point: Perhaps the biggest revelation was that Rep. Elise Stefanik is suspending her campaign for New York governor and will not seek reelection to her upstate House seat. It marks an eyebrow-raising denouement for a onetime disciple of former Speaker Paul Ryan-turned-ultra MAGA operator whose nomination to become United Nations ambassador was yanked earlier this year over concerns of a thinning GOP congressional majority. “Her tumble from grace crystallized the limits of MAGA loyalty and the risks of building a political identity around Mr. Trump, who can turbocharge or torpedo a career — sometimes both,” NYT’s Annie Karni writes. “Once one of the president’s most stalwart defenders, Ms. Stefanik, who referred to herself as ‘ultra MAGA’ and styled herself after Mr. Trump, ultimately found herself undermined by him and politically adrift.” There’s also this quote from MAGA macher and Trump whisperer Steve Bannon: “Elise needs to keep her seat and challenge Mike Johnson immediately,” Bannon told Karni, adding that she was “one of our real warriors.”
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Learn more. | | | | It was not Friday’s only exit from Congress: Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) announced she would retire after a single term in the Senate. Lummis had already bagged President Donald Trump’s endorsement for a reelection bid. Her exit marks a loss for the crypto industry, POLITICO’S Lisa Kahinsky reports. But more notably at a moment when Trump is shedding congressional allies, it is another exit of a MAGA woman from Congress (She urged Trump to pursue his unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election). Lummis' decision is another sign of a widespread sentiment gripping Washington that life in Congress amid Trump 2.0 is not all it's cracked up to be. Further from home: Not quite a news dump but firmly in the “gusher of news” category, the U.S. launched airstrikes on Syria. The NYT sets the scene: “American fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery attacked more than 70 suspected Islamic State positions across central Syria, targeting the group’s infrastructure and weapons sites, according to the U.S. military’s Central Command.” The zoom-out: “The U.S. strikes came a week after Mr. Trump said he would retaliate against ISIS for killing two American soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter in the ancient city of Palmyra,” the Times notes. As with all military interventions abroad, it’s worth asking whether the action comports with what Vice President JD Vance calls the “Trump Doctrine”: “articulate a clear American interest”; “try to aggressively diplomatically solve that problem”; and “when you can’t solve it diplomatically, you use overwhelming military power to solve it and then you get the hell out of there before it ever becomes a protracted conflict.” And finally, flying just beneath the radar of the Epstein news, the MAGA civil war rages on at the Turning Point USA conference. At America Fest, the fest is less apparent than the fight. “For a second day in a row, a long-brewing internal fight among MAGA influencers spilled onto the stage of Turning Point USA's first annual conference since the September slaying of Charlie Kirk, the organization's co-founder,” NBC’s Jonathan Allen writes from Phoenix. The latest: "Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads," Bannon said from the stage Friday night, responding to Shapiro who on Thursday listed Bannon among the movement's “frauds and grifters.” For MAGA, the unfolding scene in Phoenix foreshadows a possible future as the man who has held it all together for a decade stares down the prospect of ceding its reins – and the inevitable decline of political might. After all, as we learned from Vanity Fair’s Susie Wiles profile early this week, Trump, despite flirtations to the contrary, knows he can’t run again.
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As a barrage of news overtook Washington, President Donald Trump took to Rocky Mount, North Carolina. | Alex Brandon/AP | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. 2026 WATCH: As a barrage of news overtook Washington, Trump took to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in the last stop of his affordability tour this year, touting his economic record and making “his closing argument of 2025,” WaPo’s Natalie Allison writes. On top of the cost-focused message that his team wanted him to deliver — he said his drug pricing policy alone “should win us the midterms” — Trump’s 90-minute address also lambasted his Democratic foes, from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Trail mix: Beyond Stefanik and Lummis, there were a few other shakeups yesterday. Colorado Treasurer Dave Young ended his bid in the crowded Democratic primary field for the state’s 8th district. … Jessica Swartz ended her Democratic bid for Michigan’s 4th district. She's running for a state House seat instead. … Former football pro Jay Feely announced he’s switching his Republican campaign from Arizona’s 5th district to its 1st district. Red-light redistrict: As Indiana’s Republicans thwarted a pressure campaign from Trump to redraw the state’s map, Rep. Frank Mrvan — a Democrat whose district would be at risk if Indiana redrew its lines — stayed quiet. POLITICO’s Nicholas Wu reports this morning Mrvan is speaking out, calling on both parties to end their redistricting arms race. “I do not believe all-blue and all-red states benefit anyone,” Mrvan told Nick. But Rep. André Carson — the other Indiana Democrat who as Nick puts it “survived a political near-death experience” — defended the pushback, saying blue states “are going to have to make that decision on their own.” Speaking of … “Democrats Just Won Seats in Mississippi. The Supreme Court Could Block a Repeat,” by POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein: “That would be a huge blow to civil rights lawyers like Mississippi’s Carroll Rhodes, who’s spent his career leveraging the Voting Rights Act to increase the political power of Black people and other minorities.” 2. WAR AND PEACE: U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are set to meet Russian officials today in Miami in the latest round of peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, as POLITICO reported earlier this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signaled his next steps will depend on what the U.S. does after today, and the stakes are rising — the AP reports another round of deadly strikes on Odesa killed eight today. So far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown little interest in compromise. Knowing Steve Witkoff: A WSJ six-byline team have a must-read on Witkoff’s ascent in Trump’s diplomatic sphere — and how Putin maneuvered behind the scenes to help make it happen. With the classic structures of the U.S. relationship with the Kremlin virtually absent, the billionaire real-estate developer has emerged in its place. “Yes, he lacks foreign policy experience, but nearly four years into a war that has cost more than a million casualties, [Witkoff] argues, it is time to try something new,” the sextet writes. For your radar: “U.S. Pitches ‘Project Sunrise’ Plan to Turn Gaza Into High-Tech Metropolis,” by WSJ’s Alexander Ward and colleagues: “The blueprint drafted by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff could have the U.S. commit to roughly 20% of some reconstruction costs over 10 years.” 3. SOUTH OF THE BORDER: The Pentagon announced Trump’s new pick to lead the U.S. Southern Command following the abrupt retirement of its last commander and tension over the growing pressure campaign against Venezuela. Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Francis Donovan, who currently is the vice commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Donovan will face the Senate for confirmation in the new year, where if confirmed he’ll take over as lead of the military boat strikes that have drawn controversy on the Hill, NYT’s Helene Cooper reports. The latest: The brinksmanship now has both the U.S. and Venezuela jamming satellite navigation signals in the Caribbean Sea, potentially escalating the risk of an air or sea traffic collision, per NYT. At his press conference yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on the administration’s position on the legality of the strikes and said potential pushback from Russia is “not a factor” in its decisions, per Reuters. For the history buffs: “Spit and Sulfur: How Venezuela Went From U.S. Ally to Trump Target,” by NYT’s Michael Crowley. 4. TECH CORNER: "Trump AI czar David Sacks starts to worry the industry," by POLITICO’s Brendan Bordelon and colleagues: “Trump’s aggressive move to block states from regulating artificial intelligence is splitting the tech lobby — and steering its frustration squarely toward David Sacks, the president’s top AI adviser. … More than half a dozen people closely involved with the issue in Washington told POLITICO that Sacks undercut the tech industry’s effort on Capitol Hill to craft a more permanent federal solution on state AI rules, instead ramming through unilateral action that could turn AI law into a national political fight.”
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| | | | 5. WHAT DOGE IS UP TO: “At the Pentagon, DOGE Mission to Cut Costs Includes Buying Drones,” by WSJ’s Lara Seligman: “The Department of Government Efficiency’s mission at the Pentagon now includes not just cutting wasteful programs, but buying thousands of small drones for the U.S. military. … The effort led by Owen West, a Marine veteran and former financial analyst at Goldman Sachs who is the lead DOGE staffer at the Pentagon, bypasses the department’s often-cumbersome acquisition system, using $1.1 billion appropriated by Congress to quickly procure drones through a series of competitions … The aim is to get the drones to military units by 2027.” 6. COURT IN THE ACT: The DOJ formally appealed the rulings that resulted in the criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and NY AG Letitia James getting thrown out, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reports. Both appeals challenge the judge’s findings that Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s pick for interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, was unlawfully appointed. The move to appeal also follows two failed efforts by the DOJ to re-indict James. 7. IMMIGRATION FILES: The Trump administration is ramping up its efforts to deport people to other countries, filing almost 5,000 motions just last month seeking to dismiss asylum cases and arguing that applicants can get asylum in “safe third countries,” NYT’s Jazmine Ulloa and colleagues report. … Following a court ruling this week, ICE is now re-allowing members of Congress to visit ICE facilities without notice following the arrest of several lawmakers who attempted to visit detention centers earlier this year, per NYT’s Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Olivia Bensimon. … Meanwhile, the administration got a rare pushback from the Supreme Court yesterday, as justices rejected an emergency request to stay proceedings on a lawsuit challenging the government’s effort to stop immigration judges from publicly speaking on cases, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports. 8. VAX NOT: “U.S. plans to stop recommending most childhood vaccines, defer to doctors,” by WaPo’s Lena Sun and Rachel Roubein: “The Trump administration plans to shift the federal government away from directly recommending most vaccines for children and suggest they receive fewer shots to more closely align with Denmark’s immunization model … Federal health officials are weighing vaccine guidance that would encourage parents to talk to a doctor to make decisions for most shots … It was not immediately clear which shots would no longer be recommended.” 9. SCHOOL TIES: “University of Virginia’s Board Names a New President,” by NYT’s Stephanie Saul and Michael Schmidt: “The University of Virginia’s Republican-controlled board voted Friday to appoint a new president weeks before a Democratic governor assumes power, a move that comes six months after the campus was rocked when its previous president resigned under pressure from the Trump administration. The board appointed Scott C. Beardsley, the longtime dean of the university’s Darden School of Business.” CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 17 funnies
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| GREAT WEEKEND READS: — “Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence. This Is the Story of Her Life,” by Stephen Rodrick for Rolling Stone: “The Minnesota Speaker’s closest friends and family open up for the first time.” — “Inside the Trump Administration’s Man-Made Hunger Crisis,” by ProPublica’s Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester: “What has come with Trump, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” said one aid worker in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp. “It’s huge and brutal and traumatizing.” — “Donald and Melania Trump’s Terrible, Tacky, Seemingly Legal Memecoin Adventure,” by Bloomberg’s Zeke Faux and Max Abelson: “No one wants to claim credit for helping the first couple launch cryptocurrencies that plummeted more than 90% from their peak.” — “The Democrat testing the appetite for a leader from the ‘one percent,’” by WaPo’s Maeve Reston: “Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has tapped his wealth to climb the political ladder, moving toward a White House run while presenting himself as a champion for everyday people.” — “The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate,” by WSJ’s Katherine Long and colleagues: “Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites build mega-families, testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them.” — “Farmworkers Are Frequently Exploited. But Few Farms Participate in a Program That Experts Say Could Prevent Abuse,” by ProPublica’s Max Blau: “There’s a little bit of: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” fourth-generation farmer Brian Reeves said. “A lot of farmers are just afraid that it’s going to be more of a headache than it’s worth.” — “Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich,” by David Enrich and colleagues for NYT Magazine: “For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society.”
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Explore our ongoing work. | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | IN MEMORIAM — “Lou Cannon, Post reporter and preeminent Reagan biographer, dies at 92,” by WaPo’s Adam Bernstein: “Lou Cannon, a Washington Post reporter who became the preeminent biographer of Ronald Reagan, chronicling the former actor’s election as California governor, his long pursuit of the presidency and his two terms in the White House, died Dec. 19 at a hospice facility in Santa Barbara, California. … Mr. Cannon became known as the Washington press corps’ indispensable authority on the 40th president.” THE NEWS TRUMP CARES ABOUT: Anthony Joshua knocked out Jake Paul in the sixth round of their big heavyweight fight last night. Trump posted on Truth Social that he watched the fight on his flight to Florida, praising both Paul and Joshua. “Fantastic Entertainment, but Kudos to Jake for his Stamina, and frankly, Ability, against a much bigger man!” HERE WE GO AGAIN: Musician Kristy Lee, who was set to perform Jan. 14 on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, is ‘in the process of canceling her scheduled performance’ after the center’s board added Trump’s name to it, NOTUS’ Torrence Banks reports. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION: “To ‘haters,’ outgoing D.C. police chief says: ‘F you. ... I forgive you,’” by WaPo’s Emma Uber: “Days after successive scathing reports eviscerated Chief Pamela A. Smith’s leadership style, she addressed a crowd gathered at D.C. police headquarters on Friday … ‘And if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it again,’ she said, clapping for emphasis. ‘How dare you, how dare you, how dare you attack my integrity, attack my character.’” OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a holiday party hosted by The Spectator’s Matt McDonald at RealClearPolitics’s townhouse office: Adam and April O’Neal, Damir Marusic, John Hudson, Carine Najjar, Kate Andrews, Josh Christenson, Gabe Kaminsky, Robby Soave, Natalie Dowzicky, Billy Binion, Emma Camp, Raquel Krahenbuhl, Christina Sevilla and Steve Rochlin, Al Weaver, Tom Rogan, Mychael Schnell, Molly Marlow, Marlena Haddad, Will Simpson, Gareth Riley-Evans, Kit Hernly, Sarah Beth Spraggins, Kelly Chapman, Marisela Ramirez, Ani Chkhikvadze and David DesRosiers. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: PBS’ Paula Kerger … POLITICO’s Francis Chung, John Yearwood, Karen Early and Tyler Brady … AP’s Mary Clare Jalonick … Sonny Perdue … HuffPost’s Jen Bendery … Murray Waas … Susan Neely … Amanda Thorpe … Hannah Thoburn … Hilary Nachem Loewenstein of Bully Pulpit International … Brooke Goldstein of the Lawfare Project … former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) … Ryan Davis of Carlton Fields … Catherine Pino of D&P Creative Strategies … Irene Bueno of NVG … Nelson Mullins’ Christopher Cushing … PhRMA’s Samantha Helton Abboud … Walter Swett of Dynamic SRG THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): CBS “Face the Nation”: Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) … National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett … Catherine Russell … Archbishop Paul Coakley … Anthony Salvanto. ABC “This Week”: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries … Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Andrew Ross Sorkin … Charlamagne tha God. Panel: Donna Brazile, Chris Christie, Sarah Isgur and Faiz Shakir. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) … Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) … National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. Panel: Marc Thiessen, Stef Kight, Michael Duncan and Juan Williams. Sunday special: Dead Sea Scrolls at Museum of the Bible. NBC “Meet the Press”: Deputy AG Todd Blanche … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Panel: Sara Fagen, Garrett Haake, Jeh Johnson and Tyler Pager. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) … Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). Panel: Scott Jennings, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Kate Bedingfield and Bakari Sellers. MS NOW “The Weekend”: Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) … Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton … Jess Michaels. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) … Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) … Jeffrey Rosen. Panel: Joe Khalil, Sabrina Siddiqui and Stephanie Slade. 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.
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