| | | |  | | 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 future of under-fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth … and why for Donald Trump, affordability is still the hardest word.
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| Good Thursday morning. This is Jack Blanchard. EXCLUSIVE — OUR SURVEY SAYS: Almost half of all voters say the cost of living in the U.S. is the worst they can ever remember, per the latest edition of the POLITICO Poll. And it’s a view held by 37 percent of 2024 Trump voters, POLITICO’s Erin Doherty reports. And it gets worse: “Americans say the affordability crisis is Trump’s responsibility, with 46 percent saying it is his economy now and his administration is responsible for the costs they struggle with.” The results come hot on the heels of another strong electoral showing for the Democrats in Tennessee this week, as they focus their political messaging on the cost of living. The poll, conducted in partnership with Public First, finds that “three-quarters of Trump voters say they trust the Republican Party over Democrats to reduce the overall cost of living. But his numbers are far weaker among those who say they voted for him, but do not identify as “MAGA Republicans” — 61 percent, compared to 88 percent of MAGA-aligned voters — pointing to a possible weak spot in his coalition.” Read more on the poll here. AND THEN CHECK THIS OUT: Dasha has Bill Gates for an exclusive podcast interview on “The Conversation” next week — and asks him about his foundation’s new report that finds a disturbing global setback. Preventable childhood deaths are projected to rise for the first time this century as wealthy nations cut global health funding, the Gates Foundation’s 2025 Goalkeepers report finds. Gates tells Dasha the world should remember the “miracle” of having cut the number from 10 million to less than 5 million over the past 25 years. “We increased the amount of money for the first 25 years, and now we’re decreasing the money,” he tells Dasha. “It’s not surprising that that’s resulting in more deaths.” The full interview drops next week. Watch the clip here. Read the full report. In today’s Playbook … — A big day for Pete Hegseth as multiple Pentagon crises come to a head. — The GOP’s affordability woes continue. — And RFK Jr.’s new-look vaccine panel meets. Health officials are braced for impact.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attend a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP | ON DEFENSE: Pete Hegseth may need an extra helping of his beloved egg, bacon and sausage this morning — it’s going to be a red hot day at the Pentagon. Double trouble: The defense secretary sees not one but two major crises coming to a head today. First up will be publication of the long-awaited inspector-general’s report on his role in the Signalgate fiasco, which saw Hegseth post detailed plans for an upcoming U.S. bombing raid into an unsecured Signal chat group which — unbeknownst to him — included a prominent magazine editor. While we’re all devouring that, naval commander Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley will be privately briefing senior members of Congress on the attack on a Venezuelan boat in September which this week saw Hegseth accused of war crimes. Bradley is the military chief who made the decision to fire a second missile at the ship on Sept. 2, apparently after survivors were spotted on board. The Washington Post reported last week that Hegseth had given a verbal order to kill everyone on board — something Hegseth flatly denies. Let’s get one thing clear: Hegseth is going nowhere, for now at least. The White House considers Signalgate dealt with. Trump believes he has the public on his side over the missile strikes. And this is an administration which hates the idea of bowing to pressure on one of its own. The more it feels like a witch hunt to Trump, the more he’s sure to dig in. But that doesn’t mean today will be comfortable — or that Hegseth is safe long-term. Signalgate remains a jarring issue for the administration. This was a monumental cock-up — a scarcely-believable set of blunders which very clearly put U.S. national security at risk. And that’s not a partisan take: Plenty of MAGA supporters, from Laura Loomer to Piers Morgan, were furious at the time. Trump himself has admitted it was wrong to be discussing military raids on Signal. And the president's view of the leak to Jeffrey Goldberg is clear, given Mike Waltz paid with his job. Hegseth did not set up the chat group, though he was an active participant; his messages an odd, emoji-strewn blend of childish braggado and detailed war planning. The charges against him are twofold — that the bombing plans he shared were classified; and that he should not have been using an unsecured app like Signal in the first place. My department, my rules: As POLITICO’s Joe Gould and Maggie Miller report (following CNN’s initial scoop yesterday), the IG will conclude that the war plans Hesgeth posted on the app were indeed classified when he received them; but that as defense secretary, he had the power to declassify them if he saw fit. Hegseth refused to be interviewed but asserted his declassification powers in a written memo. To that end, it seems, no laws were broken. The legality is one thing; the wisdom quite another. Plenty of people, including some in the White House, will be asking why on earth a U.S. defense secretary would choose to declassify the details and timings of forthcoming bombing raids — and then post them in not just an unsecured chat group with his Cabinet colleagues, but also one containing family members. The IG is clear about what the consequences could have been. Per CNN, WaPo and others, the report says both the mission itself and the lives of U.S. service personnel could have been compromised. Nothing to see: Still, for Hegseth, and for Republican allies who’ve seen the report (per Joe and Maggie’s story), this is a "complete exoneration.” And while the report will say Hegseth did break protocol by using his personal phone and an unsecured app, that’s hardly new information. Democrats will dig out all the old clips of a youthful Hegseth suggesting Hillary Clinton should be jailed for using a private email server — but rank hypocrisy is not a crime, either. The Venezuelan boat strike is a very different beast. The warnings of illegality have clearly landed — witness Trump and Hegseth carefully distancing themselves from the decision to strike the boat a second time while backing Admiral Bradley to the hilt. Essential reading: Per the NYT, the picture is way more nuanced than Hegseth simply issuing a "kill them all” order. Helen Cooper and colleagues report Hegseth had approved “contingency plans” for what to do if an initial strike left survivors.” Citing multiple U.S. officials, they report them as follows: “The military would attempt to rescue survivors who appeared to be helpless, shipwrecked and out of what the administration considered a fight. But it would try again to kill them if they took what the United States deemed to be a hostile action, like communicating with suspected cartel members, the officials said.” All at sea: In this case the “hostile action,” per the NYT, was two survivors radioing for help after their boat was hit. “The idea appears to be that without a second strike, another boat could have come to retrieve not only the survivors but also any of the alleged shipment of cocaine that the first blast did not burn up, so calling for help was a hostile act.” Will lawmakers accept that premise? It certainly sounds like a stretch. But then the entire bombing campaign is a stretch, in that it requires accepting that America is at war with a bunch of drug cartels. As the NYT reports: “A broad range of legal experts reject the legitimacy of Mr. Trump’s claim that this is an armed conflict. They say that there is no armed conflict, that crews of boats suspected of smuggling drugs are civilians, not combatants, and that Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth have been giving illegal orders to commit murder.” Expect plenty more debate around all of this in the days ahead. The interviews with Bradley are only a first step. Lawmakers want to see the video of the second strike, which Trump said yesterday he was happy to be released. The NYT says they’re also chasing chat logs between Bradley and the SEAL team operating the missiles. Any intercepted radio communications sent by the shipwrecked survivors would also be of interest. Much depends on how hard Congress intends to pursue it all. Take a step back: Indeed, it’s worth noting that what we’re seeing today is something that’s been in remarkably short supply this year — some genuine oversight from the legislative branch. It was Congress who ordered the IG report into Signalgate, and it’s Congress leading the charge on what happened in the Caribbean on Sept. 2. We’re still a long way from “co-equal branch of government,” but it’s nice to see at least a few of these guys actually doing their jobs. On Venezuela, Trump feels he is on solid ground — not least because his instincts tell him the public is on side. “This is war,” he told reporters yesterday. “These people were killing our people [via drug overdoses] by the millions … Have you seen what happens with the families of — not only the people killed, the people that are trying to get their son or their daughter off of this poison that they've been fed? I think you're going to find that there's a very receptive ear to doing exactly what they're doing, taking out those boats.” He may be right. But the bigger picture for Hegseth is not great. While Trump voices support in public, POLITICO’s Jack Detsch reports that patience across the administration is wearing thin. And there are certainly powerful people in the White House who view Hegseth as a liability; a needless risk; an accident waiting to happen. Tellingly, he’s been cut out of several significant moments since the spring. WaPo reports he’s fast losing GOP support on the Hill. If he wants to last four years in the job, Hegseth could really do with a few less controversies in 2026. But the stories just keep coming: The WSJ landed a nice scoop last night that Hegseth forced out the four-star head of U.S. military operations in the Caribbean after “months of discord.” Lara Seligman and colleagues report Adm. Alvin Holsey had voiced “initial concerns” about the legality of hitting Venezuelan boats with missiles. He was asked to resign by Hegseth in October, they report, more than a month into the bombing campaign. “While Hegseth has dismissed a number of high-ranking military leaders since taking over the Pentagon,” the WSJ reports, “the ouster of a commander during an unfolding military operation was an extraordinary move, lawmakers and experts note.” It’s one more purge, and one more eyebrow-raising moment, from the most controversial figure in Trump’s Cabinet.
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Explore our ongoing work. | | | | COST OF LIVING THE MESSAGE MISSION: It’s not just POLITICO’s poll flashing warning signs about affordability for Trump and the GOP. During a closed-door briefing with House Republicans yesterday, top Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio said Tuesday’s special election in Tennessee was closer than they would have liked because Republicans weren’t talking enough about affordability issues, POLITICO’s Benjamin Guggenheim and colleagues report. He urged the lawmakers to “stay the course and talk about the realities of the economy.” Good luck with that: Trump again described affordability as a “con job” yesterday. TALKING ACA: Fabrizio also advised the group on how to defend against Democrats’ attacks over expiring Obamacare tax credits — by focusing instead on reducing drug prices. And with four weeks to go until the subsidies run out, there’s precious little sign of a deal on the Hill. For now, Senate Democrats are looking to put forward a three-year extension for an expected floor vote next week, though the Majority Leader John Thune said an extension is “designed to fail,” POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reports.
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| | | | IN THE MAHA-VERSE MAHA MOMENT: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handpicked vaccine panel convenes today and tomorrow to review changes to immunizations for newborns against hepatitis B — and to reevaluate established vaccination schedules for children. It’s a very big deal: The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — ACIP — is expected to make new recommendations on Hep B. “The committee has not settled on exactly how long to recommend pushing them back, the new committee head said in an interview,” per Reuters’ Michael Erman. “Some 3.5 million American children a year are recommended to get the shot on the day of their birth. … A review of more than 400 studies and reports by independent vaccine experts released on Tuesday found that the U.S. policy of giving the hepatitis B vaccine to newborns cut infections in children by more than 95%.” And there’s more: The panel is also set to “question how pediatricians inoculate children against more than a dozen other infectious diseases, including measles, mumps, whooping cough and polio,” NPR’s Rob Stein and Pien Huang write. But the meeting only “underscores grave concerns among many public health experts, who fear it will further erode childhood vaccinations, leading to a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases.” Former officials are furious: A dozen former FDA commissioners criticized Kennedy’s anti-vaccine push yesterday in a joint piece published by the New England Journal of Medicine. And some states are pushing back: Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey warned against the agency’s “reckless, misguided policy changes” in comments to reporters yesterday — promising to ensure that Michiganders that “vaccines will continue to be available in Massachusetts, no matter what happens in D.C.”
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| | | | BEST OF THE REST NEW JMART COLUMN: Why wasn’t Trump out stumping for his party in Tennessee? “The answer is that Trump is living his best life in this second and final turn in the White House,” Jonathan writes in an essential, just-published column on our site. “Coming up on one year back in power, he’s turned the office into an adult fantasy camp, a Tom Hanks-in-Big, ice-cream-for-dinner escapade posing as a presidency.” Read the full column here. HAPPENING TODAY: Federal prosecutors are “expected to seek to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday in Norfolk, Va. on charges related to alleged mortgage fraud,” MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian report. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Endorsement watch: VoteVets and New Politics are both announcing endorsements for former Democratic Virginia Rep. Elaine Luria’s comeback bid in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, Playbook’s Adam Wren reports. Both announcements focus on Luria’s service background in the Navy and cost-of-living issues. The backing for Luria is notable because she’s not the only veteran in the race: James Osyf is a commander in the Navy Reserve. WITHER THE SPEAKER: Fresh off the increasingly fraught tensions between House GOP Chair Elise Stefanik and Speaker Mike Johnson, NYT’s Annie Karni reports that a wider rebellion among the women of the House GOP has been simmering. The whole piece is well worth your time, but two particularly notable passages were popping around on social media: 1) Though Johnson himself declined to comment for the story, a “senior Republican congressional aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of prolonging an intraparty feud, said that after Mr. Johnson had provided Ms. Stefanik with office space and a budget for what the aide described as ‘a fake job and a fake title,’ he would have expected her to be more gracious.” 2) “Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has told people she is so frustrated with the Louisiana Republican and sick of the way he has run the House — particularly how women are treated there — that she is planning to huddle with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia next week to discuss following her lead and retiring early from Congress.” THE BACKSTORY: “Trump’s Former Campaign Manager Assisted Honduran Presidential Candidate,” by NYT’s “Trump’s former campaign manager assisted the campaign of a right-wing Honduran presidential candidate who was endorsed by the American president and is now in a razor-thin contest to win the election. Brad Parscale, who ran Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign before he was replaced less than four months before the election, worked with consultants who helped run Nasry Asfura’s presidential campaign ahead of last Sunday’s election. … Parscale acknowledged that he advised the campaign, but said that he had nothing to do with the endorsement or the pardon.” TRENDING 2025: Google’s “top trending topics” of the year list is out this morning — and the late Charlie Kirk spiked searches like no other. Trending searches for the podcaster and conservative influencer, who was murdered in September, topped everything else in America. Searches for Zohran Mamdani were in sixth place, just behind the Big Beautiful Bill, the new iPhone, Labubu toys and Netflix hit “KPop Demon Hunters.” WHAT THE FLUFF: MyPillow CEO and a 2020 election denier Mike Lindell has filed the paperwork to join the crowded Minnesota governor’s race, injecting some drama into the challenge to two-term incumbent Gov. Tim Walz, The Minnesota Star Tribune’s Ryan Faircloth reports. EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: Despite repeatedly claiming she won’t raise taxes, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul may have to confront a new reality after Zohran Mamdani’s win for New York City mayor, POLITICO’s Nick Reisman reports this morning. Mamadani’s victory is now “flooding Albany with tax-the-rich demands as Hochul reconsiders a position she had treated as nonnegotiable all year.”
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Learn more. | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | SPOTTED: Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace and Bret Baier having a private dinner at Prime Rib last night. DIGITAL HIGH STREET: Mayor Muriel Bowser will open the DMV’s first-ever Google store today, on M Street in Georgetown. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the American Defense International annual holiday party: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), Mike Collins (R-Ga.), Brad Finstad (R-Minn.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), Rob Wittman (R-Va.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), Jeff Crank (R-Colo.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Eugene Vindman (D-Va.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.), Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Blake Moore (R-Utah), Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.), Mark Messmer (R-Ind.), Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), Tim Kennedy (D-N.Y.), Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and John McGuire (R-Va.) and Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). — Procter & Gamble’s Government Relations team held a holiday reception last night marking more than 60 years of P&G’s advocacy. SPOTTED: Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), Panamanian Ambassador José Miguel Alemán Healy, Reps. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) and Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Nicole Collier, Erica Creamer, Brandon Neal, Tres Bailey, Brigitte Gwyn, Steve Stombres, Jonny Slemrod, Jennifer Abril, Martin Figueroa, Meghan Plotz, Kaitlin Sighinolfi, Maggie Ward, Julie Alsup, Amy Roberti and Jordan Dickinson. — TechNet gathered member companies in D.C. yesterday for its annual Federal Policy Conference. SPOTTED: Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), Ron Ash, Linda Moore, Mike Ward, Devan Barber and Brendan Jaspers. —Carlos Sanchez, chief of staff to Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) celebrated 20 years on Capitol Hill last night at a gathering in Eastern Market hosted by his wife Alejandra Avila, brother Juan Sanchez, and sister Carla Sanchez. SPOTTED: Joe Crowley, Catherine Pino, Ingrid Duran, Shalanda Young, Jorge Aguilar, Adan Serna Tom Manatos, Kate Keating, Moses Mercado, Catlin O'Neill, Adrian Saenz, Jan Beukelman, Elizabeth Falcone, Moses Mercado, Dean Aguillen, Amy Strathdee, Brynne Craig, Alexandra Veitch, Reema Dodin and Caitlyn Stephenson. — SPOTTED at a fundraiser last night for Democrat Dan Koh’s congressional campaign hosted by Susanna Quinn co-hosted by Koh’s host committee, including Herbie Ziskend, Jeff Zients and others. SPOTTED: Tom Perez, Lorraine Voles, Ron Klain, Kristen Orthman, Amos Hochstein, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Stephanie Cutter, Josh Orton, Mike Donilon, Emilie Simons, Yohannes Abraham, Christian Tom, Rebecca Lissner, Jeff Nussbaum and Ian Sams. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Democracy Forward is adding Laura Arandes as deputy managing attorney, Anashua Dutta as senior staff attorney, Louis Katz as counsel, Astrid Dorélien as civil service fellows program director and Alissa Lopez as deputy director for Democracy 2025. Arandes previously worked at the CFPB, Dutta at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Katz at DOJ, Dorélien at the State Department and Lopez at American Oversight. TRANSITIONS — Adam Vaccaro is joining DLA Piper as partner in their national security and global trade practice. He previously worked in the Commerce Department. … Angel Nigaglioni is now policy director for Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). He previously worked in the Treasury Department and is a José Serrano/House Appropriations alum. … Nicholas Cheolas is now a partner at Wiley Rein’s litigation practice. He previously worked at DOJ. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) and Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) … The Boston Globe’s Jackie Kucinich … Suzanne Malveaux … NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben and Ximena Bustillo … Al Hunt … Meg Badame … Sarah Paulos … Amazon’s Rachael Lighty … Peter Freeman … Colin Rogero … Claire Lucas … Kevin O’Neill of Arnold & Porter … PBS NewsHour’s Anne Davenport … Sarah Baron … Brian Svoboda … Chad Heflin … Mark Cowan of Cowan Strategies … Jennie Westbrook Courts of the Information Technology Industry Council … former Reps. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) and Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) … Nick Gass … former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters … Meghan Patenaude Bauer … Matthew Bevens … Andrew Shult of TAG Strategies … EEOC’s Yana Mayayeva … Whitney (Ksiazek) Schwartz … Campbell Marshall … Jon Fleischman … POLITICO’s Leo Shane III, Ian Stevenson and Jen Karacki … Emma Dupuis of the American Conservation Coalition 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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