| | | |  | | 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 POLITICO’s Megan Messerly dissect Trump’s first big affordability speech — plus all the reverberations from his interview with POLITICO.
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| Good Wednesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard. Get in touch. In today’s Playbook … — Exclusive polling on the president’s achilles heel. — Highlights (and lowlights) of the first night of Trump’s affordability tour. — Zelenskyy to deliver new peace plan today.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
President Donald Trump looks out into the crowd as he speaks in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Dec. 9. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — About that A+++++ economy: A few statistics to kick off your morning. Half of all Americans find it difficult to pay for food, according to newly published data from the POLITICO Poll, conducted by Public First. A majority, 55 percent, blame the Trump administration for the high prices. Keep reading: More than a quarter of Americans, 27 percent, said they have skipped a medical check-up because of costs within the last two years. More than a third — 37 percent — said they could not afford to attend a professional sports event with family or friends. Almost half — 46 percent — said they could not pay for a vacation that involves air travel. Read the full story via POLITICO’s Erin Doherty It was against this backdrop that President Donald Trump kicked off his so-called affordability tour in Pennsylvania last night, jump-starting what White House aides say will be a relentless campaign on the economy for the next 11 months. Trump, of course, has just rated the U.S. economy as “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus” in his big interview Monday with Playbook’s Dasha Burns, telling Dasha not to be “dramatic” when she pointed out families are buying presents and juggling budgets at this time of year. This does not sound like a man who believes there’s a major problem. Trump’s top team is concerned by the traction Democrats are getting on the cost of living and want the president pushing back hard. But Trump appears to be only half-bought into the strategy. And the result last night was a speech peppered with conflicting messages and distracting asides that will likely get far more pickup than his carefully scripted lines on affordability. To be clear: Trump did deliver his lines, mostly. Prices are too high, he said — because Democrats made them high. Making America Affordable Again is, he said, his “highest priority.” He lauded GOP tax cuts and the falling price of gas. He read out a pre-written joke that “Democrats talking about affordability is like Bonnie and Clyde preaching about public safety.” And he unveiled graphs intended to back up his case, showing that prices and interest rates were higher when Joe Biden was president. But Trump is still Trump — and so he said a lot more. The opening night of this loosely defined tour was a rambling, 97-minute speech that leapt from topic to topic, and lurched from convivial humor about colleagues to rants about foreign migrants. The MAGA crowd lapped it all up, and aides said Trump was “in his element.” But the president offered up all the ammo — and all the social media clips — his critics need. A few examples:
- Trump veered off message, twice calling affordability a “hoax” — before admitting he’s no longer “allowed” to use the phrase.
- Trump revived his ill-advised line that it’s fine if parents can’t afford so many toys and pencils for their kids now prices are higher due to tariffs. “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter,” he told the crowd. “Two or three is nice.”
- More broadly, Trump made clear his lack of conviction in the whole premise — mocking the word “affordability,” mocking his own price charts, mocking his pre-prepared speech — and admitting he was only on tour at the urging of chief of staff Susie Wiles.
- And Trump strayed way off topic, revealing his team had asked him not to discuss the border — before doing exactly that.
- In one of several long passages on immigration, Trump launched his most vitriolic attack yet on America’s Somalian community, describing their homeland as “filthy, dirty, disgusting” and wondering why the U.S. couldn't take migrants from Scandinavia instead. (The clip’s going viral, and he’s being heavily criticized for this language today.)
- In the same breath, Trump confirmed 2018 reports — denied at the time — that he’d described certain African and Asian nations as “shithole countries.”
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Explore the impact in communities like Altoona. | | | | None of this should be surprising. We all know Trump likes to ramble. “I love the weave,” he mused at one point. “If I read what's on the teleprompter, you would all be falling asleep right now.” On this topic, his heart just ain’t in it. How much does all this matter? Potentially, quite a lot. In theory, this was the first date of a multi-leg tour running right through 2026. If Trump doesn’t hone his messaging on affordability, it’s going to create a lot more ammunition for opponents over the next 11 months. Certainly, it’s striking that amidst all the global reaction to Dasha’s interview, it was Trump’s “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus” comment that Democrats seized upon again and again. Cases in point: Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger said at a POLITICO event last night that “you can't solve problems if you won't admit that they're there.” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, the new chair of the Democratic Governors Association, was on MS NOW to quip that “If Donald Trump wants to say that affordability is a hoax, if he wants to say that the economy is perfect, I hope he goes to every battleground state.” And the proof of the pudding: As you probably saw, Democrats picked up several more eye-catching wins in state and city-level elections last night, including an unexpected ruby red state House seat in Georgia. But top of the list was Miami, which last night elected its first registered Democratic mayor, Eileen Higgins, in almost three decades. POLITICO’s Florida Playbook author Kimberly Leonard reports Higgins “ran a campaign focused on how she would make city government work better and faster to help alleviate residents’ affordability issues.” It’s certainly a familiar theme. WTF happened? “Higgins coasted to victory,” Kimberly writes in to Playbook. “Democrats were quick to point to the unusual runoff as just the latest example of a set of wins it has seen across the country in this year’s off-cycle election,” she adds, “though it’s worth noting the city has slightly more registered Democrats than Republicans, going to Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.” Nevertheless, Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis both had endorsed Republican candidate Emilio González. “This is a national race,” Chris Korge, national finance chair for the DNC, told Kimberly at Higgins’ victory party. “They made it into a national race, and they got clobbered.” Reading the tea leaves: Higgins’ win offers the Florida Democratic Party a break they haven’t been able to catch in years. Dems are already bullish about what this election will mean for the midterms, with candidate Robin Peguero, who’s challenging incumbent Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) to represent Miami next year, claiming a new “Miami mandate” in a statement last night, Playbook’s resident Miamian Ali Bianco writes in. It also reverses what has been a budding dynasty of Cuban Republican leadership as the city has trended more conservative. And while the city of Miami stayed blue in 2024, Miami-Dade County flipped red for the first time in decades last year — setting the tone for its swingy status going into 2026. Remember: There are still 11 long months to go before the midterms. The cost of living may improve; Trump’s tax cuts are yet to kick in. Equally, we do now know for certain that millions of health care premiums are going to spike next month, after Senate Republicans unveiled their alternative health care plan yesterday — and incorporated no extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies. That means Dems won’t support it, and the subsidies will be gone in three weeks’ time. One sliver of light on affordability: Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to unveil a further 0.25 percent cut to interest rates today after the final Fed meeting of the year — the third such cut in three months. He’s due to speak at 2:30 p.m. He has three further meetings left as chair before his term ends in May 2026. Trump made crystal clear to Dasha that Powell’s successor will be expected to cut interest rates immediately. Trump is reportedly doing the final round of interviews today, with NEC Chair Kevin Hassett in pole position. As POLITICO’s Victoria Guida writes (for Pro subscribers), in some ways Trump’s public comments make his job a whole lot harder. Even so, “there are plenty of scenarios that might call for them to hold rates steady throughout much of 2026 — and some that might even warrant rate hikes.”
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| | | | WAR AND PEACE NOT SO QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT: Trump’s explosive comments in his interview with Dasha that Europe is “weak” and Russia has the “upper hand” over Ukraine aren’t hindering President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The wartime leader is prepared to respond with his own revised peace proposal today — and he’s not exactly “accepting things,” as Trump suggested. “We don't want to cede anything,” Zelenskyy told reporters, per CBS. The refined plan being sent to the U.S. has stripped out “anti-Ukrainian points,” per Reuters. Responding directly to Dasha’s interview with Trump, Zelenskyy told reporters he’s asked Ukraine’s parliament to prepare legislative changes to allow for elections during wartime, WaPo’s David Stern reports. With security guarantees, he said elections could happen in the next three months — and he’s asking the U.S. for help. It's a big reversal for Zelenskyy, but comes after Trump’s relentless criticisms. “It gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” Trump told Dasha, without passing any comment on the state of Russian “democracy.” What’s really going on here? Trump’s push to end the war is “increasingly being driven by his own impatience,” as POLITICO’s Eli Stokols writes, seeing Zelenskyy and other European leaders as obstacles in his way. But strikingly, even as Trump blasted Europe’s lack of ability to “produce” results, some EU officials agree with his characterization, Eli reports. Trump’s comments yesterday were really the tip of the iceberg. Defense One’s Meghann Myers has an exclusive look at the full version of Trump’s new National Security Strategy. The unclassified version, made public last week, has already rattled Europe. But the longer, unpublished version pushes for even less military support for Europe, for the U.S. to work with countries like Italy and Hungary to pull them away from EU influence and for a new G7-like summit to be created between a “Core 5” — the U.S., China, Russia, India and Japan. Western Europe would not be at the table. A silver lining for Europe may come today when the House votes on the National Defense Authorization Act — which takes considerable steps in limiting how far U.S. troop presence in Europe can be scaled back without Congress’ approval. It’s also a moment for the legislative branch to reassert itself in the D.C. power equation, POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien notes. So will the rule to consider the NDAA pass today? “I’m an optimistic guy,” House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said. More from POLITICO’s Inside Congress ALSO HAPPENING TODAY: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at 10 a.m. will welcome Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and British Secretary of State for Defense John Healey to the Pentagon for the annual AUKUS Defense Ministerial. SOUTH OF THE BORDER: Beyond talk of submarines in the Indo-Pacific, Hegseth is facing more questions closer to home. Bipartisan lawmakers have been calling for the release of the footage from the September “double-tap” strike against an alleged drug boat near Venezuela — a decision that Hegseth said yesterday he’s still debating, per AP’s Stephen Groves and Lisa Mascaro. First in Playbook — Taking stock: Despite Trump’s proclamations that Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered” as Venezuelan leader, POLITICO’s Paul McLeary and colleagues write that “the president’s options in the region are limited — at best.” “Interviews with six Republican lawmakers, Pentagon officials and White House advisers underscore the extreme challenges of a ground invasion and reveal a collective belief that Trump’s rhetoric is a ‘strategy to pressure Maduro to leave.’” Jaw-dropper: On the heels of an October strike that resulted in two survivors from an alleged drug-smuggling vessel, DOJ lawyers asked the State Department “whether the two survivors could be put into a notorious prison in El Salvador to which the Trump administration had sent hundreds of Venezuelan deportees,” NYT’s Damien Cave, Edward Wong and Maria Abi-Habib report. “The State Department lawyers were stunned, one official said, and rejected the idea. The survivors ended up being repatriated to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador.”
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| | | | TRAIL MIX REDISTRICTING RODEO: Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott said at a POLITICO event last night that Democrats are feeling “comfortable” they’ll be able to pass new maps favoring them ahead of the midterms, POLITICO’s Jacob Wendler reports. … Democrats in Missouri have submitted over 300,000 signatures to the Missouri secretary of State to trigger a vote on the GOP-led redistricting proposal, POLITICO’s Aaron Pellish writes. … And while Maryland’s legislature is starting a special session, it won’t cover redistricting, WaPo’s Katie Shepherd reports. PRIMARY COLORS: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is planning to launch a bid for Congress as soon as today, challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) from the left, POLITICO’s Emily Ngo scoops. … GOP county official Bruce Blakeman is challenging Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) in the Republican gubernatorial primary, per AP’s Anthony Izaguirre and Philip Marcelo. … Former Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello is running for his old seat representing Virginia, now a GOP-leaning district held by Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.), WaPo’s Greg Schneider reports. WAIT, WHAT? Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s (D-Ill.) Senate campaign has been sending emails for months purporting to be endorsements from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). There’s just one problem: “Krishnamoorthi has not won Lieu’s backing in the contested Illinois Senate race. And Lieu knew nothing about the communications bearing his name,” NBC’s Natasha Korecki and Scott Wong scoop. BEST OF THE REST NOEM WATCH: “The White House says Secretary Kristi Noem isn’t going anywhere, POLITICO’s Myah Ward and Eric Bazail-Eimil report. “That hasn’t stopped people from floating possible replacements. Fox News contributor and former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whose term ends in January, are among the names being discussed inside the Trump administration and on the Hill as potential Noem successors.” What’s going on? “Some administration officials are increasingly frustrated with her management of the agency,” Myah reports. “They feel she has mismanaged the billions of dollars in new funding her agency received this year … There are also ongoing concerns about Corey Lewandowski’s outsize role at DHS, and the tensions between Noem and Trump Border Czar Tom Homan … ‘I’m hearing from people that she’s about to leave,’ said one person close to the administration, who added that Noem wouldn’t be ‘fired.’ The exit would be graceful, the person said, with Noem leaving for ‘another opportunity’ and being able to say she’s succeeded at DHS.” More personnel churn: Trump will name Troy Edgar, the deputy secretary at DHS, to be the next U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, CBS’ Jennifer Jacobs and Camilo Montoya-Galvez report. THE WAR ON WOKE (FONTS): Marco Rubio has taken a stand at the State Department … against the official use of typeface “Calibri.” The department will revert to the more traditional “Times New Roman.” VAX NOT: “FDA to investigate whether adult deaths linked to coronavirus vaccine,” by WaPo’s Daniel Gilbert and Rachel Roubein: “The Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether coronavirus vaccines are linked to deaths of adults, part of an investigation that has alleged children died as a result of the shots.” MEDIAWATCH: MAGA influencers are weighing in on the Paramount versus Netflix battle to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery — and lobbying Trump to reject Netflix for being run by “Democrat super-donors,” WaPo’s Will Oremus and Scott Nover report.
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Explore the impact in communities like Altoona. | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | ‘A CRISIS IN THIS COUNTRY’: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called for lowering the temperature and condemning political violence in the U.S. during an event at the National Cathedral Tuesday evening, POLITICO’s Samuel Benson writes in. The loudest applause, however, came when Shapiro took a direct shot at Trump for failing to bring together the country in the wake of the killings of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this year. “When you’re a president of the United States, you are looked to for that moral clarity, and we have a president of the United States right now that fails that test on a daily basis,” Shapiro said. Cox gently pushed back — suggesting the American citizens, not the president, will have to stem the tide of hatred. “If we think that … a government is going to change where we are right now, we’re fooling ourselves,” he said. — SPOTTED at a reception following the conversation: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.), Susan Rice, Andrea Mitchell, Kasie Hunt, Jonathan Martin, Edward-Isaac Dovere, Ryan Nobles, Marisol Samayoa, Manuel Bonder, Michael Block, Jackie Kucinich and Colby Itkowitz. REGRETS, I’VE HAD A FEW — Elon Musk wishes he hadn’t bothered with the whole Department of Government Efficiency project. “Instead of doing DOGE, I would have … worked at my companies, essentially, and they wouldn't have been burning the cars,” Musk said on Katie Miller’s podcast, in reference to a spate of vandalism at Tesla dealerships. O, CANADA — Canada’s ambassador to the United States and its chief trade negotiator, Kirsten Hillman, said she’s stepping down in the new year after spending eight years in Washington, POLITICO’s Mike Blanchfield reports. IN MEMORIAM — “Kent Knutson, 58, passed away on Dec. 8, 2025, from a sudden heart attack in Connecticut after spending a wonderful weekend with family and friends at the Nantucket Christmas Stroll. … Kent began his distinguished Washington career working as an aide to Sen. Rudy Boschwitz. He later held senior government relations roles at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and at Microsoft before moving into the retail sector building the Home Depot government affairs office and brand in Washington, D.C.” Read the obituary — “Rod Paige, HISD superintendent and former U.S. Secretary of Education, dies at 92,” by the Houston Chronicle's Claire Partain: “Rod Paige, former U.S. Secretary of Education, university football coach and architect of the ‘Houston Miracle’ as Houston ISD superintendent, has died at 92. As HISD's superintendent from 1994 to 2001, Paige built a national reputation for education reform, accountability and improving student outcomes. That success helped catapult him to become the first Black U.S. Secretary of Education and to help craft and implement the No Child Left Behind Act in the early 2000s under President George W. Bush.” REMEMBERING SANDY HOOK — Today marks 13 years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. A vigil tonight at 7 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church will bring together lawmakers, gun violence survivors and activists. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Book club: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is publishing a book with Penguin Press, “The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America,” due to release on June 16, 2026. The book — described as a “a sermon in the public square on the issues that plague us most” — tackles voting rights, gun violence, mass incarceration, poverty, dark money in politics and climate change. See a sneak preview SPOTTED: Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Jaime Schmitt having dinner last night at Ocean Prime with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cheryl Hines. OUT AND ABOUT — The National Confectioners Association hosted its annual “Cocktails & Candy Canes” event last night for members of the Senate Press Secretaries Association and other guests at Hawk N’ Dove on Capitol Hill. SPOTTED: Christopher Gindlesperger, Brian McKeon, Carly Schildhaus, Kellyanne Conway, Thomas Joannou, Grant Colvin, Ben Jenkins, Tara Rush, Blair Klein, Ken Johnson, George Southworth, Joanna Turner, Courtney Clark, Joe Maloney, Bennett Richardson, Brian Wild, Alex Byers, Colton Hotary, Eric Fejer, Audrey Pack, Grace Newton, Stephanie Penn, Kaily Grabemann, Elisabeth St. Onge, Kristina Peterson, Carl Hulse, Christopher Doering, Nathaniel Reed, Reese Gorman, Natalie Allison, Igor Bobic and Sam Brodey. — SPOTTED at Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason’s holiday celebration last night: Maureen Dowd, Norah O’Donnell, Monica Crowley, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and John Mannion (D-N.Y.), Caitríona Perry, Sarakshi Rai, Bernd Debusmann Jr., Sean Whelan, Paschal Donohoe, Connor Stringer, Stephen O’Shea, Tom Fitzgerald, Melissa Fitzgerald, Sean Spicer, Luke Russert, Steve Scully, Susan Davis, Elizabeth Bagley, Charles McLaughlin, Will Davis, Carmel Martin, Steve Ricchetti and Peggy Collins. — SPOTTED at the Vandenberg Coalition Christmas party last night: Stephen Miran, Carrie Filipetti, Aaron Sibarium, Doug Klain, Eric Bazail-Eimil and Diana and Timothy Nerozzi. MEDIA MOVES — Adele Malpass is joining Newsmax as their Washington bureau chief and SVP for news. She previously worked at The Daily Caller. … Philip Bump is now a contributor at MS NOW. He previously worked for WaPo. TRANSITIONS — Lukas Pietrzak is joining Fiber Broadband Association as public policy director. He previously worked in the NTIA’s Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth. Jeanne Le Delaizir is also joining FBA as a policy fellow. … Chris Donahoe and Dan Hunter have launched Stillpoint Global Advisors. Donahoe previously worked at Edelman Smithfield, and Hunter worked at FTI Consulting. … Michael Zhadanovsky is now senior adviser and comms director for Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.). He previously worked for New Jersey AG Matt Platkin. … … Encode AI is bringing on Seve Christian as director of California policy and Claire Larkin and Ben Snyder as policy advisers. Christian previously worked in California’s state legislature; Larkin previously was at Institute for Progress; and Snyder previously was at Texas A&M University. … J.P. Boyle has joined Catalyst’s attorneys general advocacy team. He previously worked at the Democratic Attorneys General Association. … Tristan Fitzpatrick has joined TerraPower as digital comms manager. He previously was at APCO. WEEKEND WEDDING — William O’Grady, comms director for Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), and Katie Fitzpatrick, executive assistant at Berman and Company, got married this weekend. They met working for Indiana Gov. Mike Braun while he was a senator. Pic … SPOTTED: Katie Bailey, Randy Russell, Jordan and Savannah Bonfitto, Katie Wadman, Aves Mocek, Lauren Hickey, Will Salmon, Sydney Cox, Matthew Mahoney, Chuck and Suzie Russell, and Tripp Looser. BIRTHWEEK (was Monday): CNN’s Angélica Franganillo Díaz HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) … Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Austin Scott (R-Ga.) … U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue … Susan B. Anthony List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser … Symone Sanders Townsend … Rokk Solutions’ Kristin Wilson … NBC’s Alex Koppelman … Fox News’ Mike Emanuel … Morrison Foerster’s Carlos Uriarte … Hope Hodge Seck … Mike Shields of Convergence Media … POLITICO’s Katie Fossett and Lulu Parajuli … Christina Coloroso of Analyst Institute … Kieran Mahoney … Ellie Cohanim … David French of the National Retail Federation … Nathan Daschle of DB3 … former Reps. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) and Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) … Megan Whittemore … Susan Milligan … David Kieve … Jess Peterson … Kip Wainscott … Jasper Craven … Jorge Neri … Alice Cohan … Blake Nolan of Rep. Vern Buchanan’s (R-Fla.) office … Patricia Clarke of Rep. Carlos Giménez’s (R-Fla.) office 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. Correction: Monday’s Playbook misspelled Mary Nowak Armstrong's name. And yesterday’s Playbook misstated Jonathan Wright’s previous employer. It was Steptoe.
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