| | | |  | | By Ali Bianco and Rachel Umansky-Castro | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | THE WAITING GAME: Don’t hold your breath for all of the Justice Department’s files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to drop by today’s deadline. DOJ Deputy AG Todd Blanche said on Fox News this morning that the DOJ will “release several hundred thousand documents today,” but that more documents will be released over the “next couple weeks.” The delay seems to put the White House in conflict with the law mandanting their release. WSJ has a helpful guide on all the documents and information already public on Epstein. More from POLITICO’s Greg Svirnovskiy
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President Donald Trump is set to announce the administration’s latest drug pricing deals with top pharmaceutical companies to reduce costs. | Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP | ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH: As members of Congress exit the beltway today for the holiday recess, with them goes any prospect for a preemptive extension of the much-debated Affordable Care Act subsidies — now set to expire on Dec. 31 and skyrocket premiums for millions of Americans in 2026. The potentially soaring costs are coming at a crucial time for President Donald Trump, who will continue his swing-state affordability tour with a speech in Rocky Mount, North Carolina at 9 p.m. tonight. But before then, Trump has his own plans related to health care. Happening now: Trump is set to announce the administration’s latest drug pricing deals with top pharmaceutical companies to reduce costs, laying bare his administration’s health care pitch to voters. Among the companies who are switching to Trump’s “most-favored nation” pricing are AbbVie, Gilead Sciences and Merck, per Reuters. Health costs are a top concern for people across the country, with about 4 in 10 Americans in the latest AP-NORC poll naming medical care affordability as a priority they want the government to focus on in the new year, AP’s Linley Sanders and colleagues write. Pulse check for 2026: The prospect of a bipartisan deal on the ACA subsidies coming together quickly in the new year is slim, WSJ’s Sabrina Siddiqui and Lindsay Wise report. While Senate Majority Leader John Thune isn’t ruling anything out and four GOP lawmakers on Wednesday sided with Democrats to get a vote on a three-year extension, that proposal is likely dead on arrival. The pressure to find a solution will mount, but any plan with Republican backing will ultimately need Trump’s stamp of approval. The cost of prescription drugs, on the other hand, is emerging as the GOP’s go-to response when pressed on health care. Trump touted the lowering costs in his primetime speech Wednesday night, and a day earlier VP JD Vance struck a similar note when asked in Pennsylvania about the future of ACA subsidies and health care affordability under Trump 2.0. With the president bound for North Carolina after today’s drug pricing announcement, it’ll no doubt come up again. It’s the messaging course that Trump’s advisers are trying to keep him on, especially as concerns swirl about a lack of GOP unity on a health care plan, CNN’s Adam Cancryn writes. There are pressing concerns about the abuse of the ACA marketplace that have also stoked GOP divisions, WaPo’s Paige Winfield Cunningham writes in a look at how insurance brokers are gaming the system. But in comments to NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump said he doesn’t see a point in repealing the ACA “because nobody’s going to want to use it,” and said he has no plans for a broader deal beyond the individual health care plans the House passed this week. Trump’s platform in Rocky Mount tonight, scheduled to begin just after North Carolina’s state filing deadline for 2026 elections closes, is a big one for the GOP’s affordability response. The state has a near-even split of registered Republican and Democratic voters, and will see one of the Senate’s fiercest races next year, NPR’s Adam Wagner reports. All that said, will Trump stick to the script tonight as he did on Wednesday? As he’s already signaled he plans to touch on immigration and the deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities, we’ll have to wait and see. Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. A special congratulations and thank you to our intern Rachel on her last Playbook PM edition. Drop us a line at abianco@politico.com and rumansky-castro@politico.com.
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Explore our ongoing work. | | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. WAR AND PEACE: Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated Friday that the Kremlin plans to proceed with the war in Ukraine until its conditions are met, NYT’s Ivan Nechepurenko and Paul Sonne write. He said during his annual news conference that Russia was “ready to end the conflict peacefully,” but only on the principles he stated last June regarding Ukraine giving up control of its eastern territories. Putin added he is willing to discuss ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying he “partially agreed” on the proposals Trump made in August, per Bloomberg News. The view from the U.S.: “We don't see surrender any time in the near future by either side, and so only a negotiated settlement gives us the opportunity to end this war,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters this morning during a news conference. “This is not about imposing a deal on anybody. It's about determining what both sides expect and need to have and what both sides are prepared to give in return for it and figuring out whether we can have those two overlap.” More from POLITICO The view from Ukraine: European leaders’ agreement to keep Ukraine funded with a $105 billion loan is helping the war-torn country breathe a temporary sigh of relief, as the money will take them out of their budget crisis and cover some financial needs to keep up the war effort, NYT’s Constant Méheut reports. While in Syria, “Trump Signs Law Repealing Tough Sanctions on Syria,” by NYT's Abdi Latif Dahir and Reham Mourshed: “President Trump signed a law late Thursday repealing a final batch of crippling economic sanctions on Syria, raising hopes for the country’s recovery a year after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad ended the family’s half-century of autocratic rule.” 2. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Cross-aisle connection: Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) sat down with Playbook’s Dasha Burns for tonight’s episode of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire” to talk about their friendship. Fetterman also discussed the heat that he took for meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago back in January before the inauguration. “I’m not sure why,” Fetterman said, noting that there was “no backlash” when NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani visited the Oval Office. “Why wouldn’t you go have a conversation with the president? It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re kissing the ring.’ No, he invited me.” Britt praised Fetterman’s decision to meet with Trump and applauded his bipartisan approach, which has at times drawn ire from some of his fellow Democrats. “You will talk to anyone. That is one of the most refreshing things, both about our friendship, and both about our approach,” Britt said. “Honestly, that’s what we have to do. I mean think about, if we’re not having a conversation, we will never have a pathway forward.” Watch the clip 3. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: “Jack Smith’s lawyers ask Jordan for open hearing after closed-door testimony,” by POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs: “After appearing in a closed-door deposition with the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led the criminal cases against President Donald Trump, still wants the chance to defend his work in a public hearing … Attorneys for Smith are pressing for their client to be allowed to testify in an open forum in a new letter to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan … [his attorneys] also requested that the videotape of Smith’s testimony be released in full so that he can speak to the public directly ‘rather than through second-hand accounts.’”
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| | | | 4. 2026 WATCH: Democratic officials are criticizing the Democratic National Committee for withholding its autopsy report of the 2024 presidential election, after the committee initially said it would be released, Axios’ Holly Otterbein and Alex Thompson report. Several Democrats believe burying the reports “unfairly helps former VP Kamala Harris if she runs again, and shields top party consultants by hiding potentially damaging information about their efforts.” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who is making a bid to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) as Democratic whip next year, said on X that the DNC’s report should be released because “that’s what they said they were going to do … if there’s good analysis we should see it.” Tech corner: WaPo’s Nitasha Tiku and colleagues report that “a super PAC backed by Trump-supporting tech moguls and an independent effort by the social network giant Meta [are trying] to use the 2026 midterms to reengineer Congress and state legislatures in favor of their ambitions for artificial intelligence. … [They] aim to wrest control of the narrative around AI, just as politicians in both parties have started warning that the industry is moving too fast.” For your radar: “Young conservative women find a home in Turning Point with Charlie Kirk’s widow at the helm,” by AP’s Sejal Govindarao 5. IMMIGRATION FILES: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration is suspending the immigrant visa program under which the Brown University shooting suspect became a legal U.S. resident in 2017,NYT’s Qasim Nauman reports. “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said in an X post. The administration is also pausing immigration cases from an additional 20 countries, CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports. Behind the scenes: “Trump-Appointed Judge Flays ICE Over Conditions in Long Island Lockup,” NYT’s Santul Nerkar report 6. TROUBLE AT THE FDA: Senior HHS officials recently raised concerns with the White House about FDA Commissioner Marty Makary following top-level resignations and disputed drug oversight decisions,NYT’s Christina Jewett report. But the White House “maintains complete confidence in Marty Makary and the entire team at H.H.S. and F.D.A.,” spokesperson Kush Desai told NYT. Related read: “FDA voucher program has become vehicle for political interference in drug review decisions, staffers say,” by STAT News’ Lizzy Lawrence: “A new program intended to fast-track drug reviews at the Food and Drug Administration is quickly becoming a way for the White House and top political officials at the agency to exert control over which medicines make their way fastest to patients in the United States. The FDA has historically aimed to keep drug reviews in the hands of career scientists to avoid political interference, or even the appearance of political interference. But STAT has learned that high-level FDA officials have been involved in every part of the new program to award ‘Commissioner’s National Priority Review’ vouchers.” 7. GET IN OR GET OUT: “Top lawyer for military joint chiefs told chairman that officers should retire if faced with an unlawful order,” by CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen: “[Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine] had just seen a video that included six Democratic lawmakers publicly urging US troops to disobey illegal orders. He asked [Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar, the top lawyer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff], according to the sources, what the latest guidance was on how to determine whether an order was lawful and how a commander should reply if it is not. Widmar responded that they should consult with their legal adviser if they’re unsure, the sources said. But ultimately, if they determine that an order is illegal, they should consider requesting retirement. … The Joint Staff declined to comment for this story.”
| | TALK OF THE TOWN | | SPOTTED dining together last night at one of Georgetown’s new hotspots Osteria Mozza: John Mulaney and Olivia Munn, Jake Tapper and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Chick-fil-A at DCA Reagan National Airport is officially reopened after undergoing renovations. MAKEOVER INCOMING: The Kennedy Center has started updating its building signage after its board voted yesterday to rename it “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” POLITICAL VIOLENCE WATCH: A former Voice of America supervisor pleaded guilty yesterday to making death threats against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), WaPo’s Salvador Rizzo reports. “Seth Jason admitted in court records that he repeatedly threatened to gun down the Republican congresswoman … in voicemail messages left at her district offices in Georgia, using pseudonyms such as ‘Kevin’ and ‘Ruben.’” 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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