| | | |  | | By Ali Bianco | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | 
The Supreme Court lifted the restrictions that had blocked Trump’s sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles this summer. | Evan Vucci/AP | ANOTHER WIN FOR TRUMP: As we move further into Donald Trump’s second presidency, some of the most significant battles have been fought — and won — in the courts, where Trump has continually pushed the boundaries of power to their limits. Among the biggest moves that have provoked legal pushback, immigration stands as a true test case. And in the latest green light from the nation’s highest court, with all three liberal justices dissenting, the Supreme Court lifted the restrictions that had blocked Trump’s sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles this summer, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report. The administration’s immigration crackdown in LA has been on hold since July, when U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ruled the “roving” ICE patrols were arresting immigrants without reasonable suspicion, saying the immigration officers were acting with racial animus discriminating based on race or accent. The decision details: “The high court’s majority offered no explanation for its decision to grant the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to block the district judge’s order,” Josh and Kyle write. “However, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately in support of the decision, saying it was reasonable to briefly question people who meet multiple ‘common sense’ criteria for possible illegal presence — including employment in day labor or construction, and limited English proficiency.” Meanwhile, Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned a scathing dissent:“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” she wrote. More from SCOTUS: Chief Justice John Roberts also issued an administrative stay that will allow the Trump administration to move forward with firing FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter while litigation plays out, per the Economist’s Steven Mazie. And all this comes after news this morning that the Trump administration is asking the high court to allow the administration to move forward with freezing billions of dollars in foreign aid approved by Congress, WaPo’s Justin Jouvenal writes, “potentially setting up the biggest test yet of the president’s bid to assert sweeping authority over federal spending.” It all comes full circle for Trump — who aside from a few setbacks, has claimed a handful of key victories from the Supreme Court that have allowed him to move forward with a sweeping deportation campaign across the country. There’s also the reality that a similar immigration crackdown to that of Los Angeles could be imminent in Chicago. It was a weekend of whispers in the city as border czar Tom Homan all but guaranteed the crackdown in a CNN interview and the enforcement drive in Boston ramps up, CNN’s Danya Gainor writes. The looming possibility of large-scale ICE raids drew crowds in Chicago over the weekend, with several thousand protestors gathering by Trump tower, Reuters’ Renee Hickman and Heather Schlitz report. While the administration’s immigration push makes its way to Chicago, it’s unclear how much further Trump will go in the city. He once again highlighted Chicago crime statistics on Truth Social this morning, skewering Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in the process — though he said the “People of Illinois should band together and DEMAND PROTECTION.” Further down the timeline, Trump took a victory lap for his takeover of D.C., claiming that the city is now a “SAFE ZONE IN JUST A MATTER OF WEEKS.” He punctuated the post with an open question: “Who’s Next???” Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Send me your thoughts at abianco@politico.com.
| | | | A message from McDonald's: Starting this week, Extra Value Meals are back at McDonald's, so you can save when you make it a meal. To mark the moment, they're giving fans even deeper discounts on two of the most popular Extra Value Meals, the $5 Sausage McMuffin® with Egg Meal and $8 Big Mac® Meal, for a limited time. | | | | | | 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. HOT ON THE HILL: As Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) effort to flout House Republican leaders and force a vote on a congressional stock trading ban got some significant backing from Trump this morning. In a post on Truth Social, Trump lauded Luna’s gambit as a “MASSIVE WIN” and praised her for deploying “a procedural loophole.” The tacit endorsement from Trump is a boon for Luna given that Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leaders “have sought for weeks to tamp down member interest in Luna’s threatened discharge petition, with the speaker arguing in private that some lawmakers need to be able to trade stocks in order to pay for their children’s schooling,” POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill writes. For your radar: “Meta suppressed research on child safety, employees say,” by WaPo’s Jon Swaine and Naomi Nix: “The company’s lawyers intervened to shape research that might have shed light on risks in virtual reality, four current and former staffers have told Congress. Meta denies the allegations.” 2. LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER: Trump this morning said the Education Department would soon issue new guidelines on the right to prayer in public schools. “Speaking from an event at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, Trump said there are ‘grave threats to religious liberty in American schools,’” POLITICO’s Cheyanne Daniels writes. “For most of our country’s history, the Bible was found in every classroom in the nation, yet in many schools today students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda and some are punished for their religious beliefs. Very, very strongly punished,” Trump said. “It is ridiculous.” However, Trump didn’t provide details on what the new guidance would cover. 3. TRAIL MIX: Shannon Taylor is the latest entrant in a growing field of Democrats looking to challenge Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) next year to represent Virginia’s 1st Congressional District, WaPo’s Gregory Schneider reports. New internal polling from House Majority PAC shows Taylor, a Henrico County prosecutor, neck-and-neck with Wittman in a hypothetical matchup, with 40 percent of district residents saying they would vote for Taylor and 41 percent for Wittman. In a generic matchup, the race is even with 47 percent going for a Democratic candidate and another 47 percent supporting a Republican. The poll The young voter phenomenon: The gender divide among young voters continues as Trump’s approval rating varies vastly between young men and women, with 47 percent approval among men and 26 percent approval among women, according to a recent NBC News poll. Beyond politics, NBC’s Steve Kornacki notes that young men and women also show completely different visions of personal success: Most men who voted for Trump identify the top indicator as having children and roughly half of women who voted for Harris say it’s having a fulfilling job. From the wilderness: “Meet the Rugged Guys of the 2026 midterms” by WaPo’s Jesús Rodríguez: “They’re bearded, working-class and running for office in 2026. Could he help break the GOP’s grip on Washington?” 4. GEORGIA RAID LATEST: In a Truth Social post, Trump pushed international companies looking to solidify investments in the U.S. to prioritize hiring American workers, following the raid on the Hyundai manufacturing plant in Georgia last week that led to the arrest of hundreds of South Korean workers, POLITICO’s Seb Starcevic reports. The raid has “sent shock waves across South Korea” as some of the country’s politicians call out the arrests as contradictory, WaPo’s Michelle Ye Hee Lee writes from Seoul. The government of South Korea is working on getting the plant’s workers home via voluntary departure, rather than a formal deportation process, per WSJ’s Dasl Yoon.
| | | | A message from McDonald's:  
The return of Extra Value Meals ensures everyone can find everyday affordable pricing at McDonald's. | | | | 5. JUDICIARY SQUARE: A federal appeals court this morning declined to throw out a $83.3 million jury verdict against Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll amid her rape claims, per Reuters’ Jonathan Stempel. The three-judge panel said that Trump could not claim presidential immunity to overturn the original January 2024 verdict. “The jury’s duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case,” the panel said in its unanimous opinion. 6. CARR PARK: Brendan Carr, the Trump administration’s top official regulating media licenses, is emulating “Trump’s showman instincts to push major broadcasters for concessions, reshape the news landscape and dramatically shift the mandate” of the FCC, WSJ’s Maggie Severns and Joe Flint report. “Broadcast licenses are not sacred cows,” Carr told WSJ. “Under Carr, the FCC has pursued Trump’s media antagonists with gusto and weighed in on news judgments in a way few past FCC officials have.” 7. FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK: DOJ has stopped supporting the criminal prosecution against Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade adviser, who’s appealing his contempt conviction for not answering a congressional subpoena to the House Jan. 6 committee, WaPo’s Salvador Rizzo and Jeremy Roebuck write. 8. FED UP: “Bessent Battles Trump Demands, Market Jitters in Fed Chair Hunt,” by Bloomberg’s Nancy Cook and Joshua Green: “[Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent has intentionally taken a more hands-off approach, compiling a list of nearly a dozen candidates, but is not expected to push any one candidate … After interviewing those candidates, he plans to whittle down the list to a handful of top contenders, without any ranking or explicit preferences … Bessent, says one former Trump official, wants Trump to own the final decision.” 9. TRUMP INC.: 1789 Capital, the Trump family-linked firm that counts Donald Trump Jr. as a partner, has surpassed $1 billion in assets after a huge expansion in defense contracts, AI startups and more since Trump’s election victory last November, Reuters’ Alexandra Ulmer and Joseph Tanfani report. It’s a big jump from last year, when the then-little-known firm’s fund sat at $150 million.
| | | | Introducing Global Security: POLITICO’s weekly briefing on the policies, regulations, and decisions shaping defense and security across North America and Europe. Subscribe today to receive special daily briefings as our team reports live from DSEI. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Sara Jacobs detailed her challenging experience freezing her eggs this summer, which “inspired her to write legislation that would expand military health care coverage of fertility treatments for service members and their dependents,” NYT’s Annie Karni writes. “It was like puberty, menopause and pregnancy all together,” Jacobs said. Donald Trump cheered West Point Academy’s decision to cancel an award ceremony for Tom Hanks, whom he decried as “WOKE,” and urged other award shows to “review their Standards and Practices in the name of Fairness and Justice.” Oliver North and Fawn Hall got married in a “secret” ceremony in rural Virginia, Michael Isikoff scoops for SpyTalk. Political impersonators are encountering a new reality as they come up against the era of AI and deepfake videos. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a party in Old Town Alexandria last night for DJ and Nels Nordquist: Shahira Knight, David and Susan Hirschmann, Amy and David Heiden, Will and Denise Dunbar, Pam Stevens, Karen Johnson, Nina Rees, Lisette Mondello, Anthony Priest, Anita Winsor, John Elwood, Ellen and Jeff Walter, Melissa Mueller and Vicki Vasquez. MEDIA MOVES — The soon to be rebranded MSNBC is adding Jake Traylor and Nnamdi Egwuonwu as their new political reporter and reporter, respectively. Traylor was previously a White House reporter at POLITICO. Egwuonwu was previously a breaking news reporter for NBC News. … Ben Lefebvre is now the deputy editor of POLITICO’s energy team. He was previously an energy reporter. TRANSITIONS — Liz Askey has joined Skadden as of counsel in the tax group. She previously was chief of the IRS Independent Office of Appeals. … Emine Shinjatari joins the US Council for International Business as program associate for UN affairs and foundation projects. She previously was assistant to the ambassador at the Embassy of Albania. … Freddy Barnes is now senior director of U.S. government affairs at the Crypto Council for Innovation. He most recently was director of U.S. public policy at TikTok and is a Kevin McCarthy and NRCC alum. WEEKEND WEDDING — Brad Dayspring, executive director at Purple Strategies and a POLITICO alum, and Kelley Hudak, senior director of federal relations at API and a Steve Scalise alum, got married on Saturday at the Salamander hotel in Middleburg, Virginia, in a ceremony officiated by Matt Miller. The couple, who were set up by Shannon McGahn, met at a White House Correspondents’ Dinner party. Pic by Audra Wrisley … Another pic. … SPOTTED at the wedding: Robert and Elena Allbritton, Patrick Steel and Lee Satterfield, Alex and Caitlin Conant, Paul Kane and Kristin Wilson, Shannon McGahn, Gerrit Lansing, Carl Hulse, Cally Baute, Gabe Brotman and Thomas Gensemer, Daniel Lippman and Sophia Narrett, Meredith Jolivert, Jake and Irene Sherman, Anna Palmer and Patrick Mellody, Kaya Singleton, Becca Glover, Caitlin Carroll and Ian Tuttle, Hastie Afkhami, Will Boyington, Will and Marcie Kinzel, Rob Collins, Ron and Sara Bonjean, Brianna Keilar and Laena Fallon. 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 editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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