| | | |  | | By Jessica Piper | Presented by United for Cures | With help from Eli Okun and Ali Bianco Good Thursday morning and happy New Year! I’m Jessica Piper, writing in from Philadelphia. There’s no better place from which to celebrate the beginning of the 250th year of America than the City of Brotherly Love. Get in touch.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Philadelphia City Hall is seen on Nov. 4, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | Kent Nishimura/Getty Images | ALL-IN ON THE KEYSTONE STATE: Few places epitomize Democrats' recent challenges — and hopes for 2026 — as well as Pennsylvania. Donald Trump flipped the state back in 2024, winning more convincingly than he had even in 2016. And the devastation for Democrats went beyond that: They also lost a Senate seat and every statewide row office — the statewide elected officials who aren’t governor or lieutenant governor — and failed to make inroads in the state legislature. It’s the kind of losses that merited plenty of recriminations, for both the Kamala Harris campaign and the state party. Then, as was the case in much of the country, 2025 looked a whole lot different than 2024. In March, Democrats flipped a GOP-held state Senate seat that Trump had won by double digits. In November, voters retained three Democratic justices on the state’s highest court, after a campaign that leaned into standing up to corporations and protecting abortion rights. Each justice was retained by more than 20 points, including winning in 16 counties that Trump had won the year prior. Democrats also won county executive races in two swing counties, Erie and Northampton, and defeated a Republican sheriff in Trump-won Bucks County. The wins feel like a familiar story at this point: Without Trump on the ballot, his supporters showed up in smaller numbers, while Democrats outraged by Trump’s second term channeled their energy in the only way they could: Voting against other Republicans. It’s an energy Democrats hope will carry into 2026, when Pennsylvania is home to four Republican-held competitive House seats (enough to potentially decide control of the chamber), while Gov. Josh Shapiro seeks reelection and Democrats seek to finally wrest control of the state Senate, which has been in Republican hands for three decades. But does that mean the midterms will just be about Trump? Maybe not. Republicans in Pennsylvania are seeking ways to distinguish themselves from the president, while Democrats say they need to show voters what they can get done for the state.
| | | | A message from United for Cures: The United States leads the world in lifesaving medical research, and Americans benefit from its advances daily. Diagnoses that were once death sentences are now treatable and even curable. And more progress comes every year. We can't lose our leadership now. Millions still need cures — which means they still need federally-funded medical research that leads to more treatments, more cures, and more lives saved. Support Cures. Increase federal funding for lifesaving medical research in FY26. | | | | “Obviously Democrats in a lot of places did benefit from the enthusiasm of anti-Trump voters, but really, a lot of these races were about just fixing their communities, home economics, kitchen table economics. And really, that more impacted success in Pennsylvania more than simply being anti-Trump,” said Tommy McDonald, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic admaker whose firm is working for two battleground congressional candidates in the state. While Democratic enthusiasm alone may have been enough to decide low-turnout, off-year elections, more GOP voters are likely to show up in the midterms. So Democrats are looking to not just harness anti-Trump energy, but to marry voter interest in affordability with issues unique to the state. Just this week, Shapiro called out state Senate Republicans as the roadblock to raising the state’s minimum wage, suggesting Democrats would do so if they flip the chamber next year. “If Democrats are motivated by both getting a win for the governor and getting some stuff done in Harrisburg and stopping Trump in Washington, that’s a pretty good sales pitch,” said J.J. Abbott, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist. Republicans have their eyes on the Keystone State too. Trump made four trips here in 2025, more than any other battleground state. But GOP candidates in Pennsylvania are also figuring out how to carve some distinction from the president as his poll numbers have fallen. Three of the four Republican House members who joined a Democratic-led effort to force a vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies last month represent battleground districts in the state. The question for next year might be just how far they can go in creating some distance from Trump — and how much voters believe them. “If you're a Republican, own your message to your constituents. That is your best shot to pick up independents and Democrats,” Samuel Chen, a GOP strategist based in the Lehigh Valley, told Playbook. “Now the challenge in the Republican Party is this idea that they have that ‘everybody has to kiss the ring and pay homage to the president.’ I think the more you do that in this election cycle, the more likely you're going to lose.”
| | | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. OVER AND OUT: Trump took to Truth Social yesterday to announce that his administration is ending its attempt to bring in National Guard troops to Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon following their loss at the Supreme Court, POLITICO’s Aaron Pellish reports. The use of the military for enforcement operations became one of the biggest clashes between Trump and local Democratic officials this past year, but last week’s decision from the high court blocking the deployment of troops in Chicago marked a significant setback. Trump left the door open to the troops returning in the future, “perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!” he wrote. Insult to injury: The DOJ dropped its request to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to allow National Guard troops back into Los Angeles — but the court also ruled yesterday that the administration must return control of the troops back to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, NYT’s Laurel Rosenhall writes. … Elsewhere in California yesterday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s move to cancel temporary protected status for migrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, per NYT. 2. TRUMP ON TRUMP: “‘Bad governor’: Why Trump issued the first veto of his second term,” by POLITICO’s Sophia Cai: “[Trump] told POLITICO on Wednesday that he vetoed a bipartisan bill to fund a Colorado water project because he views it as a waste of taxpayer money, saying residents are leaving the state under Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. ‘They’re wasting a lot of money and people are leaving the state. They’re leaving the state in droves. Bad governor,’ Trump said in an exclusive phone interview with POLITICO. … Trump’s veto comes amid a broader feud with Polis. The president has repeatedly criticized the governor over the case of Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk serving a nine-year sentence after she was convicted of state charges for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines.” Trump also told Sophia that construction on a “Triumphal Arch” in Washington would begin in two months. New year, new Trump?: The president, who spoke with Sophia on New Year’s Eve, also shared his 2026 resolution: “make the world a safer place.” The president’s pledge comes after a week of whirlwind diplomatic meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago — and his continued pressure campaign on Venezuela, including the military saying Wednesday it had struck five more alleged drug boats over two days. 3. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Trouble in Texas: An aide to Tulsi Gabbard chastised former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) on Monday for posting a video of the Director of National Intelligence appearing to endorse her in a heated Republican primary — after Trump said he was backing her opponent, our Daniel Lippman reports. On Sunday, Flores, running in the battleground Texas 34th congressional district, shared a video on Instagram of Gabbard praising her for “running because she loves our country and recognizes the need for servant leaders in Congress,” according to a video obtained by Playbook. The notion of Gabbard disagreeing with her boss was not welcome. A Gabbard aide, granted anonymity to discuss the conversation, said the video was from a previous election cycle and told Flores directly to not post old content that made it look like a current endorsement. “Tulsi has not made any endorsements this year, as she cannot in her capacity as DNI,” the person said. ODNI declined to comment. Flores said her team only shared a “memory in a[n Instagram] story,” but it was not an endorsement, and the video disappeared automatically from her page after 24 hours. Flores said the conversation with the Gabbard aide was friendly. “Tulsi and I have been friends for years, and in her position, she cannot endorse anyone,” she said. 4. WAR AND PEACE: In a New Year’s address, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Russian troops whom he said are fighting for “native land, for truth and justice,” but he devoted less time to the war in Ukraine than in years past, per NYT’s Ivan Nechepurenko and Paul Sonne. Zelenskyy, by contrast, spent all of his address on the war and echoed Trump’s belief that a peace deal is “90 percent ready.” The latest: U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff had a “productive call” with European leaders on the next steps for the peace deal yesterday, Bloomberg’s Kate Sullivan reports. The call, which also included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, touched on security guarantees and the prosperity package from Ukraine. U.S. officials also now believe that Ukraine was not responsible for the attack on Putin’s home, with a CIA report casting doubt on whether the attack actually happened, WSJ’s Lara Seligman and colleagues scoop. Venezuela vex: Venezuela’s security forces have detained multiple Americans since the start of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the country, NYT’s Anatoly Kurmanaev and colleagues write. The U.S. government is weighing naming at least two as wrongfully detained, with those arrested including three dual-passport holders of Venezuela and the U.S. and two Americans with no ties to the country. Looking forward: “10 Conflicts to Watch in 2026,” by Comfort Ero and Richard Atwood for Foreign Policy
| | | 5. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: While many were preparing for their New Year’s Eve festivities, House Republicans publicly released the 255-page transcript of former special counsel Jack Smith’s Dec. 17 closed-door deposition. In it, Smith maintained a stiff defense of his investigation into Trump for his actions questioning the results of the 2020 election. POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and colleagues rounded up the key takeaways — among them that Smith built his case through Trump’s allies, that he never decided whether to bring additional charges against Trump and that he threw cold water on the validity of witness Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony. “He forcefully rebutted claims that his work was tainted by politics and delivered a granular defense of his office’s tactics and prosecution strategy — all while repeatedly restating his view that Trump was guilty of a historic crime,” Kyle and co write. “He refused to take Democrats’ bait to attack Republicans for refusing, so far, to give him a public hearing. And he avoided straying into discussions that might have forced him to reveal subjects still protected by grand jury secrecy or a federal judge’s order that barred him from disclosing details of his second investigation into President Trump’s hoarding of classified documents.” The next probe: House Oversight Chair James Comer requested that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz testify in front of the committee about his administration’s handling of public funds in the state — escalating the GOP’s crusade against alleged fraud in Minnesota, Aaron reports. 6. THE EPSTEIN FILES: The number of files related to Jeffrey Epstein that the DOJ is still sorting through amount to 5.2 million pages, with Deputy AG Todd Blanche posting on X yesterday that the effort to sort through the files is an “all hands on deck approach,” NBC’s Ryan Reilly and colleagues report. The cross-agency push includes 400 employees across the DOJ, FBI, and the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York that are working through the holidays and are expected to be sifting through the files until Jan. 20. Meanwhile, the releases are in some cases raising more questions than answers, including the recently released footage from the cameras at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in NYC, per CBS. 7. THE VIEW FROM JOHN ROBERTS: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who issued a remarkably prescient annual report a year ago warning of threats to the independence and physical safety of federal judges, elected to steer clear of those issues in his latest assessment of the state of the judiciary, POLITICO’s legal ace Josh Gerstein writes in to Playbook. What’s not in it: Roberts’ new report, a seven-page meditation on the Declaration of Independence, is devoid of any mention of Trump’s call for the impeachment of District Judge James Boasberg, the surge in threats against judges who ruled against Trump policies, or complaints that Congress is shortchanging security funding for frontline judges. But but: Roberts did tout judges’ role as “a counter-majoritarian check on the political branches,” which might or might not signal more pushback from a Supreme Court that has been largely permissive towards Trump. The chief’s shift to reticence this year may reflect a desire not to be seen opining publicly on the slew of politically-charged Trump-related disputes currently on the high court’s docket or expected to land there soon. 8. DOCTOR, DOCTOR, GIVE ME THE NEWS: “As Signs of Aging Emerge, Trump Responds With Defiance,” by WSJ’s Annie Linskey and colleagues: “President Trump is taking more aspirin than his doctors recommend. He briefly tried wearing compression socks for his swelling ankles, but stopped because he didn’t like them. And he regrets undergoing advanced imaging because it generated scrutiny of his health.‘‘In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,’ Trump said in an interview … The large dose of aspirin he chooses to take daily has caused him to bruise easily, he said, and he has been encouraged by his doctors to take a lower dose. But Trump has declined to switch because he has been taking it for 25 years. ‘I’m a little superstitious.’” 9. HEALTH OF A NATION: “Inside MAHA's 2026 food agenda,” by POLITICO’s Grace Yarrow and Tim Röhn: “As the Food and Drug Administration’s deputy commissioner for human foods, Kyle Diamantas has a packed to-do list next year. In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, Diamantas said 2026 will be a critical time for the administration to make progress on MAHA priorities, from reviewing commonly used additives to moving forward with new packaging requirements that food companies have fought. … ‘I’ve said several times that we can’t regulate ourselves out of this problem. And it really does take more than just federal government regulation to solve these chronic diseases.’”
| | TALK OF THE TOWN | | KICKING OFF 250 — The Washington Monument lit up with iconic historical images under midnight fireworks last night in a New Year’s celebration that doubled as the big start to a year of honoring America’s 250th anniversary, organized by Freedom 250. The illumination will continue for five more nights. Pic … Another pic TRUMP’S D.C. MAKEOVER CONTINUES — Plans are also moving ahead in the White House on the approval process for the ballroom aiming for an ambitious nine-week review schedule — “a timeline far shorter than that for comparable large-scale federal construction projects,” WaPo’s Jonathan Edwards and Dan Diamond report. The latest frontier: The administration terminated the lease agreements for Washington’s three public golf courses, throwing the future of the courses into question while paving the way for Trump to leave his mark, WaPo’s Rick Maese scoops. The Interior Department claimed that “the decision was based on what they described as National Links Trust’s failure to complete required capital improvements and to provide a satisfactory plan to cure alleged defaults under the lease,” which the organization disputed yesterday. TALES FROM THE CRYPT-O — “Trump Firm to Start New Cryptocurrency for Shareholders,” by Bloomberg’s Emily Nicolle: “Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. plans to issue a new cryptocurrency, which will be distributed among its shareholders. The company, which operates President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, said the new token will be allocated to investors in a partnership with crypto exchange Crypto.com.” 2025’S MUST-READ — The late Tatiana Schlossberg’s personal essay, revealing the environmental journalist’s terminal cancer diagnosis and exploring the Kennedy family’s legacy, was the New Yorker’s most read story of the year. “It's, in fact, our most-read story of the past few years. She wrote something beautiful and true that moved millions,” executive editor Michael Luo wrote on X. The piece was not assigned nor expected, and was barely edited after it landed in editor David Remnick’s inbox, per NYT. A BRITISH NEW YEAR’S — The British Ambassador’s Residence hosted their annual New Year’s Eve blowout with a who’s who of D.C. dwellers. Whisky and cigar bars did brisk business, firepits glowed well into the night and the food spread lived up to the hype. The live band Mojoflo kept the crowd singing and dancing long past midnight. SPOTTED: James O’Neill, Stephanie Carlton, Seb Gorka, Sean Cairncross, Lindsey Halligan, Shannon Fisher, Jake Denton, Ivan Kanapathy, Rob Placek, Alex Flemister, Jim Goyer, William Scharf, Wesam Hassanein, Jeff Freeland, Richard Walters, Genera Petraeus, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), Netherlands Amb. Brigitta Tazelaar, Irish Amb. Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ahmed Al-Jufairi, Terry McAuliffe, Dario Gill, Josh Dawsey, Greta van Susteren and John Coale, Kylie Atwood, Dasha Burns, Ed and Marie Royce, Bill McBride, Ashley Etienne, Sumi Somaskanda, Andrea Mitchell, Raheem Kassam, Ryan Williams, Andy Baker, Lucy Ferguson, Felix Browne and James Roscoe. NEW YEAR’S BIRTHDAYS: Reps. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) … European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde … Jonah Peretti … Max Richtman … WaPo’s Brady Dennis … James Glassman … Kevin McGrann of Forbes Tate Partners … Stephanie Penn … Todd Webster of Cornerstone Government Affairs … Daniel Arrigg Koh … Brian Frederick of the ALS Association … Shannon Watts … Priscilla Ross … C-SPAN’s Nicole Ninh … Alison (Howard) Centofante … Justin Bartolomeo of Plus Communications … Margot Friedman … Gary Johnson … former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) … former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine … former Reps. John Sullivan (R-Okla.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) and Martin Frost (D-Texas) … POLITICO’s Alex DiNino and Natalie Schultz-Henry … Jake Wilkins … Rokk Solutions’ Kristen Hawn … Aidan Kohn-Murphy of Gen-Z for Change … Kellie Meiman Hock of McLarty Associates … Giulia Chiatante … Clay Boothby of Merchant McIntyre … Elizabeth Belk Doggett 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.
| | | | A message from United for Cures: The United States leads the world in lifesaving medical research—and Americans benefit from its breakthroughs every day. Thanks to federal funding, several forms of cancer that were once death sentences are now survivable. A cure for diabetes is closer than ever. And in the fight against Alzheimer's, two FDA-approved treatments are already slowing disease progression in patients. But we can't afford to lose momentum. Millions of Americans are still waiting for answers—and they need federally funded research to keep cures coming. Sustained federal investment is essential to keeping America at the forefront of lifesaving medical innovation. Support Cures. Increase federal funding for lifesaving medical research in FY26. | | | | | | | | Follow us on X | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Canada Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
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