| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco, Irie Sentner and Makayla Gray On today’s Playbook Podcast: Jack and Adam Wren tee up a difficult-looking week for President Donald Trump, and consider the president’s options as the Iran war enters its second month.
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| Good Monday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, flush with success after actually managing to fly a kite — for the first time ever! — with my 6-year-old at the Blossom Kite Festival on Saturday. “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold,” as a great Englishman once wrote. Drop me a line. BIG NEWS FROM POLITICO TOWERS: After an extensive search, POLITICO has named Jonathan Greenberger as the news organization’s next Global Editor-in-Chief, effective May 1. He will succeed John Harris, who assumes the role of POLITICO Chairman. Greenberger has spent the past two years as POLITICO’s Executive Vice President, where he built a team of top journalists and newsroom leaders and lifted the organization’s brand and business through news-driving events. Earlier in his career, Greenberger spent nearly a decade as ABC’s Washington Bureau Chief and was the youngest-ever executive producer of ABC’s “This Week.” “Jonathan’s new and unconventional thinking convinced all of us that he was the person most likely to see possibilities that others do not and bring our forward-looking vision to life,” POLITICO CEO Goli Sheikholeslami said. Read the announcement In today’s Playbook … — The biggest moment of Trump’s presidency is almost here. — How MAHA lost faith in the Trump project. — And what the president is hiding beneath his new White House ballroom.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | D-DAY LOOMS: It’s Day 31 of the war in Iran, and Trump is approaching the most seismic decision of his presidency. The duality of Don: Trump’s private conversations and public statements reveal a president taking a highly unusual twin-track approach to war — pursuing both a rapid exit from a conflict that he knows is hurting his supporters and damaging his party’s prospects at the ballot box, while at the same time mulling a dramatic escalation that would raise the stakes enormously while potentially extending the conflict for weeks to come. One of these wildly diverging outcomes will set the course for the midterms in November, and likely the rest of Trump’s presidency. And it’s far from clear which way he’ll go. From the horse’s mouth: There’s no plan for the president to appear in public today, though that can always change. But Trump gave us a 20-minute turn on Air Force One last night, plus a brief but explosive FT interview, which together encapsulated the dual strategies he’s pursuing. Good cop: One week on from his sudden shift toward a negotiated settlement, Trump is talking a good game. Negotiations with Iran have been “very good” and are happening both “directly and indirectly,” Trump told reporters last night, with Iran conceding “a lot of the things that they should have given us a long time ago.” Indeed, most of America's 15-strong list of demands have already been agreed by Iran’s new leaders, he claimed. “Frankly, they've been very reasonable … I think we’ll make a deal with them.” But but but: Details of these negotiations are oddly scarce. Iran still denies they’re happening at all — the official line is that this is all a distraction as Trump prepares to escalate the conflict. And while it’s certainly true that diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey gathered in Pakistan yesterday to discuss securing an end to the war, neither the U.S. nor Iran were at the table. Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has accused Trump of “flat-out lying” about negotiations. Bad cop: At the same time, U.S. ground troops are massing in the Middle East. The NYT reports “several hundred” U.S. Special Operations forces — including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs — have joined thousands of Marines and Army paratroopers in a deployment designed to give Trump “additional options.” Those options include missions to try to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, to seize Iran’s oil depots on Kharg Island and to locate and remove Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. And Trump is clear that he’s ready to escalate. “We’re doing extremely well in that negotiation, but you never know with Iran,” he mused to reporters last night. “We negotiate with them — and then we always have to blow them up.” Earlier, Trump had confirmed to the FT that an invasion of Kharg Island, in the Persian Gulf, is under consideration. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. could “take the oil in Iran.” But by Trump’s own admission, the seizure of Kharg Island “would also mean we had to be there for a while.” And securing the Strait of Hormuz would require an even longer-term presence. Even a raid to seize the uranium would involve the high-risk deployment of U.S. ground troops for up to a week or more, WSJ’s Alexander Ward and colleagues report. Officials tell WSJ Trump is “generally open to” the plan, but has yet to approve it. Seven months to go: Taken together, these are precisely the sorts of entanglements that anti-war MAGA supporters have long been warning about. The big risk for Republicans eyeing the midterms nervously is that the conflict drags on into the late spring, the summer and perhaps beyond. And the prospect of troops on the ground continues to poll extraordinarily badly with the American public. Escalation brings its own risks too, in terms of cost and casualties — especially if things go wrong. The NYT last night confirmed a weekend report from the BBC that the U.S. missile that hit a second Iranian school on the first day of the war, reportedly killing at least 21 people, was a new type of ballistic missile never before used in combat. The U.S. says it’s investigating; expect plenty more questions in the days ahead. Strait talk: But despite the risks, Trump may feel he has no choice but to press ahead. Iran continues to hold a vicelike grip on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing through only a tiny number of tankers affiliated with nations it deems friendly, such as Russia and Pakistan. It’s also now charging these vessels large fees for the pleasure — though Trump is painting each successful passage as a personal concession to him from the Iranian regime. And the broader trends continue. The price of oil hit an eye-watering $116 a barrel overnight. Asian stock markets have slumped dramatically again, and the Dow may follow today (barring another 7 a.m. Truth Social intervention.) Across the world, national economies are starting to take seismic hits due to spiralling food and commodity prices, fertilizer shortages and other knock-on effects. And still no one knows how long this is going to continue. G7 finance ministers and central bankers will hold crisis talks later today, but there’s no sign of respite.
| | A message from Anthropic: AI helps most with the hardest work, not the simplest. Anthropic analyzed 2 million conversations and found Claude's biggest impact is on complex, college-level tasks. The Economic Index tracks adoption across every state and occupation. See the data | | | | TRAIL MIX THE POLITICO POLL — MAHA in the midterms: Republicans may not be able to count on the MAHA movement’s support this year. The latest installment of the POLITICO Poll shows frustration and dissatisfaction with the administration’s priorities, with a majority saying the admin has not done enough for MAHA, including 41 percent of Trump’s 2024 voters, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein and colleagues report this morning. Many respondents “view Democrats as better positioned on the movement’s key health priorities. They were more likely, for example, to say the Democratic Party can be trusted to make the country healthier,” they write. “The GOP, on the other hand, is seen as more likely to be influenced than Democrats by lobbyists for the food and pesticide industries, who rank among the MAHA movement’s top enemies.” BRAVE NEW WORLD: Innovation Council Action, a new pro-AI group, is preparing to become a big midterms player with plans to spend more than $100 million, Axios’ Alex Isenstadt scoops. The group counts David Sacks as an early backer and will focus on Trump’s priorities. It’s being led by Taylor Budowich, formerly of the Trump White House and 2024 campaign. DOWN IN THE TAR HEEL STATE: Both Democrats and Republicans are making strong bets on North Carolina and the race to replace Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). But a look at voters in the swingy state reveal an electorate reluctant to stray from party loyalty and an election that could come down to health care costs versus growth, POLITICO’s Amanda Chu writes. “If you look at 2026, it’s going to be driven by voter sentiment about the economy and … their sentiment about the White House,” Paul Shumaker told Amanda. “Health care is one of many anchors that are dragging behind those families who are trying to push their boats upstream.” J-6’ER ON THE TRAIL: “He took Pelosi’s lectern on Jan. 6. Now he’s running for office,” by WaPo’s Patrick Marley: “[Adam Johnson] was among the most infamous of the Donald Trump supporters who had roamed the halls of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. … Now — after serving 75 days behind bars and receiving a presidential pardon like other Jan. 6 participants — Johnson is reveling in his notoriety as he runs for a seat on the Board of Commissioners for Manatee County, which is sandwiched between Tampa and Sarasota.”
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| | | | BEST OF THE REST SHUTDOWN STALEMATE: Both the House and Senate are out this week as the 45-day DHS shutdown continues. Some administration officials are looking to Trump to help end the stalemate: border czar Tom Homan told CBS he “hopes” the president will force lawmakers to return and get DHS “fully funded,” POLITICO’s Jacob Wendler reports. Homan also said ICE agents could become fixtures at U.S. airports even after TSA agents get paid, depending on need. DHS officials have said TSA agents should expect their checks starting today. The prospect of a compromise still looks dicey: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s team is saying Democrats won’t accept any less than the deal the Senate already passed, leaving the GOP to square that circle, per POLITICO’s Jordain Carney. But others like Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) want the Senate to end its recess early. And House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claimed on ABC’s “This Week” that some GOP senators have buyer’s remorse over the deal they made, Jacob reports. “They’ve got to come back and deal with it,” he said. More from POLITICO’s Inside Congress Not coming back and dealing with it: Photos captured by TMZ showed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) dining at Disney World yesterday, having breakfast in a back corner at Chef Mickey’s. He told TMZ he returned to South Carolina afterward. CUBA LIFELINE: The U.S. Coast Guard will permit a Russian oil tanker to reach Cuba, offering a short-term lifeline for an island struggling under a de facto oil blockade by the Trump administration, NYT’s Jack Nicas and Eric Schmitt scooped. “The Russian ship’s arrival would shift the trajectory of a rapidly accelerating crisis in Cuba, buying the island nation at least a few weeks before its fuel reserves run out.” Confirming the story last night, Trump said “we don't mind” Cuba getting the oil “because they need it. They have to survive.” IMMIGRATION FILES: Nearly 50 people have died in U.S. immigration custody since Trump returned to power, NYT’s Jazmine Ulloa and colleagues report. “More than two dozen interviews with lawyers, detainees and their family members and elected officials depict … some of the country’s largest immigrant detention facilities as places where disease and illness are rampant and detainees are often denied sufficient food, clean drinking water, medications and medical care.” WAYS AND MEANS: Trump said last night it’s “possible” he could replace his latest pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, whose nomination is stalled in the Senate. Among those opposed to her appointment is Trump’s surgeon general from his first term, Jerome Adams, per WaPo’s Dan Diamond. MEDIAWATCH: “The oldest job in journalism: New York Post ‘runners’ defy AI,” by Semafor’s Brendan Ruberry: “‘In a day and age where AI is taking over,’ the Post is ‘still doing basic journalism every day,’ [NY Post managing editor Lia] Eustachewich told me. That means sending human beings to physical locations … The runner offers a dynamic, and distinctly analog, example of what a human does best, and what LLMs can’t do at all — knock doors, form a connection, catch a vibe.”
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Anthropic's Economic Index found AI helps most with the hardest work, not the simplest. See the data | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | BUNKER MENTALITY — Trump said last night the U.S. military is “building a massive complex” under the new White House ballroom. “The ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under [by] the military,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, as he showed off specially made artistic designs that he’d brought on board. This new building would offer protection “including from drones, and including from any other thing,” Trump said. “The glass is extremely thick. It’s high-grade bulletproof glass.” SPORTS BLINK — “UFC brings cage-match bout to the White House, home of a president who favors cage-match politics,” by AP’s Will Weissert: “In the coming weeks, crews will erect a 6-foot (1.83 meter) wire-mesh fence shaped into an octagon on the lawn, where UFC fighters will use a combination of kickboxing, jiujitsu, wrestling and other martial arts in a June 14 mixed martial arts show timed for Trump’s 80th birthday and as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary.” MS NOW COUP — Peter Alexander is joining the ranks at MS NOW, with an official announcement expected to be shared this morning, Playbook has confirmed. Alexander, who has been a stalwart at NBC News, will take over as the 11 a.m. anchor, chief national reporter and a major breaking news anchor. “As a longtime Chief White House Correspondent, Peter has built a reputation for professionalism, pushing for accountability from various presidents with tough but fair questions,” MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler said in a statement, shared first with Playbook. “He is the rare reporter who has equally mastered the rope line interview and the anchor chair. We look forward to bringing Peter to MS NOW’s loyal audience five days a week.” IN MEMORIAM — “Nicholas Haysom, Apartheid Foe Who Became a U.N. Peacemaker, Dies at 73,” by NYT’s Adam Nossiter: “Nicholas Haysom, a South African lawyer who fought apartheid, became a close legal adviser to Nelson Mandela and went on to represent the United Nations in global hot spots, died on March 17 in Manhattan. He was 73.” YES, THIS IS REAL — Trump posted a letter to Truth Social from Franklin Graham, the son of the late legendary televangelist, who told the president that his “soul is secure,” and he is “bound for heaven” if he accepts Jesus Christ as God, NY Post’s Ryan King writes. Trump has commented multiple times on the fate of his immortal soul — but the evangelicalist and Trump ally assured the president that his “incredible accomplishments,” including the ceasefire in Gaza, will get him past the pearly gates. OUT AND ABOUT — Ned’s Club, with Teresa Carlson, Paige Soya and Sherry Hakimi, hosted a panel and happy hour last night to close out Women’s History Month and celebrate women’s entrepreneurship. The panel, moderated by Symone Sanders Townsend, included Laura Modi, Andréa Vieira, Jayne Sandman and Tammy Haddad. SPOTTED: Sumi Somaskanda, Maryam Mujica, Ashley Callen, Emma Mears, Stephanie Chon, Dannia Hakki, Maha Hakki, Maude Okrah, Genevieve Hanson, Maya Peterson, Alencia Johnson, Nikki Webber, Shari Yost Gold, Hastie Afkhami, Selena Strandberg, Charlotte Reid, Lisa Anders, Danielle LeFrancois Morrow and Tanya Stockdale. — Jon Bergner, president of Exigent Government Relations, and his wife Brianna Bergner hosted the second-annual Ransomed Hearts gala dinner to raise money for HeartWorks, a cutting-edge research and development organization seeking cures for congenital heart disease. Named in part in honor of their 2-year-old son Ransom, the event raised over $100,000. SPOTTED: Jeff Bergner, Jimi Grande, Andrew Huff, Patrick Finnegan, Anna Buhlinger, Molly Griffin, Patrick McCarty, Kristin Eichhorn, Jeff Wasikowski and Noah Marine. MEDIA MOVES — NOTUS is announcing another slate of new hires: Dan Eggen, formerly of WaPo, is joining as White House and national security editor. Elena Schneider, formerly of POLITICO, is joining as a campaign reporter. Akbar Shahid Ahmed, formerly of HuffPost, is joining as a diplomatic correspondent. Marissa Martinez, formerly of NBC, is joining as evening editor. Nikie Johnson, formerly of WaPo, and Jonann Brady, formerly of Business Insider, are joining as copy editors. TRANSITIONS — Teresa Davis Morgenstern is joining Checkmate Government Relations. She previously worked at Booz Allen Hamilton and is a Trump White House, Pentagon and Commerce alum. … J.C. Lintzenich is joining the German Marshall Fund as a visiting senior fellow. He previously worked for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). WEDDING — Frank Schembari, VP of PR at Javelin, and Jen Taranto, a senior government strategist at Gallup, got married March 21 at Historic Hamilton Hall in Salem, Massachusetts. They met on Hinge in August 2020 and got engaged in January 2025 at one of their favorite bars, Your Only Friend. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: WaPo’s John Hudson … Rick Hart … Kevin Dowling of 3M … Tracey Lintott … Mark Pfeifle … Joe Kildea of the Club for Growth … Suzy Khimm … Morning Consult’s Michael Ramlet … Bradleigh Chance … Alex Kingsbury … Scott Rasmussen … Casey Higgins of Akin Gump … CBS’ Richard Escobedo … Jason Greenblatt … Drew Maloney of Edison Electric Institute … Invariant’s Susan Lagana … Jeremy Kenney of Push Digital Group … Jamiyl Peters … AT&T’s Marc Gonzales … Peter La Fountain … Visa’s Jeremy Sturchio … Mark Strand … David Greer of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities … Matt Laslo … HuffPost’s Jessica Schulberg … former Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Bob Smith (R-N.H.) … former Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) and Janice Hahn (D-Calif.) … Maxim Healthcare Services’ Veronica Charles … Mark Vandroff … Lesly Weber McNitt … Robert Blancato … Samantha Fernandez … Robert Saferstein of the Jewish Democratic Council of America … Sophia Barkoff of New Heights Communications … Hooff Cooksey 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 Giuseppe Macri and deputy editor Garrett Ross.
| | A message from Anthropic: AI helps most with the hardest work, not the simplest. Anthropic analyzed 2 million conversations and found Claude's biggest impact is on complex, college-level tasks. The Economic Index tracks adoption across every state and occupation. See how your state uses AI. | | | | | | | | Follow us on X | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois 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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