Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: Bye bye Bondi

Bye bye Bondi

Apr 02, 2026

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THE CATCH-UP

Pam Bondi is out as attorney general as of Thursday afternoon.

Pam Bondi is out as attorney general as of Thursday afternoon. | Allison Robbert/AP

BULLETIN: Pam Bondi is out as attorney general, President Donald Trump announced just after 1 p.m.

Bondi’s dismissal marks the second ouster from Trump’s beleaguered Cabinet ranks in as many months. Todd Blanche will step in to serve as acting AG, Trump said. Blanche thanked Trump and praised Bondi in a statement posted on X.

“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump said in his post on Truth Social.

Bondi’s firing follows reporting last night that Trump was considering replacing her with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Bondi had a fraught tenure as the country’s top law enforcement official. She faced bipartisan backlash over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files (for which she’s been subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee) and apparent frustration from Trump himself over her failure to successfully prosecute his political enemies. More from POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

Dems remain eager to hold her feet to the fire over the Epstein saga: “She will not escape accountability and remains legally obligated to appear before our Committee under oath,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top House Oversight Democrat, said in a statement. “She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given Ghislaine Maxwell. … If they think we are moving on because they were fired, they are gravely mistaken.”

Not all her Republican colleagues are shedding tears. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), another vocal critic of the administration’s conduct surrounding the Epstein files, said in a statement that Bondi handled the files in a “terrible manner” and “seriously undermined” Trump, adding she welcomes a new AG coming in to pick up the pieces.

Debris is seen at a largely demolished part of the East Wing of the White House, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington.

Debris is seen at a largely demolished part of the East Wing of the White House, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington, before construction of a new ballroom. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP

LIKE A WRECKING BALL: The White House is about to change forever. Maybe.

This afternoon, five months after Trump shocked the country by demolishing the White House’s East Wing, the federal planning agency that oversees the D.C. region is expected to approve his plans to build a massive new ballroom. The National Capital Planning Commission, led by the president’s own staff secretary, will finally vote on the so-called “East Wing Modernization Project,” which would see a 90,000 square foot, $400 million event space tacked onto one of the most famous buildings in the world.

The NCPC vote was expected to be the final significant hurdle for the project, which has sparked outcry from Democrats, preservation groups, historians and architecture aficionados. Criticism has ranged from outrage that Trump failed to seek the proper approvals before knocking down a historic structure, to concern that its private funding poses a risk of corruption, to distaste for a gargantuan addition detractors say would overpower the rest of the building.

The commission received almost 10,000 pages of written public comments about the project, the vast majority of which were negative, and about 100 people spoke via video conference at the NCPC’s last meeting on March 5 — forcing the commission to break from its typical practice of deliberating and voting on the same day of a project’s presentation.

Then, on Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that Trump must halt construction of the ballroom until he receives congressional authorization. Trump blasted U.S. District Judge Richard Leon for being “WRONG,” and the administration immediately appealed that ruling.

Although Trump exercises huge power over the Republican-controlled Congress, lawmakers aren’t in a rush to push the project forward, POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs and Riley Rogerson report. And the ballroom isn’t exactly popular heading into a midterm election cycle. An Economist/YouGov poll from February found that 58 percent of U.S. adult citizens opposed tearing down the East Wing to build it, and Democrats are seizing on the issue as an example of what they call Trump’s “misplaced priorities” amid cost-of-living concerns and spiking gas prices, Playbook reported earlier this week.

But Republicans aren’t worried. Three GOP pollsters and strategists told Playbook that voters don’t particularly care — so much so that they’re hardly even asking about the issue. “I don't think anybody gives a crap about the ballroom, quite honestly,” Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin said in an interview with Playbook.

Trump says his motivation for building the 999-seat ballroom stems from the limitations of hosting large events in the current White House complex. The East Room, the White House’s largest venue, has a seating capacity of only 200, forcing larger events like state dinners to be held in temporary tents on the South Lawn. The White House is set to host King Charles III for an official visit later this month.

But “the idea that we don't have a facility to throw really extraordinary events as it exists right now is just patently false,” Rufus Gifford, the State Department’s chief of protocol under former President Joe Biden, told Playbook in an interview. He said he believed the American people “could get behind the idea of potentially building some sort of ballroom,” but slammed Trump’s “inherent lack of process.”

Still, Gifford acknowledged that “tents do come with some limitations.”

“It can be expensive, it can be cumbersome,” Gifford said. “It obviously is distracting in some ways as you're building it up and tearing it down. But it can be done.”

Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop us a line at isentner@politico.com and mgray@politico.com.

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5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. SHUTDOWN CONTINUES: Trump said he’ll soon sign an executive order to pay all DHS employees, AP’s Kevin Freking and colleagues report. Trump’s statement came after both the House and Senate met briefly in pro forma sessions this morning but advanced no legislative solution. The shutdown, now on its 48th day, has the potential to extend into mid-April after lawmakers return from recess.

2. IRAN LATEST: Oil prices were up roughly 8 percent this morning following Trump’s address to the nation last night, when he indicated that reopening of the Strait of Hormuz should be left to other countries, WaPo’s Ellen Francis and Victoria Craw report. Officials from 30 countries met today to discuss the reopening — but the U.S. was not expected to join.

Republicans dissected Trump’s address and found the message unclear, POLITICO’s Lisa Kashinsky and Alec Hernandez report. “What the hell did he just say?’ one GOP strategist in a battleground state wrote in a text to POLITICO after the address. ‘A quick recap and a path forward would’ve been helpful. Instead, it was nonsense left for Sean Hannity to articulate.” Some non-administration D.C. heavyweights were on hand to watch Trump’s address to the nation last night. SPOTTED: Carla Sands, Fred Fleitz and Rob Greenway.

A fact check of Trump’s speech highlighted an array of false claims, including Iranian regime change, the number of people killed in the war and repeated falsities on inflation rates he inherited from Biden, AP’s Paul Wiseman and colleagues report.

On the ground, Americans in Iraq are being urged by the U.S. embassy to leave the country amid threats of Iranian attacks, NBC’s Chantal Da Silva reports. Anyone who chooses to remain in the country will do so "at significant risk,” the embassy warned in an alert today.

3. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — A milli: Democratic Iowa Senate candidate Zach Wahls has more than $1 million cash on hand, Playbook’s Adam Wren scoops. Wahls entered the race with the cash-on-hand edge, but Adam reported in this morning’s Playbook that his opponent, Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek, brought in more than $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2026. (Wahls’ campaign also raised $1.1 million in the first quarter, NYT’s Shane Goldmacher reports.)

Trail mix: Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is taking heat from Republicans following leaked audio of him mentioning Iran’s ayatollah regime and equating it to the MAGA movement, Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller and colleagues write. “Abdul Al Sayed is asked point blank if the world is better off without the world's largest state sponsor of terror. And gives a word salad about how the Ayatollah's radicalism and Trump's MAGA support are the same."

4. SINGING THE BLUES: A law firm working for ActBlue last year warned the Democratic fundraising giant that its CEO “had given a potentially misleading response to congressional Republican investigators in a 2023 letter explaining how the organization vetted donations to ensure that they were not illegally coming from foreign citizens,” NYT’s Reid Epstein and Shane Goldmacher report. “The memos instigated a meltdown at the highest levels of ActBlue, one of the Democratic Party’s most vital financial organs. A series of top officials resigned in quick succession. … Democrats are nervous that any additional upheaval at ActBlue could destabilize the party’s critical fund-raising apparatus ahead of the midterm elections.”

5. HEALTH OF A NATION: “The Vaccine Industry Is Troubleshooting Its Future Existence,” by NOTUS’ Margaret Manto: “The pharmaceutical industry is taking the [MAHA] movement very seriously – and vaccine producers aren’t quite sure how to engage with a government that has elevated vaccine skeptics. … Vaccine development leaders are actively trying to figure out how to engage a Department of Health and Human Services and grassroots movement that has become hostile to vaccines and the pharmaceutical industry.”

Studying up: “Nutrition Is In and D.E.I. Is Out as Medical Schools Bow to Kennedy,” by NYT’s Alan Blinder and Alice Callahan: “The accrediting agency for dozens of medical schools is stripping diversity standards from its curriculum requirements and adding a focus on nutrition that tracks with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda.”

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TALK OF THE TOWN

QUEENS VS. JERSEY — Trump today escalated his feud with Bruce Springsteen, comparing the American music legend to a “dried up prune,” POLITICO’s Gregory Svirnovskiy writes. Springsteen is a longtime critic of the president and headlined last weekend’s main “No Kings” protest in St. Paul, where he performed his new anti-ICE protest song “Streets of Minnesota.” It was part of a string of hate posts and reposts the president made this morning following his address to the nation last night. Other targets included the Supreme Court, Tucker Carlson and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

PREVENTABLE POOP SCOOP — “Plan to reinforce sewer pipe was delayed for years before Potomac disaster,” by WaPo’s Aaron Davis: “D.C. Water asked the National Park Service for permission to fast-track repairs in 2018, after inspectors found widespread corrosion and detached rebar in one area of the six-foot-wide concrete pipe that runs under federal parkland in Maryland, records show.”

OUT AND ABOUT — The Washington Examiner’s Anna Giaritelli held a release party for her new book, “Under Assault,” ($32.99) last night at the presidential suite of the Capital Hilton. SPOTTED: Greta Van Susteren, Mark Walker, Ford O’Connell, Ron Vitiello, Marisa Schultz, Andrew Feinberg, Bob Cusack, Chris Irvine, Jim Antle, Sarah Bedford and Stephen Lewerenz.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Bill Ruch, senior principal for Lewis-Burke Associates LLC, and Mirela Missova, supervising counsel at the Washington Lawyers' Committee, on Monday welcomed Walter William Ruch.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Media move: Former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will be announced as a new Fox News Media contributor during his appearance on “Special Report” tonight.

TRANSITIONS — Stephanie Cutter has joined Kalshi as a policy adviser. She is a co-founder and managing partner at Precision Strategies and an Obama campaign alum. … Christofer Horta is joining UnitedHealth Group as a director of government affairs. He most recently worked for Rep. David Scott’s (D-Ga.) office. … Shannon Reaves is joining Dechert LLP as a partner and co-chair of its national security practice group. He most recently worked at Squire Patton Boggs.

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