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By Irie Sentner |
Presented by |
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With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Makayla Gray Happy Sunday! This is Irie Sentner, back in the driver’s seat. Get in touch.
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DRIVING THE DAY |
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The 2028 presidential bench is suddenly very, very busy on Saturday. Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro plans to attend the NFL draft in Pittsburgh. Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has a family commitment with her daughter. Rahm Emanuel will be on a fly fishing trip with his wife. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) is meeting with constituents in the Sunshine State. Where they won’t be? The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which Donald Trump is attending this year for the first time as president. Trump’s planned presence is bringing extra attention to the WHCD weekend, an annual confab of the principals, aides, donors, lobbyists, strategists and reporters who populate Washington’s political ecosystem. But most of the candidates rumored to be revving up for a White House bid next cycle are outspokenly not attending, or don’t want to talk about it at all. Playbook reached out to 25 national political figures who’ve been floated as potential 2028ers to ask for their WHCD plans. Almost all told us they’re not going or didn’t respond. The two exceptions? California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who a spokesperson said was invited and is still evaluating his plans, and Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who was invited as a guest of POLITICO in early April and is planning to attend. “Politicians see less value out of it than they once did as coverage of the event wanes,” veteran GOP political strategist Mike DuHaime told Playbook. “And there aren’t any primary voters from New Hampshire or caucus voters from Iowa there.” Some Democrats are framing their absence as overt opposition to Trump. The event has typically been an opportunity for the president and the press to roast each other, but Trump in the past has refused to show up. In the 15 months since Trump returned to office, he’s tamped down press access at the White House, sought to punish outlets and networks for unfavorable coverage and relentlessly criticized many of the reporters who will be in the room. “I don’t see any value in attending what is supposed to be a celebration of the free press with a guy who has spent the last year taking a sledgehammer to the First Amendment,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in a statement to Playbook. A spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told Playbook the governor “doesn’t need to see a mentalist with Trump to tell him the President is losing it.” (The mentalist Oz Pearlman is this year’s featured entertainer.) Alex Gough, a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, said in a statement that Pritzker was “thankful for the invaluable work being done by the free press,” but “is not interested in attending a celebratory dinner with Donald Trump as working families continue to struggle under his disastrous policies.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Republicans were more coy in their responses. Spokespeople for VP JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and DNI Tulsi Gabbard did not respond to multiple questions about whether they’d attend the dinner. Donald Trump Jr. is not going — though a rep for the president’s eldest son did not elaborate when asked why. A slate of other GOP heavyweights, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), did not respond. Sean Spicer, Trump’s first-term press secretary, told Playbook he wasn’t surprised the GOP bench was skipping. “It’s not like this is going to help you with the audience,” he said of Republicans. “You’re trying to reach donors. For anyone who is on the right, it is a horrible use of time.” It’s also a strategy for candidates seeking to separate themselves from the Beltway establishment. After all, what’s more establishment than a black-tie dinner at the Washington Hilton? Asked what he planned to do on the fly fishing trip, Emanuel, former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, told Playbook in a text he would “learn how to be patient (not) and how I can improve as a person (also not going so well) ��.” Although this will be Trump’s first time attending as president, he’s no stranger to the dinner. When he attended in 2011, Obama mocked Trump, who had propagated the conspiracy theory that Obama was not born a U.S. citizen, after Hawaii released his birth certificate. “No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Obama quipped. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” “Say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House,” Obama continued. On screen appeared an image of the executive mansion stamped with Trump’s name. Shia Kapos contributed to this report.
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SUNDAY BEST … — U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz on what happens to the Iran ceasefire if a deal isn’t reached this week, on ABC’s “This Week”: “That’s ultimately a decision for the president, but I think the outcome of these talks will be incredibly consequential, and as the president has stated, he is prepared to escalate, to de-escalate. … Any agreement that comes out will have to be verifiable and enforceable.” — Energy Secretary Chris Wright on the state of talks, on “Fox News Sunday”: “Things are actually going quite well for the United States. I think we are not too far away from a deal, but of course these are the dying gasps of a desperate regime that’s for decades pursued a nuclear weapon, and they see that effort is going to come to an end. … I think before long, you’ll see an agreement that achieves the United States’ end, puts an end to the 47 years of terrorism launched from Iran and probably launches Iran on a better trajectory for its own people as well.” — NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani on putting democratic socialism into practice in office, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I believe in it even more than I did the day before, and that’s because of the fact that it is focused on the needs of working people, and working people need that focus, that fight from politicians more than ever. … They will see full universal child care for 2-year-olds by the end of the first term.” — Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on this week’s Virginia gerrymandering voter referendum, on “Fox News Sunday”: “We’re deeply worried that Donald Trump will try to interfere with the election results this November or in 2028, because we saw him do it before. And we have to have a Congress that will stand up to it. In 2021, all five Republicans in Virginia went along with Donald Trump in his effort to overturn election results. And so we’re giving Virginians a chance to vote — which Republican states have not done — about whether they want to have a congressional delegation that will stand up against Donald Trump’s tyranny if he tries to interfere with our elections.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
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9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. WAR REPORT: Trump announced that U.S. negotiators will head to Islamabad, Pakistan, by tomorrow night for talks with Iran — an attempt to get peace back on track after apparent progress unraveled this weekend in the Strait of Hormuz. There was conflicting reporting this morning about whether Vance will lead the delegation in Pakistan, which will include Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Trump initially said he wouldn’t, but as of now, it seems like Vance is going. If Iran doesn’t accept the U.S. offer, Trump threatened again to “knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran” — which would likely be a war crime. He told ABC’s Jonathan Karl he thinks they’ll reach a peace deal, “the nice way or the hard way,” after accusing Iran of violating the ceasefire. The U.S. also plans to start boarding and seizing ships with Iran ties in the days to come, WSJ’s Shelby Holliday and colleagues scooped. Down to the wire: The two-week U.S.-Iran ceasefire expires Tuesday, and peace still seems elusive after Iranian hard-liners forced the strait closed again because of the ongoing U.S. blockade. A top Iranian official warned that despite progress made, “maximalist” U.S. positions make Tehran unwilling to have more direct in-person negotiations — and that Iran will never give the U.S. its enriched uranium like Trump claimed, AP’s Suzan Fraser reports. Inside 1600 Penn: WSJ’s Josh Dawsey and Annie Linskey have new reporting from inside the White House that paints a picture of a capricious president, sometimes less confident about the war than he projects publicly. Trump has veered between cautious fears of risking American troops’ lives (and the political fallout), impulsively bellicose threats of war crimes and moments of distraction to focus on the ballroom or the midterms. His post that the U.S. would destroy the entirety of Iranian civilization without a deal, for instance, was improvised to prod negotiations, not part of a specific plan. How it’s playing: A new NBC poll finds Trump’s approval rating sinking to 37 percent, the lowest mark of this term, as voters disapprove of his handling of war and inflation. 2. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: “U.S. Installs a Trump Loyalist to Lead ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Case Into Trump Foes,” by NYT’s Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer: “A former lawyer for Mr. Trump’s campaign, Joseph diGenova, has been selected to lead the inquiry after a career prosecutor in Miami was removed … And at least part of the investigation appears to be using a grand jury based in Fort Pierce, Fla., overseen by a federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who issued rulings favorable to Mr. Trump … [T]he moves show how the Justice Department under Mr. Trump’s control has been willing to embrace politically charged tactics and unorthodox personnel decisions in its efforts to satisfy his demands to prosecute his perceived foes.” 3. TOP TALKER: “D.C. police sought to arrest Rep. Cory Mills after assault call, records show,” by WaPo’s Paul Schwartzman and Kadia Goba: “D.C. police were about to arrest Rep. Cory Mills (R-Florida) after a woman accused him of assault last year, but a lieutenant ordered them not to when she changed her account after appearing to talk to the congressman … The next day, police reversed course, asking then-interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, an appointee of President Donald Trump, to sign off on a warrant to arrest Mills, a request the prosecutor denied.” The body-cam footage also shows Mills apparently going to try to call AG Pam Bondi before the cop warned him not to. Mills told the Post that the woman’s first claim of assault was “patently false” and that no crime had been committed. 4. JUDICIARY SQUARE: Selecting judicial nominees looks different in Trump’s second term than his first, with the president growing frustrated at some of his previous picks ruling against the administration, WSJ’s Lydia Wheeler reports. Now, Trump is more intimately involved in the process, which involves a smaller circle of people. And the White House increasingly looks for future judges with specific Trump ties and a history of social conservatism. White House counsel David Warrington and Stephen Kenny lead the vetting, along with feedback from America First Legal and Mike Davis.
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5. 2028 WATCH: Mitch Landrieu for president? The Democratic former New Orleans mayor is openly considering it, CNN’s Isaac Dovere reports. “I am at a point in my life where I really feel like the future of the country is at stake,” he says. Landrieu thinks his experience helping the city rebuild after Hurricane Katrina could be a good fit for America now. Still, “he hasn’t taken any of the real preliminary steps toward putting together a prospective operation, staff, fundraising base or framework that would be necessary to turn an interest into a campaign.” 6. RACE FOR THE SENATE: Republicans in competitive states are growing more anxious about holding onto the Senate this fall, particularly due to economy and war concerns, POLITICO’s Erin Doherty and colleagues report. The GOP still has the advantage — and strategists say they have plenty of time for the war shock to recede — but it’s not the slam dunk it looked like at the start of the cycle. Base turnout is a concern, too. One reason why they’re sweating: “Republicans plan big spending to keep Ohio’s Senate seat. A bribery scandal adds to their challenges,” by AP’s Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus: “[Sen. Jon] Husted was recently called to testify as a defense witness in the related criminal trial of two former energy executives, testimony he might have to reprise after a hung jury led to a mistrial in the case in March. A judge in Akron scheduled the retrial to begin Sept. 28, meaning Husted could be back on the witness stand a week before early voting begins … [He] has never been charged with or accused of any wrongdoing. But the vast public record that has emerged from the scandal has raised questions about Husted’s dealings with key players.” 7. DOWN TO A SCIENCE: “For U.S. medical researchers, shrinking labs and bare budgets are the new reality,” by WaPo’s Carolyn Johnson and colleagues: “While courts and Congress have stopped some of [Trump’s] harshest cuts, fewer projects are moving forward. … American science is shrinking. … [H]alfway through this fiscal year, the number of competitive grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health is down by more than half compared with the same period last year. Biomedical funding has also undergone a shift … cutting the U.S. research footprint across nearly every major disease area — including fewer grants focused on women’s health, cancer and mental health.” HHS counters that the “Democrat-led shutdown” is to blame and that the NIH now is getting back up to speed. 8. BLURRED LINES: Billionaire Syrian businessmen lobbied to get the U.S. to lift sanctions on Syria last year, bolstering its economy, while simultaneously working on real estate deals with the Trump family and pitching a Trump-branded golf course, NYT’s Eric Lipton reports. In the latter case, the Trump Organization says they had no knowledge or involvement with the proposal. And the White House insists that Trump’s private family dealings have no bearing on foreign policy. But Trump’s second term, Lipton writes, has led to “a warped system of executive patronage in which investors donate millions to the president’s pet projects, or invest alongside the Trump family, in hopes of achieving their policy goals, even if no explicit ask is ever made.” 9. WHAT WENT WRONG: “Eric Swalwell Thought He Was Untouchable — Until He Wasn’t,” by Melanie Mason and colleagues in POLITICO Magazine: Those who know Eric Swalwell “describe a man with considerable talents, including a dogged work ethic, a natural camera presence fit for cable news and persuasion skills honed from his early days as a prosecutor. He projected a certainty that bordered on invincibility — and in some cases, imbued that sense in others. … Before his ill-fated presidential run in 2019, which only lasted three months, Alex Evans, a former senior Swalwell adviser, put together an informal inventory of possible reasons he could lose. The first word on the list: hubris.” Now read this: The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich dives into Democrats’ “bottleneck of B-listers” remaining in contention for California governor after Swalwell’s flame-out — and how the contest in the country’s biggest state came to feel so small: “The glaring lack of candidate talent, political skill, and personal appeal — let alone star power — has been the defining quality of the race.”
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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STRICTLY BALLROOM: Trump’s ballroom construction is back on. A federal appellate court paused a judge’s order that had halted the project’s progress last week, saying the ballroom can now go forward at least until the court hears oral arguments in the case in early June, per NBC. Want to know how much that means to Trump? An analysis by WaPo’s Clara Ence Morse and Dan Diamond finds that Trump has brought the ballroom up publicly on about one-third of the days in 2026 so far — roughly equivalent to how often he’s mentioned affordability. On display: Annual spring garden tours at the White House kicked off this weekend, CNN’s Riane Lumer and Betsy Klein report. This year, visitors are discovering lots of big changes, from the ballroom site to the paved-over Rose Garden. PLAYBOOK ARTS SECTION: “With Trump Novices, Can the U.S. Win the ‘Art Olympics’?” by NYT’s Zachary Small: “For nearly a century, America’s participation in the world’s most important art exhibition, the Venice Biennale, followed a familiar script. … Like many traditions under the second Trump administration, this one has been turned on its head. The art world veterans are out. Taking their place: a months-old nonprofit run by a woman whose most recent job was owning a luxury pet food store in Tampa, Fla.” SPORTS BLINK: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other Trump administration officials are pushing to get Theodore Roosevelt added to the Pro Football Hall of Fame — and they’re hopeful it could happen as soon as this year, WaPo’s Dan Diamond reports. TRANSITIONS — The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity is adding Marilinda Garcia as principal federal affairs liaison, Dan Passen as director of marketing and brand strategy, Renu Mukherjee as visiting fellow of social mobility and Luca Gattoni-Celli as senior fellow of housing. WEEKEND WEDDING — Andrew Howard, a politics reporter at POLITICO and author of Morning Score, and Maddie Walker, a child life specialist at Inova Children’s Hospital, got married in Sedona, Arizona, yesterday evening. It was their 11th anniversary, having met in high school. Wedding favors included a print edition of “The Wedding Wire” newspaper complete with stories of Maddie and Andrew’s love. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Christine Wormuth ... CNN’s Emily Kuhn … POLITICO’s Kareem Payne, Sam Baker and Grecia Rayme ... Mark Rusthoven … Bloomberg’s Felix Gillette ... Sarah Flaim ... Jonathan Battaglia … Michigan AG Dana Nessel … MPA’s Kathy Grant … Louie Agnello … Katie Delzell of Beacon Consulting … Courtney Sieloff … Ron Kaufman … Laura Lee Burkett … Bob Evans of Del. Stacey Plaskett’s (D-U.S. Virgin Islands) office … Claire Murray … Dustin Brandenburg … Lizzy Demaree … Orde Kittrie … Alleigh Marré of Free to Learn and American Parents Coalition … Prime Transatlantic’s John Schmitz … Ryan Nabil … Samantha Staples … Ally Schmeiser … NBC’s Sheinelle Jones … PAHO/WHO Federal Credit Union’s Michael Ray … American Conservation Coalition’s Ryan Anderson 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. Correction: Friday’s Playbook misspelled Cameron Hamilton’s name.
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A message from PhRMA: America's biopharmaceutical industry supports more than five million U.S. jobs and 1,500 facilities across all 50 states. And the economic impact is significant, with 5,300 clinical trials that generate $62.6 billion in economic activity across the country.
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