|
|
| |
 |
By Ali Bianco |
Presented by |
 |
|
|
With help from Eli Okun, Irie Sentner and Makayla Gray Good Sunday morning. This is Ali Bianco with your Sunday read. Send me your tips. MUST-READ: There’s growing concern within the Trump administration that National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross is not equipped to lead the White House’s response to rapidly advancing AI models with potentially dangerous hacking capabilities, POLITICO’s John Sakellariadis and colleagues report. “Four current U.S. officials and five industry representatives who spoke to POLITICO said they fear Cairncross isn’t moving with sufficient urgency and lacks the expertise to lead on such a technically complex and emergent national security issue.” “And more broadly, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has relayed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent his concerns about the speed of the government’s response to major potential risks to critical infrastructure posed by new forms of AI, and the need for coordination with the private sector, according to two of the current U.S. officials and two industry representatives with knowledge of the exchange.” What Microsoft and OpenAI are saying: “In my view, Sean Cairncross is the type of capable leader the nation needs on cyber-security. He's a quick study,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote on X. “I'm grateful he's leading this work.” And OpenAI CSO Jason Kwon wrote that their experience with Cairncross has been positive, and that he’s “committed to getting the balance right” between AI innovation and guardrails.
|
 |
DRIVING THE DAY |
|
|
President Donald Trump’s retribution campaign is heading to Kentucky on Tuesday with eyes trained on maverick Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP |
Republicans face mounting headwinds via the cost of living six months out from a midterm challenge to retain total control of Washington. But GOP leaders are turning to the MAGA base to serve up two things this week: red meat with a side of revenge. President Donald Trump’s retribution campaign is heading to Kentucky on Tuesday with eyes trained on maverick Rep. Thomas Massie — fresh off another successful ousting of Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy last night. Massie is up against the Trump-endorsed Ed Gallrein, who’ll campaign alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tomorrow night. Massie told Playbook last week that he’s “feeling confident.” Then come Wednesday, Republicans on the Hill will home in on another major MAGA agenda item. The House and Senate are racing to pass a multibillion-dollar funding bill to juice up immigration enforcement by the White House’s June 1 deadline. The reconciliation 2.0 effort, if passed, will effectively end the DHS funding saga that’s dominated Congress for basically all of 2026. Especially for the party’s hard-liners, the green light for years of ICE funding is a hearty piece of fodder for MAGA voters who back Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Immigration remains among the most prominent messaging points for Republicans, and campaign operatives are ready to run with it again off the second reconciliation push. “We're going to be able to hammer that Republicans are having to fund law enforcement and border security all on our own, and here's one more example of the contrast between the parties,” one Republican operative, granted anonymity to discuss GOP leadership strategy, told Playbook. But the focus on red-meat policy could risk ignoring the meat-and-potatoes needs of voters. “It always comes back to the economy, stupid,” another GOP operative working on Senate races told Playbook. The party’s voters are really craving something closer to their pocketbooks — with a majority of Americans increasingly concerned about their finances. And GOP lawmakers recognize that reality. “Immigration is important, but you know, when you look at the order of priority for American people right now, I think it's cost of living,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) told reporters. “The economy and prices, that's the main thing in my district,” Massie told Playbook. And gas prices are overwhelmingly a source of consternation, even for lawmakers in full support of the war in Iran. Affordability-focused policies have been slow to move on the Hill, and caused more than one headache between House and Senate GOP leaders. Trump’s idea for a gas tax exemption hasn’t landed. Speaker Mike Johnson has been bullish about putting the House’s amended version of an affordable housing bill up for a vote this week, despite intense pressure from the Senate and White House to pass a Senate version that’s less amenable to Wall Street. Whether that vote moves forward, or whether either chamber ends up taking on the other’s bill, will test the party’s appetite to get a major affordability agenda item out the door while the legislative season is still front and center for the majority. “You gotta budget your time in a manner that's commensurate with what the district wants, and affordability is what they want us to focus on,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told Playbook.
|
|
|
Yet it’s reconciliation that’s likely to dominate this week, which is Congress’ last in session before the dog days of summer and the general election season starts. Many GOP lawmakers are skeptical of the feasibility of passing anything that’s not party-line only at this point. “The only thing you're going to achieve, because of the Senate and the 60-vote threshold, is reconciliation,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) told Playbook. “What have we got done, other than the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill?’” On the ballot this week, Trump has engaged the base to target Massie, a consistent spur in the side of the administration. And he’s doing so with the wind at his back after exacting revenge against Cassidy. Massie is “an even bigger insult to our Nation” than Cassidy, Trump posted late last night, and “voted against almost everything that is good,” he wrote this morning. If Trump sinks Massie on Tuesday, he’ll cruise out of May with all scores settled against his perceived political enemies. And Trump has already set his sights on the next member on his must-go list: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.). She responded defiantly to Trump’s calls to primary her after she appeared alongside Massie, declaring herself a true MAGA warrior who can win in November. There’s plenty of recent positive results for Republicans to hang their hats on, between the Supreme Court’s Callais decision, Virginia’s Dem-leaning map getting tossed out and a pile of cash that MAGA Inc. appears poised to drop in the months ahead. How that translates to the ballot box in November remains to be seen. But much of MAGA is bent on the party taking things even further. Trump spent the weekend Truth’ing up a storm — his latest proposal being to attach parts of the even redder SAVE America Act to the housing bill or a spy powers bill that the GOP will have to consider again in June. And there’s still intense pressure within the GOP to make reconciliation 3.0 happen. “We better damn do it,” Nehls told Playbook. With such thin margins of control on the ballot this November, it’s clear that revving up the MAGA base matters more than ever. “President Trump is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majorities in Congress to continue delivering wins for the American people,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, touting Trump’s efforts to secure the border, secure tax cuts and lower crime. “It’s quite the contrast that the Democrats continue fighting against the President’s commonsense, law-and-order agenda.” NOW READ THIS: Massie’s race will be the latest test for the pro-Israel lobby that's uncorked over $9 million to oust him, POLITICO’s Lisa Kashinsky writes. “Prominent pro-Israel GOP donors have funneled millions more into a super PAC stood up by [Trump’s] political operation that has spent nearly $7 million on the race. Overall ad spending has topped $32 million, making it the most expensive House primary on record, per tracking firm AdImpact.”
|
| |
A message from L’Oréal Groupe:  
Susana works as an industrial quality chemist at L’Oréal — one of the 154,000 jobs supported by L’Oréal’s US operations. Learn more. |
| |
|
SUNDAY BEST … — Speaker Mike Johnson on voter concerns about gas prices and how that could impact the GOP’s midterm prospects, on “Fox News Sunday”: “This relates to the last segment, we were talking about the Strait of Hormuz — really all points lead back to that. Gas prices are too high because of that and then that has an effect on how goods are transported to the grocery store and all the rest. So, as soon as we get that straightened out, we will get back to the kitchen table issues, the economic issues that we put in place to make the economy grow … So we’re really excited, anxious, for that to be resolved so that people will feel that and I think they will before they go vote in the midterms.” — U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and Trump saying an arms deal with Taiwan could be a negotiating chip, on ABC’s “This Week”: “The most important thing that needs to happen is we need to have no change in the status quo in the Taiwan Straits, and the president was really clear about this. There's no change in American policy on Taiwan; there's no change there. We expect that situation to be stable, and if President Xi is going to change that, then, obviously, that's something that would be taken into account … and the President will keep his own counsel on the arms sales when and if that happens.” — Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on whether he would support an effort to redraw Maryland’s congressional map, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I do if it's possible. … I want to thank California for what they're doing, the Virginians for what they did, despite their Supreme Court decision. And Maryland and other states should do what we can. Because the future control of the House is at stake right here, and we need to do everything we can to prevent a continuation of what is a complete rubber stamp for Donald Trump.”
|
| |
POLITICO Live Event Join the POLITICO California Agenda: Los Angeles event on May 20 for an exclusive gathering of policymakers, business leaders and key decision-makers shaping the city’s future. The program will feature timely on-stage conversations, followed by networking over drinks and bites. Request to attend here. |
| |
| |
TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
|
| |
A message from L’Oréal Groupe:  
Roosevelt is a veteran, grandfather, and Processing Team Lead at L’Oréal. Learn more. |
| |
|
5 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. ON RECON 2.0: The administration’s hopes of using the second reconciliation push to lock in the White House ballroom hit a roadblock last night when the Senate parliamentarian ruled $1 billion for the Secret Service couldn’t be included, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reports. The parliamentarian said the language needed reworking, which Republicans already started earlier this weekend. Senate Republicans hope to get the bill over to the House no later than Friday. 2. WAR AND PEACE: POLITICO foreign affairs columnist Nahal Toosi is out with her latest on how some officials in the Middle East are concerned about Trump’s ability to build a lasting peace deal, with skepticism that he may go beyond just a framework agreement. “In the Middle East, many fear that ‘frameworks’ become a way to manage crises rather than solve them,” an Arab diplomat said. And catch up on “The Conversation” this week with Playbook’s Dasha Burns and Iran’s exiled former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, who emphasized the need for regime change in Iran. Listen and subscribe on Apple or Spotify For your radar: Venezuela announced yesterday it deported close Nicolas Maduro ally Alex Saab, who faces criminal investigations in the U.S. and could be asked to testify against Maduro, AP’s Joshua Goodman reports. 3. REDISTRICTING RODEO: Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, is encouraging athletes competing in Southern states to hit the transfer portal if their states redraw maps after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, POLITICO’s Samuel Benson writes in. “They should vote with their feet,” Jackson told Sam. Jackson is visiting South Carolina this weekend, where he’ll speak with Black college athletes, and plans another trip to Louisiana. He declined to say which athletes he’s spoken to at which schools. More concerns in the South: “‘The entire South is on fire’: Black Southern Democrats warn that minority-majority legislative districts are at risk,” by POLITICO’s Cheyanne Daniels: “Black Democrats warn that another sweeping challenge to Black political power is on the horizon: the erosion of representation at the local level.” 4. CHECK YOUR SPAM: The Pentagon’s move to pull troops en route to eastern Europe blindsided Poland this week, but the warning arrived days beforehand, POLITICO’s Edyta Żemła and Marcin Wyrwał report. “Poland’s military was alerted to the Pentagon’s move as early as last Monday … But the message got stuck in the classified email of [the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, Gen. Wiesław Kukuła]. As a result, the ministry of defense leadership and members of Poland’s military learned through the media about the change in plans by the country’s most important ally. 5. KNOWING LARRY HOGAN: “Larry Hogan hoped Republicans would ‘get back to sanity.’ He’s lost faith,” by WaPo’s Erin Cox: “At the height of his political influence, Maryland‘s former Republican governor Larry Hogan was courted as a presidential candidate to offer an antidote to Donald Trump’s takeover of the GOP. But the brand that made him a popular blue state governor never made a splash outside the ‘Never Trump’ world. … Instead, in what he calls his ‘Zen’ era, Hogan is announcing Sunday the launch of the nonpartisan Hogan Institute at a small liberal arts college. Vowing to never run for office again, Hogan is instead focused on teaching leadership skills to Washington College undergraduates.”
|
| |
POLITICO Pro Policy challenges are evolving — and the stakes keep rising. POLITICO Pro delivers authoritative reporting, expert analysis, and powerful tools to help professionals understand and anticipate the business of government, in Washington and beyond. Learn More about POLITICO Pro. |
| |
| |
|
|
TALK OF THE TOWN |
|
ON THE NATIONAL MALL TODAY — Thousands of people are expected to gather today for a day-long prayer festival — “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” — that will feature top administration officials and evangelical leaders close to the White House like Franklin Graham and Jonathan Falwell. It’s the latest showing of Trump’s evangelical base, but may also draw protests from groups opposing religious nationalism. SPORTS BLINK — “Race is on to safeguard World Cup from drones,” by POLITICO’s Oriana Pawlyk: “Federal and local officials are still scrambling to prepare for potential drone threats at World Cup sites around the U.S., just weeks before the games begin. The reasons for the scramble are varied, including a shortage of equipment to track and use countermeasures against drones, a two-month Homeland Security department shutdown that hurt preparation, and new authorities governing drone use that many officials are still trying to understand.” HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo … NYT’s Mike Shear, Reid Epstein and Peter Wallsten … Mike Smith … NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell … Margarita Diaz … Rachel Palermo … Rick Wiley … WaPo’s Olivia Petersen … POLITICO’s Sean Scott, Maura Reynolds and Thao Sperling … Adi Sathi of the White House … WSJ’s Robin Turner … Kinney Zalesne … Cheryl Bruner … The Intercept’s Akela Lacy … Randy Schriver … Shannon Buckingham … Phillip Stutts … Derrick Robinson … Deirdre Murphy Ramsey of Precision Strategies … David Brancaccio … Margaret McInnis of Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s (D-Ohio) office … Brielle Hopkins … Nik Youngsmith of the House Administration Committee … ESPN’s Courtney Clawson … Tim Del Monico of Rep. Sam Liccardo’s (D-Calif.) office … Emily Druckman of Rep. Kim Schrier’s (D-Wash.) office … Ralph Neas … former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) … former Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) … Jenna Lowenstein … EPA’s Wynn Radford … NRCC’s Pieter Block 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 L’Oréal Groupe: L’Oréal's U.S. operations power 154,000 job opportunities nationwide. For every one L’Oréal job in the U.S., 11 more are supported across local businesses and supply chains. That’s the beauty business at work – bringing together research, manufacturing, and retail to strengthen economies and create opportunities in communities across the country.
Learn more about how beauty keeps Americans working. |
| |
|
|
| |
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
|
| |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment