Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: The game(smanship) of politics

The game(smanship) of politics

May 12, 2026

With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco, Irie Sentner and Makayla Gray

Good Tuesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard, chuckling over the prospect of Marco Rubio’s latest gig. Drop me a line.

In today’s Playbook …

— Why politics is pure gamesmanship in 2026.

— Which exiled Trump official still gets regular facetime with the president?

— The Boldfaces: Jim Clyburn, Shomari Figures, Pete Ricketts, Deb Fischer, Don Bacon, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, Dan Caine, Sean Curran, Sergio Gor, Kevin Warsh and more.

DRIVING THE DAY

POLITICS IN 2026: We’re 25 weeks out from election day, and gamesmanship is the only game in town. Old-school debates about policy — the stuff that might actually improve Americans’ lives — will have to wait. Even personality politics takes a back seat. Instead, cynical wars over political process dominate conversation.

Witness it today in South Carolina, where the Republican redistricting rodeo is rolling into town. At the century-old State House in Columbia at 9 a.m., two Republican bills to redraw South Carolina’s congressional map and push next week’s House primaries back to August 11 will start their swift journey from subcommittee to the House floor. In the firing line is South Carolina’s 6th Congressional district, held since 1993 by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Battle lines drawn: Donald Trump put South Carolina Republicans on notice last night that he will be “watching closely,” urging them to “GET IT DONE!” (The subtext — ‘remember the holdout Indiana state senators we successfully primaried last week’.) The White House already chalked this one up to a +1 GOP gain; though Clyburn insisted Sunday he can hold his district regardless.

Witness it in Alabama, where Republican officials will move forward today with their old redrawn map after the Supreme Court lifted a 2023 injunction blocking it on racial grounds. Last night’s 6-3 SCOTUS ruling spells curtains for the Black-majority 2nd Congressional District held by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, and likely means another +1 for House Republicans.

Not mad, just disappointed: Figures rued the “incredibly unfortunate decision” and boldly promised his supporters that “litigation will continue” — truly the battlecry of this election year. (He also vowed to “turnout people in record numbers at the polls.”)

Witness it in Virginia, where Democrats last night appealed to SCOTUS to overturn Friday’s hammer-blow decision by the state Supreme Court to cancel their own shameless gerrymander. But as POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein writes, “legal experts have declared [the] request to be a long shot, because federal courts typically defer to state courts on interpretations of state law.” In other words — it’s desperate stuff from a party in panic mode about the way these redistricting wars are unfolding.

And now witness it in Nebraska, where today’s Senate Democratic primary has also descended into gamesmanship — and deception. The Dem machine’s favored candidate is retired pharmacy worker Cindy Burbank, who’s running purely so she can immediately drop out if she wins. Her aim is to clear a path for high-flying independent Dan Osborn to take on Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts without a Democrat on the ballot to split the vote. This plan already got her removed from the ballot once, though she sued to get herself reinstated in March.

If that’s not enough subterfuge, Burbank faces off today against Bill Forbes, an anti-abortion pastor who voted for Trump three times — but is now seeking the Democratic nomination. Burbank’s supporters say he’s an obvious plant by Ricketts to split the vote; Forbes and Ricketts deny this. And if you still want more, Burbank also took heat for paying the filing fee for the Legal Marijuana NOW Party’s Mike Marvin, who’s also been accused of being a plant … but for Osborn.

Forgive Nebraskan voters for being a little confused. But the outcome matters; Osborn got within seven points of ousting Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024.

Today’s other big Dem primary, in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District — the legendary “blue dot” in recent electoral college maps — looks almost tame by comparison, though it's anything but. More than $5.5 million of outside money has poured in over recent months as prominent local Democrats duke it out in one of the party’s key House pickup targets.

Dems spy a big opportunity here with the retirement of Rep. Don Bacon, one of only three Republicans across the country elected to a House district that backed Kamala Harris for president in 2024. The frontrunner is Democratic state Sen. John Cavanaugh, who’s being backed by progressive groups and various prominent Dems. But he’s facing fierce opposition from party activist Denise Powell, who’s seen enormous outside spending on her behalf.

Dot ball: Pro-Powell ads warn Cavanaugh would hand Republicans an even bigger majority in the Nebraska state Senate, and thus embolden them to eliminate the “blue dot” altogether by replacing Nebraska’s one-vote-per-district electoral college system with a traditional winner-take-all approach. Cavanaugh says that’s hogwash, and dubbed his opponent “Dark Money Debbie” in response. Whoever wins tonight will face Republican Brinker Harding, a close friend of Bacon who serves on the Omaha City Council.

A final thought: It might not just be the political games putting voters off, POLITICO’s Ali Bianco reports. Democratic operatives in Nebraska worry Latino voters will stay home, fearing immigration enforcement presence at polling booths. In south Omaha, where many Latino voters are concentrated, rumors about election-day ICE operations have become enough of an issue that the Nebraska Latino Caucus is organizing a media push posting every hour, on the hour, to try and ensure voters feel safe to show up to the polls.

Any dip in turnout from Latinos, who already vote in lower numbers in non-presidential years, could prove significant in a close-fought district. “There is deep concern that that is a real issue and a real problem that could surface,” Jose Flores of the Nebraska Democratic Party told Ali. “I wouldn't be surprised if the turnout is even lower than the average,” Douglas County Commissioner Roger Garcia adds. “I'm hoping I'm wrong.”

On today’s Playbook Podcast: Jack and Dasha discuss another Election Day in America and unpack the Republican redistricting wave gaining momentum in South Carolina and Alabama.

THE DOWNLOAD

PATEL HITS THE HILL: FBI Director Kash Patel is due before the Senate Appropriations Committee at 2 p.m., where the panel’s Democrats are sure to grill him on his fitness to serve in the wake of multiple unflattering reports about his conduct.

First in Playbook: His testimony comes as Patel’s favorability tanks, with one recent poll by the Democratic-leaning group Impact Research showing his net favorability at -11 overall, including -25 among independents in swing districts, Playbook’s Eli Okun reports. The survey was conducted for Americans Against Government Censorship.

HEGSETH IS BACK: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chair Dan “Razin” Caine and Jules W. Hurst III, Hegseth’s top budget adviser, testify on the Pentagon’s budget before the House and Senate Appropriations committees at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Much of the questioning is sure to focus on the war as the ceasefire remains on thin ice.

POWER LUNCH: Secret Service Director Sean Curran will brief senators at today’s closed-door GOP lunch as the caucus considers whether to authorize Trump’s proposed $1 billion in additional Secret Service spending for the White House ballroom.

Curran’s appearance comes as some Republicans on the Hill question that price tag, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill report, setting up a challenge for the White House to sell its own party on a provision that threatens to overshadow a bill otherwise focused on immigration enforcement.

WARSH VOTE: The Senate today will vote to confirm Kevin Warsh as a member of the Fed board and hold a procedural vote for him to be confirmed as Fed chair, though the final vote won’t happen until Wednesday, per POLITICO’s Katherine Hapgood.

POLITICO Security Summit

On May 12, POLITICO's Security Summit will convene administration officials, policymakers and industry leaders for urgent conversations on the most pressing issues in defense and cybersecurity – including global defense cooperation, intelligence sharing, investments in new weapons systems, defense tech, and more. Register to attend.

THE FRONT PAGE

GLORY AND GOR: It’s hardly a secret that when Sergio Gor left the White House last year to become U.S. ambassador to India, many in Washington were glad to see him go. But Gor is still rich in Trump’s favorite currency: dealmaking, POLITICO’s Diana Nerozzi and Phelim Kine report. Gor remains in Trump’s orbit and still gets regular facetime with the president.

SCOOP — Cornyn’s cash: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) raised more than $4.3 million between April 1 and May 6, bringing his cash on hand to $7.6 million ahead of the May 26 primary runoff against Texas AG Ken Paxton.

AD IT UP: Michigan Families for Fair Care goes up today with an ad campaign taking Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) to task for Republicans’ Medicaid cuts, Playbook’s Eli Okun scoops. The spot, backed by roughly $230,000 on digital and cable, features a Benton Harbor substance abuse therapist talking about the impact of people losing coverage. This is a GOP-leaning district that the DCCC put on its Red to Blue list. Watch the ad here

TUNE IN: POLITICO’s Global Security Summit kicks off at 9 a.m. at The Schuyler, where administration officials, policymakers and industry leaders will convene to dissect the nation’s most urgent security priorities — defense spending, emerging technologies, homeland security and more. Featured speakers include Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, the Pentagon’s Emil Michael, former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and more. Register here

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. A WIN FOR NEW YORK Rs: As Democrats in New York fight among themselves over taxing the rich, they’ve gifted the blue state’s beleaguered GOP an opening to cast their political foes as tax-happy spenders, POLITICO’s Nick Reisman reports. That’s particularly vital in New York’s swing House districts, which tend to be in suburban communities where issues like property taxes resonate most with cost-sensitive voters.

2. MAHA MALAISE: The MAHA movement’s assault on junk food isn’t catching on in Congress, POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes reports. Both Republicans and Democrats in recent weeks continued to side with processed food companies on key votes to rein in the industry — driven by long-entrenched political beliefs and reinforced by a barrage of lobbying cash reminiscent of the tobacco industry’s century-old playbook for controlling policy.

3. VAX NOT: Despite HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s relative quiet in public about his long-held and politically unpopular vaccine skepticism, he’s leading a strong push inside his department to investigate whether vaccines are unsafe, NYT’s Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg scoop.

4. CARTE BLANCHE: Trump has privately complained about media leaks regarding the war with Iran to acting AG Todd Blanche, who has “vowed to secure subpoenas specifically targeting the records of reporters who have worked on sensitive national security stories,” WSJ’s Sadie Gurman and colleagues report. In one meeting, Trump “passed a stack of news articles he and other senior officials thought threatened national security to Blanche with a sticky note on it that said ‘treason.’”

5. FOR YOUR RADAR: Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are probing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s personal investments and several GOP AGs are calling for an SEC review ahead of the company’s initial public offering, WSJ’s Philip Wegmann and colleagues scoop.

POLITICO Pro

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TALK OF THE TOWN

GAME THEORY — “Artists behind Trump statues on the Mall create video game to protest Iran war,” by WaPo’s Sophia Solano: “The group says Trump treats war like a game, so it created one that mocks the conflict and the administration’s use of video games to promote military actions.”

OUT AND ABOUT — NYT CEO Meredith Kopit Levien hosted a party last night at her Washington home for investigative reporter Jodi Kantor, whose new book “How to Start” ($25) is a guide for young people beginning their careers. SPOTTED: Philip Rucker, Andrea Mitchell, Franklin Foer, Carolyn Ryan, Elisabeth Bumiller, Cecilia Kang, Peter Baker, Dick Stevenson, Annie Karni, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Carl Hulse, Adrienne LaFrance, Marie-Rose Sheinerman, Jesse Oxfeld, Josh Dawsey, Shawn McCreesh, Maureen Dowd, Ann Marimow and Rosalind Helderman.

TRANSITIONS — Sarah Mars Bowie is now an SVP of public affairs at FleishmanHillard. She previously worked at BPD Healthcare. … Alex Butcher-Nesbitt is joining Rep. Maggie Goodlander’s (D-N.H.) office as comms director. He previously worked at the Clooney Foundation for Justice and is an NBC alum. … Leah Selk is joining the office of Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) as comms director. She was previously press secretary for Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.). …

… Michael Vazquez is joining Grindr as director of government affairs. He previously worked at the Maiden Group. … Cameron Coursen is joining Jeffrey J. Kimbell & Associates as VP for comms and public affairs. He most recently worked at Syneos Health Communications. … Tony Hanagan has joined Kalshi as head of congressional affairs. He is a 16-year veteran of the Senate cloakroom.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Keith Kellogg … Colorado Gov. Jared Polis … Paul Begala … DNC’s Isabel Burgos … CNN’s Natasha Bertrand … WSJ’s Philip Wegmann … Patricia Zengerle of Reuters … Joe DeFeo … Bloomberg’s Alexandra Levine … Miranda Kennedy … Jonathan Kaplan of the Riding With newsletter … Amanda Christine Miller … Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon … Kim Dixon … Erica Arbetter of YouTube … Kevin Fox of Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) office … Riley Brands … Liza Donnelly … Matthew Hiltzik … Amanda Malakoff … former Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) … CBS’ Elizabeth Campbell … Josh Cohen … POLITICO’s Xiaolu Wang … Leigh Szubrowski … Jonathan Daniels of AMR Action Fund … Victoria Lion-Monroe … Madison Link Rees … Penny Lee of the Financial Technology Association … Tom Strong-Grinsell … NOTUS’ Peter Cook …Sean Farrell of HBS … Kevin O’Malley … James Rosen

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