President Donald Trump is en route to Macungie, Pennsylvania, where he’s set to deliver an affordability-focused speech at a Mack Trucks facility — the latest White House attempt to pivot back to cost-of-living concerns ahead of the midterms. It’s Trump’s fifth visit to purple Pennsylvania of his second term and his first in the state’s 7th Congressional District — a top battleground where Democrats hope Bob Brooks will oust GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in November. And it’s his first major event outside Washington since he announced a memorandum of understanding to end his war with Iran, setting energy prices ticking down after months of squeeze on voters’ wallets. The president has appeared unconcerned with the political pitfalls of his deeply unpopular war. “I don’t care about the midterms,” he said about the timeline for ending the war during a Cabinet meeting last month. Weeks before that, he told reporters that Americans’ financial situations were “not even a little bit” part of his calculus with Iran. But a series of GOP underperformances and polling showing bipartisan discontent with crushing costs have Republicans concerned ahead of the midterms, which already place incumbent parties on the back foot. The White House has dispatched Trump’s deputies to various states for dozens of campaign-style events, including VP JD Vance who has made 11 stops in eight states, according to The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese. The challenge for Trump today will be to stay on message. The White House has talking points Trump’s political operation hopes he leans on. A bipartisan housing affordability bill is set to pass the House later today and head to the president’s desk as soon as tomorrow. Gas prices are going down. And the market is close to its all-time high. But Trump rarely stays on message and is almost incapable of admitting that conditions under his leadership are anything short of perfect — risking turning off voters who feel underwater in the U.S. economy, disappointed by the war and shocked by his unpopular immigration crackdown. That’s a particularly challenging hazard in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh County, which largely falls into the middle class and is about 30 percent Latino — with a significant Puerto Rican and Dominican population that swung toward Trump the last cycle. Trump’s sinking polling numbers on cost of living with Latinos continue to deepen, and the economy remains the central issue for the voting bloc, according to pollsters at today’s “Latino Vote Summit” at the National Press Club in Washington. The Iran war has also taken a commanding role, the pollsters noted, which could set up the GOP for a double whammy. Democrats are gaining the upper hand on the generic ballot in polling. And despite Republicans’ best efforts to leverage their affordability bona fides — including getting Trump on the road — Latino voter pundits said they’re dubious the party has enough time to turn the tide. The summit’s pollsters and pundits also have a warning for the Democratic Party: this is not 2018. There’s still work to be done for Democrats to recover their brand with Latinos, who may swing in their favor more out of anti-incumbency than party favorability. The level of support Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton received from Latinos is in the rearview. “Those times have passed,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) told the summit. Good Tuesday afternoon. This is Irie Sentner and Ali Bianco. Get in touch: isentner@politico.com and abianco@politico.com.
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1. IRAN LATEST: VP JD Vance is back in Washington after concluding talks with Iranian officials in Switzerland. Vance told reporters yesterday Tehran agreed to let nuclear inspectors back into the country as early as this week — but this morning, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told state media the country had no plan to do so, per WaPo. To make things even more complicated, Trump then took to Truth Social to declare “Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!).” He added that the Strait of Hormuz would remain open and the money Treasury is releasing will go into escrow. “Talks are going well!” he concluded. 2. WHO’S THE MYSTERY MAN?: Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly gave its highly anticipated and powerful new weight-loss drug retatrutide to one person under an extraordinary “compassionate use” policy typically reserved for terminal illness — a man who was 79-years-old at the time of request in April, Stat News’ Lizzy Lawrence reports. Three sources told STAT that the person’s request “drew the interest of top health officials, suggesting the person receiving this drug was well connected.” Experts interviewed by Stat questioned why Lilly would offer “compassionate use” for a single patient for a weight-loss drug. Given the profile, Stat asked the White House whether the patient was Trump. White House spokesperson Kush Desai directed Stat to HHS, which did not address the retatrutide application or the patient’s identity. In a follow-up post on X, Desai denied the patient was the president. A spokesperson for Eli Lilly said the company doesn’t comment on the specifics of individual compassionate use applications.
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3. REVERSE-REVERSE: The Justice Department subpoenaed one WaPo and three WSJ reporters — all of whom cover national security — to testify before a federal grand jury, but rescinded those subpoenas earlier this month after the news organizations fought them, WaPo’s Perry Stein reports. The highly unusual move is an escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on media organizations it deems hostile and comes after DOJ raided a WaPo reporter’s home last year. 4. SCOTUS SLOWDOWN: All of Washington, including your authors, was eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court’s decisions today. There was widespread anticipation that the justices would drop at least one of the high-profile decisions they’ve yet to weigh in on this year, which could reshape Trump’s legacy — including on birthright citizenship, independent agencies and firing a Fed governor. Instead, SCOTUS dropped five decisions, but none of the big ones — likely pushing the high court’s final opinion releases into July. Thursday is the next opinion day. 5. IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED: Months after CDC Interim Director Jay Bhattacharya halted publication of a vaccine study in the agency’s weekly scientific report over concerns with its methodology, the exact same study was published in JAMA Network Open, a top peer-reviewed journal, WaPo’s Lena H. Sun reports. One of the study’s authors told WaPo she believed Bhattacharya blocked publication because the study showed the Covid-19 vaccine significantly reduced hospitalizations last winter — which is against HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stance on the immunization. An HHS spokesperson didn’t respond directly to that accusation but said research is subjected to “scientific scrutiny” before it’s published.
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PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — “How Janeese Lewis George Won D.C.'s Mayoral Primary,” by NOTUS’ Michael Brice-Saddler and Martin Austermuhle: “[W]hile both candidates eventually threw heavy punches, it was Lewis George’s boisterous campaign that seemed better suited from the onset to handle a contentious race. That left [Kenyan] McDuffie — a more measured candidate who relied on traditional politicking, and whose instinct to exercise restraint wound up working against him — playing perpetual catch-up against a political machine.” Consider this: More than 18 percent of D.C. voters are not registered with either party — and despite a 2024 open primary referendum passing in a landslide, the D.C. council refused to fund it this year. But experts say even if independents had been able to vote in last week’s Democratic primary, it’s unlikely they would have swung it, reports City Cast DC’s Emma Uber. GUTHRIE LATEST — Savannah Guthrie renewed her pleas for information about her mother’s whereabouts this morning on the “Today” show, AP reports. “We are in agony, and we cannot be at peace,” she said, adding: “We love our mom. We’ll never stop looking for her.” HILL NEWS — Senate comms staffers past and present elected the new executive board for the Senate Press Secretaries Association, the largest and most active bipartisan Capitol Hill professional organization, formerly led by Kaily Grabemann. The organization will be led by Elisabeth St. Onge as president, with board members Stephen DeLeo, Caty Payette, Sam Somogye, Sonja Thrasher, Eric Fejer, Blake Kernen, Sophie Ulin, Suzy Vazquez and Zach Lissau. OUT AND ABOUT — Points of Light, the volunteerism organization founded by former President George H.W. Bush, held its 2026 Social Impact Conference opening plenary today at the Washington Hilton. SPOTTED: Jennifer Sirangelo, Neil Bush, Diane Brady and David Rubenstein. TRANSITIONS — Lucy Marvin is joining Holland & Knight as a partner in the firm’s Federal Government Affairs Practice. She most recently worked at the Intermodal Association of North America, and is a Federal Maritime Commission and Surface Transportation Board alum. … Daniel Valencia is now a partner in Winston Taylor’s litigation department and chair of the firm’s ITC practice. He previously worked at the International Trade Commission. … … Rachel Arndt and Zack DiGregorio are joining the Democratic Mayors Association. Arndt will be finance director and is a Phil Murphy alum. DiGregorio will be comms director and previously worked for the Century Foundation. WEEKEND WEDDING — Hannah MacInnis, VP and digital director at Edelman and a Trump White House alum, and Sumter Groves, senior regional sales manager for the Washington Wizards at Monument Sports, got married Friday at the Misselwood Estate in Beverly, Massachusetts. The couple met through mutual friends in D.C. while Hannah gave a tour of the West Wing to Sumter’s family. Pic … Another pic, courtesy of Astrid Photo … SPOTTED: Meghan and Zach Bauer, Stephen Groves, Ninio Fetalvo, Caroline Anderegg, Carly Eason, Taylor and Tyler Mason, Roma Daravi, Kendyll Ferrall, Alex Anderson and Taylor Anthony, Katherine and Cameron Foster, Kate Lair, Emily Lair, Meredith and Patrick Dellinger, Ali Zaidi, Grant Youngkin, James Kimmey and Bethany Scully. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Ryan McCormack, undersecretary for policy at the Department of Transportation, and Anna McCormack, chief of staff for Rep. David Rouzer (R-N.C.), welcomed their third child, Patrick Ryan McCormack, on June 13. Pic … Another pic 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.
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