| | | |  | | By Irie Sentner and Makayla Gray | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | 
President Donald Trump speaks next to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles during a board meeting of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) | AP | The weave is back. President Donald Trump is embroiled in a war with Iran that has spurred convulsions across the global economy. His chief of staff, Susie Wiles, announced today she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. His Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than 30 days. And his party is increasingly worried as Republicans charge into a midterm season defined by affordability as oil prices skyrocket. During a news conference today, the president spoke at length about the war and oil prices and flicked at Wiles’ diagnosis. But he was far more eager to cover a slate of other topics, deploying his so-called “weave,” a term he coined on the campaign trail to describe his disjointed and circuitous speaking style. Trump falsely claimed he had “predicted” that Osama Bin Laden would strike the World Trade Center a year before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He saluted several titans of industry who had traveled to a meeting of the Kennedy Center board with their wives. He praised Venezuela for having a “fantastic relationship” with his administration. He celebrated himself for bringing the Olympics and World Cup to the U.S. He complained about “Mickey Mouse being woke” to Ike Perlmutter, the former Marvel chair who sold his Disney stock. He said Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) might have been dead by June, if not for a recent surgery (“that wasn’t public,” Speaker Mike Johnson replied). And he bashed Fed Chair Jerome Powell over interest rates. But he lit up most when he spoke about construction. “What I do best in life is build,” Trump said. In remarks that lasted more than an hour, at one of the most politically perilous moments of his presidency, Trump expounded on the upgraded onyx for the “magnificent ballroom” under construction at the White House. He bragged about the “very powerful paint” used on the Kennedy Center’s columns and mused that their previous gold color looked “cheap,” because “you either gold leaf it, or use real gold bullion, or you use a different color.” And he applauded the center’s sound system, which he said was due in part to “the stones you use, and the marbles.” The episode underscored the president’s base instincts — to focus on the gilded, ornate details close to home against a much messier, less-glamorous global backdrop over which he has far less control. And it came at a moment of apparent frustration for Trump, who last night spewed more than 1,600 words on Truth Social attacking the few functioning checks on his power, as POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney writes. One clear issue for the White House is the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping route off the Persian Gulf driving much of the war’s latest economic issues. Over the weekend, the president called on several allies to send warships to the strait and help release the blockade. But the reception from those allies — who have faced intense pressure from the White House since Trump returned to office — has been tepid at best. Trump expressed annoyance that the U.S. “protected” the Strait of Hormuz “for years,” despite relying on it far less than other countries like China and Japan. “It always amazed me that we did it,” he said. “We never asked for reimbursement, and it was really there to serve other countries, not us.” Then someone in the room caught the president’s eye: José “Pepe” Fanjul, a billionaire Cuban sugar and real estate baron whose wife, Emilia May Fanjul, is on Trump’s Kennedy Center board. “That's Pepe, yeah. Pepe,” Trump said. “Hi, Pepe, how are you?” He turned back to the press pool. The next question was also about Iran. Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. This is Irie Sentner and Makayla Gray, hunkering down for a rough storm. Drop us a line at isentner@politico.com and mgray@politico.com.
| | | | A message from BlackRock: The world will need up to $85 trillion over the next 15 years to modernize and build the infrastructure of the future. BlackRock is proud to support the development of skilled tradespeople to help meet growing infrastructure demand across the U.S. Click here to watch. | | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. IRAN LATEST: The U.S. is allowing Iranian oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan today. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates reported that crude oil output is down by more than half amid disruptions stemming from the strait, Reuters’ Yousef Saba and Florence Tan scooped. And an Iranian drone “ignited a fuel tank at Dubai International Airport early Monday, authorities said, as Tehran continued to strike civilian infrastructure across the Persian Gulf and Israel said it would keep hitting Iran ‘as long as needed,’” WaPo’s Rachel Chason and Heba Farouk Mahfouz report. Spain explains the pain: “Spain’s Sánchez Says Trump’s War on Iran Undermines Global Order,” by Bloomberg’s Daniel Basteiro: “‘There’s a clear challenge coming from the US administration when it comes to weakening and undermining the international order’ that will bring ‘an erosion of our welfare state, and of the middle and working class,’ he added.” 2. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: White House officials acknowledged today that Trump’s planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping may be delayed amid the war in the Middle East, per POLITICO’s Cheyanne Daniels. Bessent — who’s in Paris for talks with a Chinese delegation — told CNBC this morning that if the meeting is rescheduled “it wouldn’t be delayed because the president’s demanded that China police the Straits of Hormuz,” but rather travel logistics. “The president wants to remain in D.C. to coordinate the war effort and that traveling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal,” Bessent said. 3. TALES FROM THE CRYPTO: As Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted former crypto mogul, tries to convince Trump to grant him a pardon, some of the biggest crypto supporters in Congress are warning the president to steer clear of his efforts, POLITICO’s Jasper Goodman reports. “The guy’s a piece of shit,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), a longtime crypto enthusiast who has championed industry-friendly legislation. “The guy shouldn’t be pardoned. The guy should go to jail for a long, long time.” 4. TRAIL MIX: Democratic candidates Ammar Campa-Najjar and Corinna Contreras are going after Marni von Wilpert, who they claim put out a polling memo that includes what they deem as “racist attacks,” Semafor’s Nick Wu reports. “That polling had von Wilpert initially trailing Campa-Najjar but gaining support when voters were read attacks knocking Campa-Najjar, for running ‘three campaigns from four different addresses under two different names.’” The Maine thing: “A 79-Year-Old Freshman Senator?” by The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich: “Janet Mills does not have a dicey Reddit history or a recently covered-over Nazi tattoo. She is well-known in the state and has a tested political organization. And yet, in several recent polls, she has been trailing [Graham] Platner. If she is elected, Mills would be the oldest freshman senator in history. Platner, at 41, is a relative political infant.”
| | | | POLITICO Policy Outlook: Powering 6G The next generation of mobile communications technology — commonly known as 6G — promises to unlock a bold new digital future. On Wednesday, March 18, POLITICO will convene decision makers from government and industry for incisive conversations that explore what’s next for the 6G rollout — and what stands in the way. Register now to join us. | | | | | 5. MEETING MINUTES: CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz last winter convened a meeting with the leaders of major medical societies on transgender care for teenagers, a “remarkable” gathering of “medical experts with such divergent opinions,” NYT’s Jeremy Peters reports. “According to five people at the meeting, the leaders of the medical societies each took turns defending their guidelines. But the last speaker, representing the plastic surgeons, surprised many in the room. The society was changing its position, its official said, after determining that studies on the medical benefits of surgery in minors were limited and of low quality.” 6. USMCA ON THE BLOCK: “Tricky negotiations begin Monday to renew a trade pact between the United States, Mexico and Canada,” by AP’s Paul Wiseman and María Verza: “At stake is $1.6 trillion worth of annual trade in goods between the United States and its two USMCA partners. Mexico and Canada are far ahead of China in both exports to and imports from the United States. American farmers are especially keen to see the deal renewed: Last year, they shipped nearly $31 billion in agricultural products to Mexico and $28 billion to Canada.” 7. FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK: “BBC Asks Judge to Dismiss Trump $10 Billion Defamation Suit,” by Bloomberg’s Erik Larson: “The British Broadcasting Corp. asked a judge to toss out President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit over a misleading edit of his speech before the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, arguing the lawsuit will chill free speech and undermine ‘robust reporting.’ The BBC’s request was filed Monday with a US District Judge Roy K. Altman, a Trump-appointee who sits in Miami. The outlet also argued that the documentary didn’t air in the US so federal court in Florida isn’t the proper venue for the lawsuit.”
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Hyperscale computing is driving a wave of infrastructure demand. At BlackRock's U.S. Infrastructure Summit, leaders explored the impact of data centers. Learn more. | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | STORMS BATTER THE BELTWAY — As this email hits your inbox, thunderstorms have closed in on the D.C. region, where schools and government offices have begun early dismissals in preparation for what’s expected to be some of the most severe weather in two years. Those storms are expected to intensify throughout the afternoon and evening, with the greatest risk for high winds and even tornadoes between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., per WaPo’s Jason Samenow. NOTUS ANYTHING DIFFERENT? — NOTUS is significantly expanding its news operation in D.C., according to a memo to staffers this morning that was shared with Playbook. That includes increasing staffing on its White House, Congress and campaign teams; bolstering coverage of DOJ, DHS and other federal agencies; adding coverage of national security, defense, health care, energy, environment and D.C. metro news; and bringing on a slate of columnists. In the past few weeks, NOTUS has scooped up nine journalists from its Beltway competitors, including six from WaPo alone. FBI ROOKIES JOIN D.C. CRACKDOWN — The FBI is sending its upcoming agent class to D.C. for 60 days of foot patrol alongside the National Guard and local law enforcement, the latest turn of Trump’s federal crackdown on crime in the capital, City Cast DC’s Kaela Cote-Stemmermann reports. THE HOTTEST NUMBER IN THE DISTRICT — “Why (and how) everyone is cold-calling the president,” by Semafor’s Max Tani: “Two minutes into the second phone call I placed in reporting this story, a national political journalist who hasn’t even used the number themself volunteered it to me, unasked. The next call I made, a reporter from another publication offered it up to me, requesting only that I not share it with anyone else.” LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS — “Rich Palm Beach Residents Seethe as Trump Diverts Flights Over Their Homes,” by Bloomberg’s Anna Kaiser: “[B]ehind closed doors, a group is quietly organizing to potentially pursue legal action … They’re speaking with attorneys and placing expensive noise monitors throughout the island and across the waterway to collect data.” ZOOMING IN — Pope Leo XIV declined an invitation from Trump to attend America’s semiquincentennial celebration on July Fourth, but he will accept the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal via video ceremony on July 3 at an outdoor public ceremony in Philadelphia, NYT’s Jennifer Schuessler reports. The pontiff plans on spending Independence Day on Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island that’s become one of Europe’s main entry points for migrants. TRANSITIONS — Juan Ayala has joined Rep. Dan Newhouse’s (R-Wash.) office as comms director. He was previously with Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions. … Danielle Gonzalez is joining Palo Alto Networks as chief people officer. She previously worked at TiVo. … Andrew Averbach has joined Womble Bond Dickinson as a partner. He previously worked with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. … Michael Callesen has started his government relations firm Callesen Consulting. He previously worked for Sen. Jon Husted’s (R-Ohio) office. 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 PM misstated Kristi Noem’s status as DHS secretary. She is outgoing at the department.
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