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By Ali Bianco |
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THE CATCH-UP |
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President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s considering pulling back Todd Blanche’s nomination to officially take over as AG. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP |
President Donald Trump is locked in a game of chicken with a band of senators he helped usher toward the exits, with the two sides daring each other to blink over a contentious nomination. Trump said this morning he’s considering pulling back Todd Blanche’s nomination to officially take over as AG, instead keeping him in an acting capacity and reserving the chance to renominate him once the GOP senators holding up his confirmation are no longer in office. It’s a gamble that will test the resolve of senators — including John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — whom Trump personally blasted and helped oust, and one that could leave the nomination in the hands of a new Congress, where Senate Democrats are hoping they can regain control, or at least win enough races to eat into Republicans’ slim 53-seat majority. Trump’s Truth Social announcement on Blanche came just hours after Cornyn told reporters he sent the DOJ some “additional paper” that could resolve concerns over the controversial settlement with the IRS surrounding Trump’s tax audits and the creation of an “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Blanche said in June the fund was dead. Cornyn, backed by Tillis, is seeking a hard commitment to that declaration. The lack of agreement has bottled Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee — and Cornyn signaled he’s not sure if this standoff will end in time to get Blanche confirmed next week. Cornyn also insists his concerns aren’t relegated to the newfound “YOLO” caucus: “POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis,” he wrote on X. “I want this yoke off of the necks of the members who are up for election in November because there's no way to explain it — no way to explain it whatsoever,” Tillis told reporters today on the DOJ settlement, per POLITICO’s Ben Johansen. “Why aren't we taking this off the table? It's not helping the president's popularity. It's not helping our candidates who are up for election. Nothing good is coming from this. And Blanche recognizes it.” But if there’s anything that’s become clear from the last decade of Trumpian politics, Trump sets the rules of engagement. Yet with less than 100 days to the midterms, the president has the most at stake in this fight for his final two years in the Oval Office. Republicans are staring down mighty headwinds in their push to keep control of the House, and they have a slate of costly Senate races to win. They have a concrete agenda and to-do list and ever-waning legislative days to do it. They are guaranteed the trifecta for only a handful more months. |
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Rahm Emanuel makes his 2028 pitch over pizza In the latest episode of On the Road with Jonathan Martin, Rahm Emanuel sits down at a Chicago pizzeria to talk about his political future, why Democrats need to win back the center and what he sees as a turning point for American politics.
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This is all playing out at the forefront of a much bigger internal fight sowing frustration over what the GOP can or can’t get done ahead of the midterms. Trump wants the Senate to eliminate the filibuster, pass the SAVE America Act via reconciliation 3.0, eliminate the “blue slip” policy and allow him recess appointments. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been clear privately and increasingly publicly that he doesn’t have the votes for any of the items on Trump’s wish list. Pushing forward on reconciliation could also set up a lengthy — and perhaps far-reaching — “vote-a-rama” on amendments that could prove a political nightmare for vulnerable Senate GOP moderates. “Math is math, arithmetic is arithmetic. … And part of it, too, is the active role he played in some of these primaries,” Thune told POLITICO’s Jordain Carney of his challenge in achieving Trump’s desires in an exclusive interview. “He thinks I can wave the magic wand.” Thune is still leaving the door open to getting Blanche confirmed next week, if the senators are able to come to a deal with the DOJ, per Jordain. But Cornyn and Tillis have yet to blink. In the meantime, Thune will have his eyes on clearing government funding, taking up cryptocurrency legislation and a college sports bill and clearing more nominees en masse — all over the next week. If Trump’s Truths are any indication, especially his more recent push to abandon the recess altogether, the president and Senate appear set for a head-on collision. Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at abianco@politico.com.
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7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW |
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1. WAR REPORT: The latest Iran war powers resolution — this one sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) — failed to pass the Senate by the narrowest of margins, failing 49-50. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted yes to rein in Trump on the war with Democrats, while Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) both voted no. On the ground: Iran is now promising retaliation following the latest round of U.S. attacks, saying “the aggressor will be punished today,” with strikes escalating in recent days and no breakthrough on negotiations to end the expanding war, per NBC. Egypt confirmed that an unidentified drone exploded at one of its ports, after Saudi Arabia also helped in joint strikes with the U.S. earlier this week, per NYT. And Kuwaiti officials said an Iranian strike “damaged a Chinese company’s building in Kuwait on Thursday, killing one worker,” per NewsNation. Behind the scenes: VP JD Vance and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had a direct conversation about their disagreements in a meeting on Tuesday, where Netanyahu addressed Vance’s recent criticism of his government and handling of the war, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is staring down a rapidly depleting stockpile and urging venture-backed startups to help DOD rebuild, WaPo’s Pranshu Verma reports. How it’s playing: Most Americans believe the war with Iran has been a waste. A new AP-NORC poll shows 64 percent of respondents who said the fighting has not been worth it, including 37 percent of Republicans. And Trump’s approval on Iran is dropping: “Just 28% of U.S. adults now approve of how Trump is handling Iran, a slight decline from 34% last month.” For your radar: “U.S. Sees Iran as Likely Behind Cyberattack on Minnesota Water Systems,” by NYT’s Dustin Volz and Ernesto Londoño: “Investigators believe a cyberattack this week on dozens of municipal water systems in Minnesota was probably the work of Iranian hackers … Officials cautioned that they had not definitively determined who was responsible for the attack.” 2. WHAT KEVIN WARSH IS WATCHING: A day after the Fed delivered a contentious rate hold, the central bank’s preferred inflation gauge showed inflation cooling in June, but still well above its 2 percent target, per WSJ’s Matt Grossman. The PCE price index declined by 0.1 percent, in part due to lower energy prices, with a 12-month rate of 3.7 percent, down from 4.1 percent in May. Overall economic growth in the U.S. slowed last quarter, with GDP rising at 1.5 percent, even as consumer spending remained on an upswing, per WSJ’s Harriet Torry.
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3. BILL OF HEALTH: The Senate HELP Committee advanced two of Trump’s nominations for key health posts, following sharp questioning from Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.). The panel approved Erica Schwartz to lead the CDC on a 13-10 vote, with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) joining Republicans, and Sean Kaufman to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response with all Republican votes. Cassidy said he believed Schwartz was committed to defend science and that Kaufman had repudiated his past vaccine skepticism. More on Schwartz from POLITICO’s Sophie Gardner and Simon Levien … More on Kaufman from Sophie 4. FOR PETE’S SAKE: Democrats have identified a new Trump administration bogeyman to attack on the campaign trail: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, POLITICO’s Leo Shane III and Jerry Wu report. Democratic congressional candidates are focusing on Hegseth more and more, and campaign managers expect the trend to grow as the Iran war continues, betting that Hegseth’s public persona, shaped by his years on TV, make him a well-known, highly visible target. “The more Hegseth puts himself out there, the more he does the work for us,” The Bench’s Matt Corridoni said. “Normally the secretary of Defense is not such a politically focused position, but he has pushed it into hyper politics.” 5. CUTTING DEEP: “Democrats document staffing gaps in counterterrorism and election security,” by POLITICO’s Eric Bazail-Eimil: “As many as 1,294 external law enforcement personnel were pulled from other parts of the federal government to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out deportations and removal operations in August 2025 … While DHS had said that it reassigned staff, the numbers were not previously known, nor the offices they had been pulled from.” 6. TRAIL MIX: Much of the talk about Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) with days to go before the ultra-competitive Michigan Senate primary, is about how she talks, NYT’s Matt Flegenheimer writes. But the chatter about Stevens’ vocal fluctuations “has become a proxy for a good deal more in the endless debate over what authenticity means and who gets to define it.” With all eyes on Michigan, The New Yorker’s Issac Chotiner is out with a Q&A with Faiz Shakir about what’s at stake for progressives: “And this is what, in my view, it’s all boiling down to. Integrity and convictions of really giving a damn about those who aren’t élite, rich, and wealthy.” Meanwhile in Maine: Newly anointed Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson ran a secret anonymous account used to repeatedly blast then-Republican Gov. Paul LePage in the comments on the The Bangor Daily News site, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck report. 7. FRAUD FILES: “Andy Beshear Set Out to Make Drug Treatment Widely Available in Kentucky. Fraud and Abuse Followed,” by ProPublica’s Alex Acquisto and Taylor Six: “[Gov. Andy Beshear] set out to make drug treatment easier to access. Kentucky joined more than 40 other states in lifting some restrictions on Medicaid … But as the Medicaid bills for all that treatment started piling up, so did the warnings. … By December 2025, the Kentucky attorney general’s office said Medicaid fraud in drug treatment had become a primary ‘area of concern.’ Despite the warnings, the Beshear administration did little to rein in the skyrocketing state spending.”
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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SPOTTED at Christina Sevilla and Steve Rochlin’s garden last night for a Belgium Embassy movie screening featuring Hamed Mobasser’s film, “Rumba Royale”: Maite Morren, Andy Van Pachtenbeke, Sébastien Fagart, Raquel Krähenbühl, Tim Noviello, Antonio Olivo, Taweh Beysolow and Laura Lepsy. TRANSITIONS — Laura Field has joined the Niskanen Center as a scholar in residence. She has held faculty positions at Georgetown and American University. … Annie Wartanian Reisinger has joined Morrison Foerster as partner in the firm's national security group. She previously worked in the Treasury Department. … … Daniel Watson has joined Bully Pulpit International as a managing director. He previously worked at DHS and FGS Global. … Kate Runsdorf has joined Velocity Partners as associate director. She previously worked on Jake Levine’s congressional campaign and is a Brunswick Group alum. 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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