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By Irie Sentner |
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THE CATCH-UP |
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Workers continue to prepare the arena before the Republican convention Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) | AP |
Democrats are mounting an effort to counter Donald Trump’s midterm convention by attacking the most unpopular aspects of his presidency — and injecting their pitch straight into the conservative conversation. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The DNC is launching a new digital ad campaign this week targeting right-leaning voters across conservative YouTube channels, including Fox News, Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. The ad clips Trump’s own comments about inflation and the economy — such as “I love inflation” and “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations” — tying rising prices to his unpopular war with Iran. Watch the ad The ad — which ends with the message, “YOU DESERVE BETTER” — is an apparent play to sour conservatives against the president less than two months out from the midterms, as Trump and Republicans try to juice turnout from his base by making the pitch that Trump is effectively on the ballot. The president’s approval rating is at 32 percent, according to a Focaldata/Financial Times poll released Sunday, the lowest in that poll’s history. It’s part of the DNC’s broader efforts to go after Trump and Republicans during the convention “on costs, corruption, and chaos,” a DNC official, granted anonymity to discuss strategy, told Playbook. The party plans to use its social media channels to clip speeches at the convention and will have an on-the-ground presence in Dallas that includes surrogates and national lawmakers. Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) are expected to be on the ground in Dallas, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced earlier this week. So is Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, his spokesperson confirmed to CNN. Garcia is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, which is poised to launch a series of probes into Trump and his administration if Democrats take back the chamber. Crow, a DCCC battleground co-chair, is a member of the Armed Services Committee and a vocal critic of the war with Iran who introduced a war powers resolution in July. “Donald Trump and Republicans tanked the economy and drove up costs, and voters don’t need to look further than Trump’s own words to know where his priorities lie,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement to Playbook. “Trump doesn’t care that prices have skyrocketed or that Americans are struggling to afford gas, food, and medicine — he only cares about enriching himself and his wealthy donors.”
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For Republicans, the mood arriving in Dallas is a dour one as those around the convention fear a Trump drag could hurt them in November, as we reported this morning. Ray Washburne, who chairs the board of Sunoco and is co-chair of the convention, isn’t slamming any Republicans who aren’t attending. “One thing is we just have so many speaking slots, you can’t get them all in,” Washburne told reporters at a Bloomberg News roundtable in Dallas this morning, per POLITICO’s Alex Gangitano. “The others, if you’re not in a contested race, it really doesn’t make much sense to come. And the ones in contested races, they need to be in their home states campaigning, because this does take three or four days off. This is right in the heart of the campaign season.” Though he doesn’t have a full head count for lawmakers and candidates expected to be at the convention, he projected that it would see 15,000 to 20,000 people attend each night. But Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who’s not running for reelection this year, is dismissing the dismal attitude and any Republicans who want to put distance between their campaigns and the president. “That's catastrophically stupid,” Moreno said in an interview with Playbook’s Dasha Burns this morning. He guessed the idea is coming from “dumb consultants” or “weak candidates” who “don’t understand” Trump is the leader of the party. What does he make of Trump’s plans to barnstorm states on the Senate map where Republicans have historically held as strongholds? “It tells me that a lot of Republican candidates haven't realized that the driver of turnout is President Trump, that Republicans will vote when he's on the ballot,” Moreno said. Good Wednesday afternoon. This is Irie Sentner. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Get in touch.
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7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW |
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1. MAGA MILLIONS: MAGA Inc. is starting to unload its immense pile of cash around the map. The Trump-aligned political operation is behind a new super PAC called No Going Back PAC that’s dropping $47 million in ads across six battleground Senate races and one House race, NYT’s Theodore Schleifer and colleagues report. The breakdown of spending: $14.9 million in Michigan, $11.1 million in Ohio, $9.6 million in New Hampshire, $7.7 million in Alaska and smaller amounts in North Carolina and Georgia — plus a cut for incumbent GOP Rep. Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th District. It’s a significant cash splash and already vaults No Going Back PAC, which was incorporated on Sept. 1, into “one of the six biggest spenders in the final two months of the campaign,” NYT notes. “The timing ensures that it will not be required to file paperwork disclosing its funders or founders until mid-October.” 2. TOP TALKER: Hours after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon announced he was quitting the company over fears that the technology he was building could destroy humanity, lawmakers from both parties are escalating their pleas to reach consensus on AI safety legislation before it’s too late, POLITICO’s Kelsey Brugger and Riley Rogerson report. And Coxon’s concerns are giving Florida’s top AI skeptics, Gov. Ron DeSantis and state AG James Uthmeier, new fodder in their fight to slow down the technology, POLITICO’s Andrew Atterbury and Kimberly Leonard report from Miami. “You’ve all read the Frankenstein book or seen the movie. If you create a monster and it goes out and kills somebody, you can’t just wipe your hands and say, ‘Oh, not my fault. I didn’t want it to do that,’” Uthmeier said today at an event in Miami. 3. IRAN LATEST: Iran today said it had fired ballistic missiles toward a U.S. base in Jordan and attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the U.S. sinking five Iranian oil tankers — its biggest wave of attacks on shipping since the onset of the war, Reuters’ Enas Alashray and colleagues report. That set the global price of oil skittering past $100 per barrel for the first time since July, per NYT’s Aruni Soni.
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4. WHAT REALLY COUNTS: The Trump administration is proposing a sweeping change to the way the U.S. Census measures who lives where, calling for the unprecedented exclusion of undocumented people from the next national head count in 2030 — a move that could reshape congressional maps, the Electoral College and the distribution of federal funding, NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang reports. The administration is also proposing the Census stops asking people their race and ethnicity, which it has done since 1790. The proposal is likely to face legal challenges. 5. MAXIMUM IMPACT: “Louisiana’s abortion pill case could wipe out access in blue states,” by POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein: “Louisiana will argue before a federal appeals court this week that FDA rules allowing telehealth prescription and mail delivery of the drug mifepristone infringe on the state’s right to prohibit abortion within its borders. But should its lawsuit succeed — or one of the others like it filed by Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri or Texas — it would wipe out online and mail access in states where abortion is legal, cutting off millions of residents from a method they increasingly depend on.” 6. COOL NEBRASKA GUY: “As He Backs ICE Crackdown, Nebraska Governor Employs Undocumented Workers,” by Yanqi Xu for NYT and Flatwater Free Press: Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen “had embraced Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. … But for more than a decade, Mr. Pillen’s hog business has employed migrant workers, those who are in the country legally — and those who are not, The New York Times and The Flatwater Free Press found. … His spokeswoman, Laura Strimple, said in a statement that ‘Jim Pillen never knowingly hired an illegal immigrant and went above and beyond the legal requirements to verify the immigration status of his employees.’” 7. FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK: The nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct has cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) of wrongdoing after opening a probe into documents she submitted that appeared to have overstated her assets by millions, WSJ’s John McCormick reports.
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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HANDS OFF — “Trump is remodeling the White House. The group set up to protect it has stayed quiet,” by WaPo’s Dan Diamond: “Inside the White House Historical Association, some current and former staff and donors have asked CEO Stewart McLaurin and other leaders whether the group should do more to fight Trump’s changes … But leaders of the association — established in 1961 to preserve the building’s character, ensure it remained “the People’s House” and teach its history to future generations — say it is not their place to resist Trump as he remakes the White House to his tastes.” TO THE LETTER — Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm hit back today after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) launched what he called an investigation into 1789 Capital over alleged “insider political influence” used to enrich the president’s eldest son. “1789 Capital welcomes legitimate congressional oversight, but it has no intention of being held hostage to political gamesmanship in which assertions are made publicly and broad demands for confidential business records follow in the hope that those records will supply the factual basis that was missing when the assertions were made,” lawyers said in the letter sent to Raskin’s office. Read the letter MEDIA MOVES — Berry English is joining Rolling Stone as SVP of Rolling Stone Studios. He most recently worked at Conde Nast. … Kyle Rempfer is joining the Project On Government Oversight’s POGO Investigates as a senior investigative reporter covering the Pentagon and defense issues. He most recently worked for Breaking Defense and is a WaPo alum. … Brittany Shepherd is joining HuffPost as a senior politics reporter. She most recently was at the Harvard Kennedy Institute of Politics and is an ABC and Yahoo alum. … Craig Linder is joining the AP as senior vice president and general counsel. He most recently served as vice president and associate general counsel at Dow Jones. RISING STARS AT THE SUN — The Washington Sun, the outlet formerly known as NOTUS, has announced its new class of Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows: Andrea Padilla, Ayah Ali-Ahmad, Chase Pellegrini de Paur, Domonique King, Ellie Fivas, Emma Ruby, Hunter Riggall, Kyle Chouinard, Nicole Belcastro, Paige Huffman, Will Hofmann and Yasmeen Khan. WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Marie Policastro is joining Verizon’s federal government affairs team. She most recently served as deputy assistant to the president and director of presidential scheduling, and is a Dave Taylor and Brad Wenstrup alum. TRANSITIONS — Jon Askonas is now the sole senior adviser to Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. He previously worked at the State Department and is a Foundation for American Innovation alum. … Lindsey Bornstein is joining Holland & Knight as public relations manager. She was most recently at McDermott Will & Schulte. … … Stacy Linden is joining the Association of American Railroads as SVP for law and general counsel. She most recently worked at Meta. … Brayden Woods has joined CMS as a senior advisor in the Office of the Administrator. He previously served as Legislative Director for Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas). WEEKEND WEDDING — Anjanette Manadic, digital director for House Veterans’ Affairs, and Nicholas Hill, research manager at Berman and Company, got married Saturday at the Old Farm Winery in Aldie, Virginia. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Liam McKenna, acting deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, and Caroline McKenna, director for Australia, AUKUS and Oceania in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, recently welcomed Grant Frederick McKenna. 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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Susan Collins on Maine, Trump and the GOP’s future Jonathan Martin heads to Perry’s Lobster Shack for a wide-ranging conversation with Sen. Susan Collins on her reelection fight, the politics of the middle and the Republican Party’s path ahead.
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