| | | |  | | By Bethany Irvine | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | REPORT CARD: POLITICO has a useful roundup of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, ticking through the list of promises that landed him another four years in the White House. “A POLITICO tally of some of Trump’s most notable promises finds that the president kept nine pledges and broke four. Whether he has fulfilled another nine is still to be determined and six promises were fulfilled to only some degree.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s “sticking with our plan” to pass the GOP megabill by Memorial Day. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES — Despite numerous reports that the GOP conference is concerned about the reconciliation timeline, Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s “sticking with our plan” to pass the GOP megabill by Memorial Day. Feeling fine: Johnson said he was “very encouraged” after his meeting with budget negotiators and White House officials yesterday. And as for the Senate’s likely delay on their own negotiations? “We got a year head start so that explains the sequence of events,” Johnson said at his weekly news conference. Pain points: The conference still has a lot of differences to sort through, including various tax provisions and how — or if — Medicaid cuts will be included in the package. Moderate Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) “has privately told the White House he won’t accept more than $500 billion in reductions to the program,” POLITICO’s Ben Leonard and Meredith Lee Hill scoop. “Bacon’s vote could be crucial, and other lawmakers share his concerns about Medicaid cuts.” Read between the (red) lines: Bacon’s new hard line on the cuts comes after a handful of Republicans discussed a separate and controversial plan to offset slashes to Medicaid funding in a closed-door meeting last night, Meredith and Ben report. The details: Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee “discussed at length a new version of a plan to place so-called ‘per capita caps’ on Medicaid funding to certain beneficiaries in states that have expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act.” Still, “Johnson told reporters Monday evening that he didn’t believe the federal payment percentage changes would be in the final bill.” Also under debate: “House Transportation proposes to include $20 per vehicle fee in GOP megabill,” by POLITICO’s Chris Marquette, Sam Ogozalek and Oriana Pawlyk HAPPENING NOW — Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said VP JD Vance and USTR Jamieson Greer were scheduled to attend the Senate Republican policy lunch today, CNN’s Ted Barrett reports. “Barrasso, who said he didn’t know what Vance’s agenda might be for the meeting, expects Greer to talk about ‘all the issues of trade and what’s happened over the last couple of weeks.’” The timing: “The visit comes a day before the Senate is expected to vote on a measure to overturn Trump’s tariffs, the second time this month the chamber will go on record targeting them.” BESSENT ON DEFENSE — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s morning press briefing alongside Leavitt was, as expected, dominated by questions on Trump’s trade war. Bessent dutifully defended Trump’s tariffs policy — though he hedged, at times, on specifics.
- Hedging on China: Bessent dodged on whether the White House is in current negotiations with China and declined to clarify if Beijing had come to the negotiating table. “Well, we're not going to talk about who is talking to whom,” Bessent said. “They are playing to a different audience … I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty.”
- Hopeful on India: Bessent said he believes the White House will reach a deal with India soon. “I think that we are very close on India,” Bessent said. “India, in a funny way, is easier to negotiate with than many other countries, because they have very high tariffs and lots of tariffs.”
- Assuaging anxieties: Though economists have issued warnings to the contrary, Bessent claimed Trump’s trade policy won’t result in shortages of consumer goods. “I wouldn't think that we would have supply chain shocks,” Bessent said. “I think retailers have managed their inventory in front of this.” Watch the full briefing
MARK YOUR CALENDARS — Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will hit the road to tout Trump’s first 100 days with a visit to a steel factory in Huger, South Carolina on Thursday, per The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at birvine@politico.com.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shows a picture of Jeff Bezos as she responds to a question about Amazon during today's press briefing. | AP | 1. PRIME-ARY TARGET: The White House took on Amazon this morning after Punchbowl News reported that the e-commerce giant would start displaying how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product’s total listed price on its website. “Amazon doesn’t want to shoulder the blame for the cost of President Donald Trump’s trade war,” hence the price displays,Punchbowl reported this morning. The situation quickly escalated. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lambasted the move in her morning briefing as a “hostile and political act by Amazon.” Leavitt declined to speak about Trump’s relationship with Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, but called the company’s reported ties to China’s propaganda arm “another reason why Americans should buy American.” More from POLITICO’s Ben Johansen Who ya gonna call: Trump called Bezos this morning to complain about the reported move, CNN’s Alayna Treene reports, noting that an administration official described Trump as “pissed” after learning of the news. Soon after the call, “an Amazon spokesperson released a statement clarifying the move ‘was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.’ The spokesperson later sent CNN a revised statement, adding: ‘This was never approved and not going to happen.’” 2. SURVEY SAYS: A new WaPo-ABC-Ipsos poll found that a majority of Americans believe Trump is serious about wanting to acquire Canada and Greenland and about running for an unconstitutional third term. On another run: According to the poll, 62% of Americans think Trump intends to run for a third term, but there is an interesting breakdown along party lines: “Fewer than 4 in 10 Republicans think Trump is serious about doing this (and most Republicans oppose it), while about 6 in 10 independents and almost 9 in 10 Democrats think he is,” WaPo’s Scott Clement reports. Support for the idea breaks down even further: “18 percent of U.S. adults support Trump serving a third term as president. While 38 percent of Republicans support this, 60 percent oppose it.” On expanding America: Trump’s ideas to pull Canada and Greenland under U.S. control are overwhelmingly panned in the poll, POLITICO’s Amanda Friedman notes. When it comes to taking Canada, 86 percent of Americans oppose the idea, while 76 percent oppose trying to take Greenland. 3. SCHUMER’S NOT SORRY: As Democrats gear up for another contentious funding fight, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer knows he’ll need to take a different tack than he did last time — an episode that landed him in hot water with many in his party. “Senate Democrats will try to negotiate bipartisan appropriations bills with Republicans in the coming months,” Schumer told WaPo’s Theodoric Meyer in an interview. “At the same time, they will work to chip away at Trump’s popularity to make it easier for Republicans to break with him next time. If negotiations with Republicans collapse, Schumer said, Democrats will shift to a more confrontational posture long before the Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a repeat of last month’s fight.” As for the last time: Despite spending weeks mending his relationships with his Democratic colleagues — which included individual calls with each Dem senator and even a conversation with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — Schumer maintains he made the right call to avert a government shutdown last month. Schumer defended his choice to vote with Republicans and admitted he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. “I would’ve said: ‘It’s a shutdown. You can’t do anything,’” Schumer said, imagining the Democratic complaints he would have fielded if the government did shut down. “And then they would’ve said, ‘Why’d you let that happen?’ So I felt I did the right thing.”
| | | | POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2025 MILKEN GLOBAL CONFERENCE:
From May 4–7, California Playbook will deliver exclusive, on-the-ground coverage from the 28th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference. Get behind-the-scenes buzz, standout moments, and insights from leaders in AI, finance, health, philanthropy, geopolitics, and more. Subscribe now for your front-row seat to the conversations shaping our world. | | | | | 4. HE SAID, SHE SAID: There seems to be some signals crossed in the House GOP leadership ranks. Johnson said today he was “having conversations” with GOP Reps. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler about their potential runs for New York governor. This morning, Stefanik quickly denied that she and Johnson had discussed her potential run. “This is not true. I have had no conversations with the Speaker regarding the Governor’s race,” Stefanik said in a post on X. “Looking forward to the conversation about SALT with NY Members tomorrow. Stay tuned.” Stefanik has reportedly been considering a gubernatorial bid after her nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. was yanked back to protect House Republicans’ slim majority. 5. SCOTUS WATCH: The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments over a case centered on whether individuals whose homes were wrongly raided “can hold law enforcement officials accountable for their mistakes,” WaPo’s Ann Marimow reports. The case stems from a 2017 raid of an Atlanta couple’s home by FBI agents, who were looking for a gang member who lived four houses down. Agents mistakenly “handcuffed Hilliard Toi Cliatt and pointed a gun at both Cliatt and his then-partner, Curtrina Martin, while her 7-year-old son cowered in his bedroom. … The Trump administration is defending the agents.” On the docket for tomorrow: “Supreme Court will weigh if Oklahoma Catholic charter school gets public money,” by AP’s Sean Murphy and Mark Sherman: “A ruling from the high court allowing public money to flow directly to a religious school almost certainly would lead to others. … Opponents warn it would blur the separation between church and state, sap money from public schools and possibly upend the rules governing charter schools in almost every state.” 6. TROUBLES ON THE HOMEFRONT: Some GOP lawmakers are returning to D.C. this week after taking a shellacking in their districts. Though GOP leadership advised members of the conference not to hold in-person town halls over the Easter recess, several lawmakers defied that advice and subsequently faced tough questions and heckling from their constituents regarding the upheaval that Trump’s return to Washington has brought, WSJ’s Jasmine Li reports. By the numbers: “In the past two weeks, about a dozen congressional Republicans hosted in-person town halls. Meanwhile, more than 85 Democrats held their own meetings.” Willing to risk it: The stakes were perhaps a bit higher for a select few of the Republicans. “Several of the Republicans who bucked party leaders’ directives to pause town halls are seeking higher office, including Lawler, who is considering running for governor in New York. Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Byron Donalds of Florida are also eyeing bids for governor. Both shared videos of clashes at their events and cast protesters as radical.” But but but: Johnson is maintaining a veneer of optimism for the conference, claiming during this morning’s weekly presser that GOP lawmakers are “getting lots of pats on the back” in their districts. 7. YOWZA: “Lawyer warns Youngkin aide over bid to push lt. governor nominee out of race,” by WaPo’s Laura Vozzella, Gregory Schneider and Teo Armus: “A lawyer for John Reid, the GOP’s nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor, sent a cease-and-desist notice to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s top political adviser Monday, escalating a political spectacle that began last week when the governor asked that Reid abandon his bid over racy social media posts that Reid says are not his. The letter from Charles R. Spies warns Youngkin adviser Matthew Moran to stop spreading information about a disputed Tumblr account and to preserve all records of his efforts to get Reid to quit the race. … Reaction to Youngkin’s call for Reid to quit has been mostly muted among Virginia’s political class.”
| | | | Cut through policy complexity and turn intelligence into action with POLITICO’s Policy Intelligence Assistant—a new suite of tools designed to save you time and demonstrate your impact more easily than ever—available only to Pro subscribers. Save hours, uncover critical insights instantly, and stay ahead of the next big shift. Power your strategy today—learn more. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Lawmakers are shying away from sporting “Trump 2028” merch, per NOTUS’ Torrence Banks. TRANSITIONS — Michal Ilana Freedhoff is now a senior policy adviser at Holland & Knight. She previously was assistant administrator at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and is an Ed Markey alum. … The Miller Center of Public Affairs has added Christopher Liddell and Louisa Terrell as senior fellows. Liddell previously has been an author focused on presidential transitions and is a Trump White House and Biden transition team alum. Terrell previously has been an independent consultant and is a Harris-Walz campaign and Biden White House 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 Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook PM misspelled The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Adam Pack’s name.
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