| | | | |  | | By Lisa Kashinsky | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | | 
This year, the Army-Navy game became the backdrop for some pretty blatant political posturing by President-elect Donald Trump — and by those looking to curry his favor. | AP | Navy beat Army. But for the politically minded, the true gameplay on Saturday was happening far from the field. The annual matchup between the service academies is always a place for politicians to see and be seen. But this year, it became the backdrop for some pretty blatant political posturing by President-elect DONALD TRUMP — and by those looking to curry his favor. SPOTTED with Trump: a trio of his most embattled nominees — PETE HEGSETH for defense secretary, former Rep. TULSI GABBARD for national intelligence director and KASH PATEL for FBI director (more on that momentarily). ALSO seen with Trump: Vice President-elect JD VANCE, incoming White House Chief of Staff SUSIE WILES; national security adviser nominee and Florida Rep. MIKE WALTZ and his wife JULIA NESHEIWAT; House Speaker MIKE JOHNSON; incoming Senate Majority Leader JOHN THUNE; DOGE panel co-chiefs ELON MUSK and VIVEK RAMASWAMY; Pennsylvania Sen.-elect DAVE McCORMICK, whose box Trump sat in, and his wife DINA POWELL McCORMICK; outgoing Sen. JOE MANCHIN (I-W.Va.); Fox News’ WILL CAIN; JASON MILLER; and DANIEL PENNY, the former Marine acquitted this past week on the charge of criminally negligent homicide of JORDAN NEELY on the New York City subway by putting him in a chokehold. ALSO at the game, per my colleague Meridith McGraw: Govs. GLENN YOUNGKIN of Virginia and BRIAN KEMP of Georgia; former Trump 45 cabinet secretaries MIKE POMPEO and MARK ESPER; Sens. DAN SULLIVAN (R-Alaska) and JACK REED (D-R.I.); Reps. WESLEY HUNT (R-Texas) and BETH VAN DUYNE (R-Texas); PAT CIPOLLONE, SEAN SPICER, LAURA INGRAHAM, DAVID URBAN and his wife KELLIE; former House Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY; former Rep. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wis.); Trump Army secretary appointee DANIEL DRISCOLL; Trump Commerce pick HOWARD LUTNICK; JPMorgan Chase CEO JAMIE DIMON, who met Barstool’s DAVE PORTNOY; comedian and influencer RUSSELL BRAND; JOE LONSDALE; MORGAN ORTAGUS; and DAVID SACKS. It’s hardly a random roster. Let’s start at the top. After weeks of Trump’s team defending his more controversial appointees on the Hill, the president-elect himself used the big game as an opportunity to go on offense by appearing with Hegseth, Gabbard and Patel. Trump’s public show of support for the scandal-prone Hegseth, in particular, is telling. Trump not only sent a clear signal to the Senate that he’s plowing ahead with his Pentagon pick. He also sent one to Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS, who Trump had been drawing up contingency plans to tap if Hegseth faltered — and who was also at Saturday’s game. Trump literally stood by Hegseth during the national anthem, with Vance in between them, per a clip circulated on X by his political operation’s “War Room” account. Ramaswamy also posted a video of Hegseth showing his son how to do a push-up. If it wasn’t already clear that Trump and his aides were becoming more bullish about Hegseth’s confirmation chances, it is now. DeSantis, meanwhile, didn’t appear in the pictures Trump’s team posted from the game. It’s a noteworthy omission, especially given that the Trump War Room even put up a photo of the president-elect shaking hands with a smiling WES MOORE, the Democratic governor of Maryland and an Army vet. Moore, we should note, has been far less vocal than some of his colleagues (California’s GAVIN NEWSOM, Illinois’ JB PRITZKER) in sticking it to Trump since the Republican’s electoral romp. If DeSantis was being sidelined, he didn’t act like it (even though he was literally spotted on the sidelines at one point). The former Navy lawyer was seen on the field with his wife and son, chatted with West Point students from Florida and later posted a photo of himself meeting with Medal of Honor recipients. Trump can’t entirely cast out his former primary rival, after all — not if he wants DeSantis to name his daughter-in-law, LARA TRUMP, to the Senate should MARCO RUBIO get confirmed as secretary of State. But let’s get back to who Trump was seen with: Beyond giving public boosts to Gabbard, Patel and Waltz, Trump’s team also made sure to show him chatting with Gen. CQ BROWN, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, who was nominated by President JOE BIDEN last year and whose job could be on the line when Trump takes office next month. He also appeared alongside Penny, Vance’s guest for the game, whose trial was a politically polarizing case that Republicans criticized Democratic Manhattan DA ALVIN BRAGG, one of Trump’s most prominent legal adversaries, for pursuing. The fact Trump went to the game is notable in and of itself. While Trump has been to several Army-Navy showdowns — including when he was president-elect in 2016 — he’s largely retreated from public view since his victory in November, holing up at Mar-a-Lago with a coterie of advisers as he assembles his administration. That’s begun to change in recent days, though, with his trip to France earlier this month for the unveiling of the rebuilt Notre Dame Cathedral, then to the New York Stock Exchange this past week to celebrate being named Time’s “Person of the Year,” and, now, this. But it wasn’t all about Trump: “For fans at the Army-Navy game, it’s about football, not Trump,” WaPo’s Emily Davies and Leigh Ann Caldwell write. Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line: lkashinsky@politico.com.
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Learn more about open source AI. | | | SUNDAY BEST … — Secretary of Homeland Security ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS on the New Jersey drone sightings, on ABC's "This Week": “There's no question that people are seeing drones, and I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings. … Some are manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones ... But there's no question that drones are being sighted.” … On fears of the drones and potential foreign involvement: “We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast, and we are vigilant in investigating this matter, the Department of Homeland Security with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the lead. … [W]hen a drone is flown over restricted airspace, we act very, very swiftly." — Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) on Biden’s pardon of his son, HUNTER, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “When you have his opponents going after his family, as a father, as a parent, I think we can all understand Biden trying to protect his son and his family. On the other hand, I think the precedent being set is kind of a dangerous one. It was a very — a wide-open pardon, which could, under different circumstances, lead to problems in terms of future presidents.” — Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) on Hegseth's nomination for Defense secretary, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I'm in a good place with Pete, unless something I don't know about comes out. These allegations are disturbing, but they're anonymous. I asked him point blank, ‘were you drunk in a bar and got up and said, ‘let's kill all the Muslims?’’ He said no.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
- “Hold On, Elon and Vivek: Firing Federal Bureaucrats Isn’t the Solution,” by Francis Fukuyama for WSJ
- “Why Democrats Got the Politics of Immigration So Wrong for So Long,” by Rogé Karma for The Atlantic
- “Luigi Mangione’s Manifesto Is Stupid,” by Bill Scher for Washington Monthly
- “Chris Wray Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Kash Patel,” by Benjamin Wittes for Lawfare
- “Jesse Jackson’s America First,” by Antonio de Loera-Brust for Compact Mag
- “Mike Duggan's independent run for Michigan governor is a risky gamble,” by Nancy Kaffer for the Detroit Free Press
- “Bad News, Democrats: America Is About to Get Even Redder,” by Binyamin Appelbaum and Adam Westbrook for NYT
- “Syrian rebels had help from Ukraine in humiliating Russia,” by David Ignatius for WaPo
- “Democrats Don’t Have an Easy Way Out,” by Thomas Edsall for NYT
- “Harris Campaign Remains in Denial,” by Karl Rove in WSJ
- “My Last Column: Finding Hope in an Age of Resentment,” by Paul Krugman for NYT
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|  ABC News has settled with Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit stemming from comments made by George Stephanopoulos. | Getty Images |
1. PAY UP: ABC News will pay $15 million toward Donald Trump's future presidential library in order to settle a defamation lawsuit stemming from comments made by GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS in March, NYT’s Michael Grynbaum and Alan Feuer report.
The remarks in question: In March, Stephanopoulos asked Rep. NANCY MACE (R-S.C.), who is a survivor of rape, why she continued to support Trump despite his being found “liable for rape” in the 2023 civil case brought by writer E. JEAN CARROLL. In truth, Trump had been found liable for sexual abuse but not rape under New York’s narrow legal definition. The settlement: In a statement, Stephanopoulos and the network, which is owned by Disney, said they “regret” the remarks. On top of the $15 million payout, ABC will send an additional $1 million towards Trump’s legal fees. The fallout: Reaction to the news spurred a fair amount of punditry online, especially given that, as Grynbaum and Feuer write, several “experts in media law said they believed that ABC News could have continued to fight, given the high threshold required by the courts for a public figure like Mr. Trump to prove defamation.” 2. NOMINATION STATION: Yesterday, Trump announced several additional new names for key posts in his coming administration:
- Trump tapped his former ambassador to Germany, RICHARD GRENELL, as his “envoy for special missions” via Truth Social last night. What exactly is an envoy for special missions? “The scope of the newly created position is unclear and the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for further details,” Eric Bazail-Eimil writes. “Given the apparent focus on global flashpoints, It is possible Grenell’s portfolio could include Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Haiti or any number of other crises.”
- The president-elect named businessman and donor BILL WHITE ambassador to Belgium. “White was a major Trump donor and surrogate to his 2024 campaign, though the millionaire investor backed President BARACK OBAMA and HILLARY CLINTON, both Democrats, in past races," Irie Sentner reports.
- To lead the president’s intelligence advisory board within the Executive Office, Trump tapped DEVIN NUNES, the former member of Congress who left the chamber to work as CEO of Trump’s Truth Social platform. “Nunes will continue leading Trump Media & Technology Group,” Irie and Declan Harty report:
3. SYRIA AND BEYOND: It’s been a week since Syrian opposition groups formally ousted longtime President BASHAR AL-ASSAD, and the world is still grappling with the fallout. The view from Washington: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN told reporters yesterday that the U.S. had been in contact with the primary rebel group leading Syria's new transitional government, NYT’s Michael Birnbaum reports from Aqaba, Jordan: “It was the first acknowledgment of direct contact with a group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), … and reflects the U.S. government’s efforts to balance its desire for stability in Syria with concerns about the Turkish-backed rebels.” “Syria has changed more in less than a week than in any week this last half-century,” Blinken told reporters … “The top U.S. diplomat said that in U.S. officials have made clear to HTS and ‘other parties’ Washington’s desire that the group follow the principles he discussed with regional leaders, and that they have ‘impressed upon everyone’ a desire for help locating missing American journalist AUSTIN TICE.” The view from Moscow: “Russia is pulling back its military from the front lines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains but is not leaving its two main bases in the country,” Reuters’ Tuvan Gumrukcu, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Guy Faulconbridge scoop. The view from Damascus: Meanwhile, NYT’s Neil MacFarquhar and Justin Scheck report how the HTS’ tactics in the rebel-controlled Idlib Province could provide insight into what may lie ahead: “Since 2017, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its affiliated organizations, driven by a hunger for broader power, created a certain level of stability in Idlib, governing with pragmatism and discipline. … Such tight control might work in a small governorate, but could prove unwieldy in a large country.” 4. TRUMP’S PLANS, PART 1: “Trump’s tariff threats have triggered a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to soften or alter the president-elect’s plans,” reports WSJ’s Brian Schwartz. “But the effort faces a potentially insurmountable roadblock: Trump isn’t budging.” There’s also this: “So far, executives are facing setbacks as they canvass Trump’s aides for advice on how to influence the president-elect’s next steps. Trump is largely acting on his own, leaving his incoming team of advisers with few opportunities to shape his thinking. His recent late-night social-media statements about tariffs have come with little warning even to some of his closest allies, according to people familiar with the matter.” 5. TRUMP’S PLANS, PART 2: “Trump Allies Fear Watered Down Deportation Efforts,” by WSJ’s Michelle Hackman and Tarini Parti: “In the weeks since the election … Trump and his incoming advisers have alluded to a mass removal effort of immigrants with a criminal record, a far narrower set of people than the 15 million to 20 million Trump pledged to deport earlier in the year. … Trump’s hard-line immigration backers say they have noticed a retrenchment. They say they are holding their fire to attempt to influence the incoming president before they criticize him openly.” 6. THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER: A number of Catholics are about to enter the ranks of the Trump administration, and “their faith could play a direct role in shaping public policy” as well as the future of the Republican Party, Megan Messerly reports. “[S]everal conservative practicing Catholic leaders said they see a close alignment between many of Trump’s second-term policy priorities and a conservative read of Catholic social teaching. … Still, progressive Catholics are skeptical about the extent to which the GOP will actually prioritize these policies, when Trump has promised in his first 100 days to focus on extending tax cuts, taking action on the border, and addressing crime in cities.”
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | 7. BREAKING BREAD: As ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. works to garner support for his nomination to lead HHS, WaPo’s Michael Scherer and Rachel Roubein have the readout on the behind-the-scenes details of a private dinner party at which Trump convened RFK Jr. and the heads of major pharmaceutical companies Kennedy has railed against, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and the the trade group PhRMA. ‘Trump directed the conversation to the role pharmacy benefit managers play in the costs of prescription drugs … Kennedy spoke about the need for better study of the vaccine dosing schedule for newborns and the rise in chronic disease … The aftermath of the dinner, which ended by all accounts with surprising warmth on all sides, has become the stuff of mini-legend in the week that has followed.” DAVID RICKS, Eli Lilly’s chief executive, this week: “There’s often more common ground than you’d think just reading the newspapers.” 8. THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: Speculation abounds over continued reported sightings of mysterious drones over parts of New Jersey and elsewhere along the East Coast. The FBI, Pentagon and FAA officials sought to ease concerns with a call with reporters yesterday, noting “the drones are not a national security or public safety threat or the handywork of a malicious foreign actor,” AP’s Bruce Shipkowski and Ken Miller report. For his part, Sen. ANDY KIM (D-N.J.) concluded on X yesterday that from his own research, “most of the possible drone sightings that were pointed out to me were almost certainly planes.” 9. KOREA LATEST: “South Korea's acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment,” by Reuters’ Heekyong Yang and Josh Smith: “South Korea's acting president, HAN DUCK-SOO, moved on Sunday to reassure the country's allies and calm financial markets a day after President YOON SUK YEOL was impeached and suspended from his duties over a martial law attempt. Han spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden by phone, the White House and Han's office said.”
| | | | Write your own chapter in the new Washington. From the Lame Duck Congress Series to New Administration insights, POLITICO Pro delivers intelligence across 22+ policy areas to help you anticipate and navigate change. Discover how a Pro subscription empowers you. Learn more today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Pete Buttigieg handed out snacks on a delayed United flight. Nancy Pelosi had a successful hip replacement surgery in Europe. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED Thursday at an AANHPI holiday reception at Baan Siam hosted by Jocelyn Hong and the H Street Group: Nisha Ramachandran, Lucas Lam, Moh Sharma, Lori Ismail, Tonia Wu, Sonali Desai, Justin Oh, Wooyoung Lim, Howard Ou, Alex Hetherington, Lois Lim, Jaliya Nagahawatte, Ben Kane, Kellie Chong, Ashley Juhn, Kelvin Lum, Christopher Zhen, Howard Moon, Miya Patel, Lauri Ng, Ed An, Linda Shim, Akshai Datta, Alekhya Tallapaka, Zach Sentementes, Linda Pham, Peter Tzeng, Saat Alety, Irene Bueno and Neal Patel. — SPOTTED at the annual holiday party at the home of Dan Meyers and Kevin Latek in Arlington on Saturday: Tony P., Tammy Haddad, Kimberly Fitts, Tommy McFly, Chrys Kefalas, Suzanne Clark and Greg Lebedev, Emily and Marc Lampkin, James Adams, and Dan Scandling. TRANSITIONS — Mike Friedman is now chief comms officer for Holcim’s North American spin off. He most recently was VP of media relations and global comms at Boeing. … Sheldon Gilbert will be president and CEO of the Federalist Society. He currently is senior lead counsel for Strategic Initiatives at Walmart. … Mason Morgan will be local and community affairs manager at Invenergy. He most recently was co-founder and executive director of Run GenZ. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) (7-0) … Ruy Teixeira … retired Gen. John Allen … Donna Brazile … POLITICO’s Isabel Dobrin and Mollie Parlini … Valerie Yurk … Andrew Cote of BRINC Drones … Jim Dornan … Lauren French of State … Heather Booth … Tara Corrigan of the Messina Group … Jeff Le of SecurityScorecard… Lenny Young of Rep. Julia Brownley’s (D-Calif.) office … Patrick Oakford … Fox News’ Griff Jenkins … Danyell Tremmel … Andy Polesovsky … Caroline Ponseti of Invariant … McCauley Mateja Greene … Sarah Sullivan … Maggie Gau … Robert Boland … Brett Quick of PhronesisDC … Bill Knapp … Neri Zilber … Chris Barron of Right Turn Strategies DC … Colton Snedecor … ICE’s Kristen Scholer … Salina Valencia. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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